Student drink death shows Sheffield clubs 'must be more responsible'
There are calls for bars and clubs to be more responsible - after an inquest into the death of a Sheffield student found she died of hypothermia after a night of heavy drinking.
A Sheffield charity says something needs to be done to stop strong alcohol being sold so cheaply in Sheffield clubs and bars - a week after an inquest heard a student died in a river after a night of drinking.
18 year-old Caroline Everest was found dead in Porter Brook last November and a week ago today the inquest into her death heard she'd drunk the equivalent of 30 shots of vodka on a night out beforehand.
The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Jan Mayor, from Sheffield Alcohol Support Service, says lessons need to be learned from such a tragic case:
"I think one of the things that has worried me for a very long time is how cheap alcohol is and the cultures of drinking growing up. It's very easy to think that maybe it's all about young people's patterns of drinking, and I think that would be unfair"
"What I would really like to see is licenced premises being very responsible in encouraging much safer drinking - not such cheap drinks and encouraging people to drink not lower strength alcohol."
The inquest heard that Caroline had drunk five so-called 'purple pints' at the Corporation nightclub, which her friends said was made up of four shots of vodka, plus a shot of blue Wicked containing two more shots of vodka, as well as food colouring and a mixer.
The manager of the club insists it's an urban myth the drink contains that much alcohol.
Jan says drinks like that - if they do contain so much alcohol - are potentially dangerous:
"Let's at least say that it's not responsible. Unlicensed sales of alcohol could be far more responsible by checking out how intoxicated people are, choosing not to sell certain drinks. If somebody's drinking one drink with 5 shots in that is clearly going to lead to a very sudden high level of blood alcohol."
Laura O'Neill works for the Corner - a service that advises young people on alcohol in Sheffield.
She says there's needs to be a multi-faceted response to Caroline's death to prevent future incidents:
"It's everyone's responsibility to safeguard under the influence of alcohol. It would be kind of naive to think that it was just the responsibility of bar staff that night to be aware of what to look out for when people are under the influence."
"I think it's about looking at a community approach about how services can work together to look at where we can put support in place to prevent something like that from happening again, but looking at the wider impact - the impact on the young person themselves - but also the impact on A&E, the wider impact on communities and individuals in the community in general."
We contacted Corporation but have not heard back.