1. Nicole celebrated her 18th birthday by drinking a 95 per cent alcohol spirit. The next morning, she was dead.
Teen WA girl died after playing drinking games, consuming 95 per cent Polish spirit. https://t.co/2TOm38Z63t#7News pic.twitter.com/4LJAzgjROH
— Yahoo7 (@Yahoo7) May 23, 2017
A teenager had a fatal blood alcohol reading of 0.319 per cent after she played drinking games with her friends and family on her 18th birthday, an inquest in Perth has heard.
Nicole Emily Bicknell, who had just finished high school, consumed large amounts of melon-flavoured liqueur, pre-mixed vodka drinks and 95 per cent Polish spirit at a BBQ attended by 44 people on November 1, 2014.
The WA Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday that she had 18 shots to mark each year of her life and continued to drink after that, but didn’t appear particularly drunk until the end of the night.
“She came up to me excited and said ‘I’ve made 18 drinks’,” her brother Steven Bicknell said.
No alcohol was provided at the gathering and guests, some of whom stayed the night, had to bring their own.
After their mother went to bed, Ms Bicknell, her brother and about nine others sat in a circle and played the “waterfall” drinking game, which involved her drinking straight from a bottle, continuously, while they took their turn to have shots.
The court heard she became incoherent after drinking the Polish spirit, which the guests turned to after other alcohol had run out.
“She spiralled quite quickly,” Mr Bicknell said.
“Her liveliness, bubbliness, talkativeness went downhill. She became quiet, more relaxed into her chair.”