A JURY at the inquest into the death of Hayley Williams saw poignant CCTV footage of the teenager's last moments as she boarded a rollercoaster ride at Oakwood Park, Narberth.

Hayley, 16, died on April 15, 2004, after falling 100ft from a ride on the Pembrokeshire park's Hydro ride.

At the inquest yesterday, Pembrokeshire coroner Michael Howells and the jury saw footage of Hayley getting into the Hydro's boat with 22 other passengers at 3.38pm for the fatal ride.

The coroner told the jurors they would hear evidence saying Hayley's "lap bar was in an unsafe position when the boat left".

Mr Howells said that as the boat plunged down the chute the passenger would feel a G-force capable of flipping out anyone who was not secured.

As the boat passed over the top of the ride for the 85-degree descent Hayley was seen to fall from it into the lagoon below.

She was pulled from the water and taken to Withybush Hospital, but was pronounced dead from unsurvivable internal injuries and sustained a number of fractures.

Hayley, the coroner said, had been at Oakwood with a party of eight other young people who had left the Hydro to last because it meant getting wet.

One of the party, Hayley's friend Elizabeth Humphries, 16, relived the events leading up to the tragedy.

She had been in the boat and told the inquest that she had seen Hayley fall but believed at the time it was just her protective yellow poncho.

She said: "I thought it was a poncho at first, then I realised the seat was empty and I just started screaming."

Hayley's sister Hannah, 15, was among the other shocked passengers on the ride.

She told the inquest the lap bars on the boat had initially dropped into place before setting off but they had been released because of a fault.

She said when the bars dropped into place a second time, she did not believe anybody checked to see whether they were properly in place.

As the boat climbed the rollercoaster to its highest point, she had been sitting with her eyes closed.

"We were laughing and chanting. When we got to the top, everyone braced themselves before going down.

"The next thing I remember is everyone screaming that Hayley had fallen."

Visitor Richard Sexton saw the fall and jumped into the water to pull Hayley out.

Former fireman Peter Hawkins helped pull her out of the water and started resuscitation, while his wife Nicola, an intensive care nurse, carried on CPR with another person.

Park managers were due to give evidence today as the inquest continues.

A supervisor in charge of the ride failed to physically check whether a crucial security bar was fastened, the inquest was told yesterday.

Gareth Etches, 24, took charge of the spectacular Hydro ride for the first time on the day tragedy struck.

The inquest heard that Mr Etches had 20 minutes' supervised training before taking charge of the ride.

Mr Etches told the inquest that he had received four days of training before taking up duties as a supervisor in April 2004. He said two days of the course dealt with administration for the job.

The rest took the form largely of visits with 14 other workers to up to 20 rides at the park. Mr Etches said he was given between 15 and 20 minutes' supervised training for the Hydro ride and he was never warned of the potential risks to passengers.

The jury heard that the security on the ride took the form of a seatbelt for each passenger and a lap-bar which drops down into place over the lap. Once in place it could not be disengaged until the completion of the ride.

A safety manual for the ride clearly states that operating staff should physically check that belts and lap-bars are in place before the boat sets off.

But Mr Etches, who worked at the park during the summer season and has since joined the RAF, said he and an assistant generally made only visual checks.

He said that on the day he had been shown how to operate the Hydro ride it had not been working, so his trainer had only simulated the necessary tasks.

In answer to the question, why did he not physically check passengers on the far side of the boat, where Hayley was sitting, he said: "I could clearly see whether the bars were down or not, but there is no way I could physically reach down and check the other side."