A 22-year-old was just trying to have a great day at Topgolf in Chigwell, Essex, when things went terribly wrong.
Conner Groom fell 12-feet from a bay during a work Christmas party on December 21, 2021. He went headfirst over the edge of the safety nets and would pass away five weeks later from a spinal injury.
The death has been ruled accidental, but more information has since come out.
Essex Coroner’s Court stated they informed that Conner and his buddies had been drinking throughout the evening before arriving at the venue. Once they arrived at TopGolf to begin their session, the friends began playing pranks on each other by pushing or nudging each other to fall onto the safety nets.
That was a very dangerous game to play, as Conner found out when he was pushed by an unnamed friend a little too hard. Prior to him being pushed, the group had engaged in at least seven other incidents of pushes or attempted pushes.
The unnamed friend ran up and pushed him, but instead of him falling into the net below, he went completely over the edge and fell to the ground. He sustained a serious spinal injury and was later taken to the Royal London Hospital.
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His condition would never improve, and he would pass away on January 25, 2022.
Ben Gardener was originally arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm, but the charges were later dropped.
Conner Groom’s TopGolf Death Ruled Accidental
Conner Groom passed away after a friend pushed him in a prank gone wrong as he plummeted 12-feet to the ground.
According to PEOPLE, a recent inquest found that his death has been ruled accidental.
The BBC reported that Groom had pushed one of his friends onto the net before he would get pushed.
Topgolf staff reportedly had warned the group multiple times to stop “messing around.”
Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes ruled that Groom died as a result of misadventure, which is defined by the United Kingdom’s coroner’s guide as a death “from some deliberate human act which unexpectedly and unintentionally goes wrong.”
