When I was reading a magazine earlier I read a story about a boy who went to play football on the beach in Devon & was unfortunate enough to disturb an adder. What I was amazed at was that it curled itself around his foot & then bit. I would just have thought it would have bit & then been off.
When I 'googled' it, I didn't find a good news article but found quite a few adder bites, most accidental by the human counterparts apart from one silly man who picked one up to be photographed with. I was amazed how many recorded bites there had been this year though.

At least in the US, almost all recorded victims of snakebite (from rattlesnakes) are young, male, and usually drunk.

All right, there's a few from people unfortunate to put their hands in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in general, snakebite victims have been drinking, and usually to excess. The bites can be really ugly, too.

Kingfisher

I can well imagine kingfisher

Most adder bites are purely human stupidity. People picking up poisonous snakes for photos is mind boggling, what do they think is going to happen?

Tibbar, that surprised me too that the snake didn't bite and then make a quick getaway too. I thought snakes usually bite humans as a form of self defence when its scared, which would make you think they would want to leave the scene as quickly as possible.

I've never known how poisonous snkaes in the UK are. If you were bitten by an adder would you have to seek medical attention? Or is it only a little venom?

An adder bite wouldn't kill you if you get to a hospital in reasonable time - even if you didn't it is unlikely it would be fatal. You should always go a hospital, or even better a vets (they are more likely to have anti venom I've heard) to get treated.