Devon woman survives terrifying fall from sea wall

A Devon woman has survived a terrifying fall from a sea wall after being rescued by two walkers. Despite the large drop onto concrete, she walked away from the ordeal with just a few broken teeth.

At around 12:30pm on January 17, Carole Brooks was walking along the sea wall between Holcombe and Teignmouth when she slipped on a large puddle. She fell down what is a roughly four metre, or 13 foot, drop onto concrete and, at some point along the way, lost consciousness.

It's not known exactly how long Carole had been unconscious for before she started to come around. It wasn't long before two strangers, who she had said hello to just moments before she fell, came to her rescue.

Try DevonLive Premium for free with no ads, fun puzzles and new features

Carole said: "I passed two men, said hello and then I saw a puddle and thought 'if I walk the safe, railway side of the puddle, I'm going to get my feet wet so I'll go to the edge of the wall'. The next thing I knew, I was coming around with severe concussion and not knowing who I was or where I was or anything.

"The two guys that I'd passed didn't hear me fall. They'd walked all the way to Holcombe and came all the way back and when it was about 10 or 15 minutes after they'd passed me, they realised I was below and looking a bit peculiar. I think I was screaming 'help' by then and they couldn't get to me because it was too high tide for the first steps so they had to use the other steps.

"They finally got to me and called 999 and they realised that I had concussion and hypothermia. I fell onto concrete, which is about four metres high, and the waves were just splashing me. The tide was bashing with force.

"The ambulance guys said not to move me because they feared broken neck and the two guys said 'well she's already standing' and they disobeyed what they were told because they'd recognised hypothermia."

Carole says the 200 metre walk to the railway tunnel at Holcombe took her around 20 minutes because she was in so much pain. Fortunately the two men were brothers Andy and Dave Smith who have extensive experience with mountaineering, expeditions and rescue operations, as well as some first aid training.

Carole said: "I am so lucky not to be broken neck, dead or washed out to sea and never found again. I was found by these two men who have done outdoor exploration stuff, team leading and they were trained to recognise hypothermia. They got me to walk 200 metres to the tunnel at Holcombe which took me 20 minutes. I was screaming in agony the whole way.

"I had a hole in my chin, my teeth were stuck in my chin. I couldn't speak properly, I had broken teeth. I was in agony but they knew they had to move me otherwise I'd die of hypothermia."

Due to the level of pain and concussion that Carole was suffering, her memory of the incident was patchy. It wasn't until she later met up with Andy and Dave that she learned more about what happened.

When the brothers got Carole to the tunnel, they made a makeshift 'perch' so that she could rest for a moment and shelter slightly from the wind. While they were there, a local surfer called Nick arrived in a van and was able to drive them the rest of the way to The Smugglers Inn pub so they could wait in the warm for an ambulance to arrive.

Andy told DevonLive: "Things just didn't look right. She was standing at the bottom of the sea wall, facing the wall and leaning against it slightly. We carried on wandering but when we got to the walkway above her, Dave leaned over, asked if she was ok and she responded with a cry of 'help'.

"We've both got experience in mountain craft and outdoor pursuits. For quite a long time, we've been part of mountaineering, hill walking and sometimes leading other people in expeditions.

"Necessarily, we both did mountaineering leadership qualifications and for a number of years, Dave was a team leader with a Dartmoor rescue group and we'd both done the odd first aid course.

"With a gentle arm we managed to gently and slowly nurse Carole along to the Holcombe end where the Salty Dog café is and get her sheltered from the wind. She demonstrated a lot of pain from her right side and chest area so we were pretty convinced that she'd broken a rib or two so we were only able to help her from her right side.

"Once we got to Holcombe, we sheltered underneath the railway line but we were still in some wind so we then rigged up a temporary place she could perch against using an old surfboard that was there.

"While we were waiting there, a chap called Nick turned up with a transit van, I believe he was a local surfer. He helped us using his van to get Carole up to The Smugglers Inn, where a rather battered and bloodied Carole was installed in front of their lovely log burner.

"The staff at The Smugglers Inn were superb. Without any hesitation, they were trying to help in various ways and had no qualms about Carole taking shelter there."

Despite her agony, the only long-term physical injury that Carole suffered was two broken teeth and some bruising. After being released from hospital, she says the hard part was getting over the trauma of what she experienced.

She said: "I have since redone the walk twice. When I did it the first time, I was riveted to the place and shaking and I didn't have visual flashbacks, I had emotional flashbacks. I was reliving the fear of clinging onto the rock while getting bashed by the waves. I managed to talk myself into moving on.

"Lots of people said I should've gone with somebody but I thought if I'm going to relive the trauma, I've got to get over it myself, I've got to overcome this. I went yesterday and I was absolutely fine."

There have been calls for safety precautions such as a railing to be put up on the sea wall in South Devon after Ukrainian teenager Albina Yevko, 14, died after falling from the wall in Dawlish in March 2023. 30 years prior, 17-year-old Brendon Burnage also died after falling in the same spot. At the time of Brendon's inquest, the then deputy coroner for the region British Rail and Teignbridge District Council to urge them to consider railings as a safety precaution.

A 1993 Devon County Council environmental committee report acknowledged that there had been two accidents on the wall but said it did not have a legal obligation to install railings. It also said that railings would require constant inspections due to batterings from the sea and highlighted the risks of people climbing on them.

The report also said that railings would cost them from £17,000 to £22,000 to maintain. A more inexpensive option of painting white lines on the path were considered but these were not repainted after quickly being eroded by high tides.

Network Rail says it is considering "all options" as part of a risk assessment of the new sea wall, which was constructed after the old one collapsed in 2014. They said they have met with Albina's family but that handrails along the entire wall would be "difficult to install and maintain effectively given the harsh coastal environment".

After hearing that a coroner had previously called for railings, which had not been installed, Albina's heartbroken mother Inna Yevko told The Guardian: "I cannot describe the pain of realising that people ignoring previous coroner’s advice has cost my beautiful daughter her life. Every day is a battle to live without her."

Carole, who is local to Dawlish, and Andy, from Teignmouth, say they have acknowledged that accidents can happen but have not previously felt a need for any kind of barrier.

Carole said: "I certainly don't want a barrier or a fence to be put up because since Brunel, it's been there. It's my fault for falling off the edge but I think it's a miracle that I survived."

Andy said: "It only takes something to go wrong, you only need to be distracted or have a dizzy spell and it can affect you and carry you off the edge. When the fall from the top is about 15 to 20 feet before you come to a rest at the bottom, that's ample room to cause yourself problems.

"I think the sea wall being reconsidered in the future will certainly improve that aspect of it but personally I'm not worried about it. I do it almost everyday and even in snow and ice, it's not something that worries me."