21-year-old waitress plunged to her death in Wales quarry while trying to record Facebook video

A 21-year-old girl who was attempting to record a daring video for her Facebook profile at an old slate quarry near Fairbourne, Wales, fell to her death after she slipped and plunged up to 50ft to a ledge below.

Thrill-seeking Sarah Brewster fell to her death at the Meirionnydd quarry, the area which is identified for thrills on social media, Cambrian News website reported.

According to Brewster's friends Katie Taylor and Victoria Walters, who had accompanied her to the trip, her intention was to leap over the ledge — a former tramway at the quarry — and into the ice-cold water of the Blue Lagoon at Friog as they filmed her for Facebook.

Brewster's friends told coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones at the Caernarfon Crown Court Tuesday hearing (5 December) that they felt the leap from cliffs unsafe.

Jones concluded that Brewster, a waitress of Penkridge, Stafford, died in an accident in which she fractured her skull, the website reported.

Taylor was too upset to give evidence at the court hearing and instead her statement was read. The court was told that the girls had driven to the area at the end of May.

According to Taylor's statement, she and Brewster were friends for 13 years and that it was Brewster who had suggested the trip. On the way they had chatted, sang and laughed.

They first enjoyed a swim in the lagoon, with video recordings being made on the mobile phone. Later Brewster told the girls that she was going to take a leap from the cliff into the lake, over the ledge. She even asked for the leap to be filmed - possibly for her Facebook profile.

"I told her I wasn't happy and it didn't look safe and I wasn't going to do it," Taylor said. Sarah is said to have fallen feet first and plunged to the ledge.

According to the website, Jones told Walters, who gave evidence, he wasn't surprised that Brewster was reluctant to jump off the cliff.

He said Brewster lost her footing, rather than jumping or diving. "To jump into the lake she would have to have done the equivalent of a long jump to clear the ledge," Jones told the court.

Jones in his conclusion said it was a very dangerous place and to leap through the air "was a very silly thing to do".

He added: "The warning is that leaping over an obstacle like this ledge to reach the water is something that is extremely dangerous and any failure would result in death."