Coroner: Toddler may have entered river to retrieve chips

Lucas Ward. Photo / Supplied

A toddler who drowned in a Gisborne river had previously been warned to stay away from the waterway, an inquest has been told.

Four-year-old Lucas Callum Ward disappeared from his grandmother's Gisborne home bordering the Waimata River on August 17.

After an intensive search involving the National Dive Squad, the Coastguard and a huge contingent of the Gisborne community, his body was found in the river on August 26 by a kayaker, 400 metres upstream from where he went missing.

A coroner's report released on Christmas Eve revealed the boy had earlier been admonished by his parents after he negotiated a wire fence and walked on to a floating jetty on the river without permission, Hawke's Bay Today reported.

The toddler, who had been given a bag of chips, had been asked to wait outside his grandmother's house while she made two phone calls.

On her return, she found Lucas' bike next to the jetty and the bag of unopened chips floating in the river.

Hastings coroner Chris Devonport said while it was law for swimming pools to be fenced, he believed such a requirement could not be imposed on rivers, lakes or ponds.

"I am satisfied that Lucas, who was unobserved for a short period of time, went into the Waimata River possibly to retrieve an unopened chip packet."

He recorded a verdict of drowning.

- NZPA