Father of canoe tragedy twin: 'Health and safety blunders killed my beautiful daughter'

TV presenter Ian Clayton criticised the lack of regulation governing canoe hire after an inquest into the death of his daughter, Billie, nine.

She died after their canoe capsized during a family trip, throwing her and her twin brother Edward into fast-flowing water.

Victim: Billie Clayton, nine, who died in the tragic canoeing accident

Mr Clayton revealed yesterday how he had to pick who to save first and grabbed his son because he could not see Billie. When he returned, it was too late.

After the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure today, he rounded on health and safety laws covering canoe hire.

'My beautiful daughter Billie fell through a hole in health and safety law and drowned,' he said.

'My partner Heather, our son Edward and myself fell into that hole as well but we somehow managed to claw our way out from the aftermath.

'Our Billie will never know that the canoe hire industry is a shambolic mess of a business. She will never know that it is a stupidly unregulated thing.

'She will never know that lack of knowledge and ignorance within canoe hire is rewarded by being protected from the health and safety rules that apply to professionally guided canoes.'

Billie's father, TV presenter Ian Clayton, hit out at the regulations covering canoe hire after the inquest into her death

Powys Coroner Peter Maddox echoed his concerns and called for an official review of the rules governing canoe hire on rivers at the end of the three-day inquest.

In a lengthy summing up, he issued a seven-page summary of the evidence and findings which carried an 11-point list of proven facts for use by a future review body.

Mr Maddox also condemned described the present system as 'too relaxed and potentially confusing'.

He revealed he now plans to write to the Adventure Activities Licensing Service (AALC) and the Health and Safety Executive, to which it is answerable, to suggest a full review.

The Claytons, from Featherstone, Yorkshire, were on holiday in April 2006 when tragedy struck.

Mr Clayton, 48, who presents ITV's My Yorkshire, had left his wife behind in Hay-on-Wye to take the children canoeing.

But they took a wrong turn and, as they tried to turn the canoe, a surge of water flipped it over.

Mr Clayton broke down yesterday as he told of the heartbreaking moment when he tried to save his children.

After their canoe capsized, he could only see Edward and managed to grab hold of him.

Buoyed by their lifejackets, they were carried away by the strong current of the River Wye in Powys.

He said: 'It was a challenge for me. What twin to go for? Sometimes I dream that I saved Billie instead. I will never know if I made the right decision.

'Should I go for the one I can see and hope that later I can find the one I can't see? In the end, I went for the one I could see.'

Mr Maddox said yesterday that there was 'serious cause for concern' about the way canoes were rented to novices in the UK.

He said: 'There seems to be a potentially large hole in which the very inexperienced may fall.'