Girl, 16, suffers broken back as cliff crumbles under her

A TEENAGE girl broke her back after a Devon cliff edge she was sitting on suddenly collapsed.

The girl, aged 16, fell off Orcombe Point, Exmouth, just before 10pm on Friday. She had been sitting with friends on the edge of the cliff.

Exmouth RNLI volunteers were on the scene within eight minutes and found the girl on a ledge, where they administered first aid.

Roger Jackson was one of the first crew volunteers on the scene. He said: “We found the girl in extreme agony, in a crumpled mess. She had been joined by a friend who had run down the steps and entered the water in order to reach her. Together they had somehow moved up to a ledge to stay higher than the tide, until help arrived. We would like to thank him for assisting her to a place of safety and saving her from a worse situation with an incoming tide. When speaking to the casualty’s friends, we understood that they had been sitting on the edge of the cliff looking at the moon over the sea.

“The cliff edge had crumbled under her and taken her down a vertical drop, feet first. On the way down, she had hit an overhang and then slid down straight to the bottom.”

Crew volunteers carried the teenager by stretcher down to the beach and helped winch her up to a Coastguard helicopter. She was then transferred to Devon Air Ambulance and on to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

Mr Jackson added: “With the recent warm weather, our Jurassic cliffs are very dry, and prone to splitting and creating rock falls. We would encourage people not to take the risk of going near the edge. Keep to the marked footpaths and enjoy our beautiful coastline from a safe distance.”