Accidental death ruling for man who fell from cliff

● Scientist lost his footing and fell ● Bottles ‘thrown at fellow climbers’

An adventurer who fell to his death from a cliff while on a climbing expedition has been ruled to have died accidentally.

Environmental scientist Sam Carr, 26, is thought to have lost his footing and fallen whilst with a friend at Hawkcraig Point in Aberdour, Fife. He suffered multiple injuries and died shortly afterwards.

At the time of the tragedy on 18 July there were calls for details of the incident to be made public after other climbers said they had to abandon their ascent of the same cliff after claiming they were “pelted with bottles” just hours before Mr Carr’s death.

A report was later prepared for the Procurator Fiscal which found Mr Carr’s climbing equipment had no defects but his family said they are still unaware of what happened and had been unable to speak to the main unnamed witness.

At the hearing in Preston, Lancashire, coroner Richard Taylor recorded a conclusion of accidental death without any witnesses being called or statements read out.

There was no mention at the inquest of whether there was an investigation to any issues with the stability of the rockface.

Mr Taylor said: “Sam was an expert climber and he was out climbing with a friend. It was a lovely day and his friend said that Sam tripped and lost his footing.

“He was pronounced dead at

0 Sam Carr is thought to have lost his footing at Hawkcraig Point the scene and a post mortem taken in Scotland revealed he had died from multiple injuries.

“The family wanted to know if the climbing equipment was checked and Scottish Police re-assured that it was. The equipment was examined by the officer and no defects were found which could have contributed to his death.”

Mr Carr who formerly worked for Anglian Water was born in Garstang near Preston but moved to Edinburgh. The area of the tragedy was sealed off at around 6:45pm on 18 July, with police, fire, lifeboat and coastguard crews all scrambled to the area after news of the climber’s fall first emerged.

Prior to the incident climbers had reported on an online forum that Hawkcraig was “raining bottles”, with thousands having flocked to the area to make the most of the sunshine. Local councillor David Barrett, himself a climber, said at the time a full report should be made public to allow any safety concerns at the site to be addressed.

“It is very sad to hear of any death,” he said.

“I hope that we get some detail so that lessons can be learned from this incident.”