Inquest Hears Details of Volunteer’s Death
Sally Witcomb
A British woman training with a leading UK gap year program fell to her death from a zip wire just minutes after another volunteer had fallen from the same wire, according to testimony before a British inquest.
Sally Witcomb, 32, a mechanical engineering from Surrey, England, died in March 2007 in Namibia after falling 28 feet during a staff training exercise for Raleigh International. The accident occurred at the Out of Nature center in Windhoek, Namibia.
During a inquest held by a South London court, people that worked for Raleigh International testified that another volunteer had fallen from the same zip wire, probably because her hands were covered with sunblock and she lost her grip on the T-bar. That volunteer was caught by a safety line. When Witcomb also slipped from the T-bar minutes later, her harness separated from the safety harness and she fell head-first to the ground.
Another Raleigh volunteer, Sophie Pell, described the actions of Andre Ross, the certified instructor in charge of the day’s activities, as “complacent” and “not overly safety conscious,” according to news reports.
Raleigh stopped working in Namibia at the end of 2007, but according to testimony at the inquest that decision was made before Witcomb’s death.
In a statement posted on its website, the organization wrote: “Raleigh has fully cooperated with investigations into Sally’s death. We have also recently undergone an independent audit of our operating procedures which has concluded that they conform to the British Standard 8848, a new national standard for the safe management of overseas ventures.”
The statement noted that Raleigh has taken 30,000 volunteer participants on expeditions in its 25 years of operation and that no other participants have been killed in such an adventure exercise.
“With regard to the Namibia incident risk assessments were carried out on three separate occasions,” the organization wrote. “These involved checking the site’s safety and certification, the qualifications of the instructors and the standard of the equipment, as well as witnessing another organisation carrying out the activities and obtaining feedback from previous clients of the activity centre.”
“As you can imagine this has been a very difficult time for the staff and volunteers at Raleigh, but first and foremost for Sally’s family and friends to whom we once again express our deep condolences.”
Other links:
Expedition volunteer killed in high wire accident, inquest told
Engineer falls to death on dream adventure holiday, inquest hears
Africa zip wire death plunge
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