The death of a 12-year-old girl after a falling branch hit her while playing on a rope swing was an accident, a coroner has ruled.
Brooke Wiggins died days before her 13th birthday on November 9 2024, in Banstead, Surrey, after she fell from a rope swing attached to a large branch of a tree which suddenly snapped off and crushed her beneath its weight, South London Coroner’s Court heard.
Assistant coroner Ivor Collett said Surrey County Council, which was responsible for maintaining the tree, had been criticised over how it inspected the safety of trees, but concluded it could not have reasonably been expected to do more to prevent it from happening.
Mr Collett said: ‘I see what happened on the awful day of Brooke’s death as an accident which was not readily foreseeable by either of the local authorities involved.
‘I find that they, and Surrey County Council in particular, had reasonable systems in place.
‘Bearing in mind their duties and the risks and the public resources they have to manage, they could not reasonably be expected to have done more in a way which would have prevented this terrible accident.’
The inquest previously heard the tree had been reviewed by Surrey County Council in May 2022.
Following the inspection, there was a recommendation to remove ivy covering it to ‘aid future inspection’ of the tree, which, after Brooke’s death, was revealed to have had a ‘crack’ not visible from ground level.
Brooke Wiggins, pictured, a 12-year-old girl who died when a tree branch fell on her, was using a rope swing when the accident happened
She was playing with friends when the branch snapped and caused her to become trapped
The work to remove the ivy (recommended in May 2022) was given a priority rating of five.
Katherine McDonald, a council manager, testified this meant the work ‘should’ have been done within 12 months, but there was no ‘concrete plan.’
The council has a formal policy to remove rope swings within seven days of discovery. They typically remove at least 15 per year.
A re-inspection was scheduled for May 2024, but this did not take place because of prioritising other inspections, the inquest heard.
Gordon Carson of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) testified that the council provided no evidence of a system that flags overdue inspections or records why the May 2024 inspection was deferred.
There was also land ownership confusion, as while Surrey County Council owned and maintained the tree, the land it sat on actually belonged to a different authority, the London Borough of Sutton.
Following the accident, a ‘serious incident group’ decided to ‘monolith’ the tree – reducing it to just a trunk – even though it was otherwise considered healthy.
The council manager confirmed that Brooke’s family was not invited to join the internal group deciding the tree’s future, as the council deemed it ‘purely administrative’ and feared it would be ‘insensitive’.
The coroner told the inquest on Wednesday that there was ‘no sound evidence that a re-inspection by May 2024 would have revealed either a dangerous crack or a rope swing’.
Mr Collett said: ‘A criticism made in this case of Surrey County Council has been that its inspection regime was deficient. However, I do not make that finding.
‘I accept the need to prioritise tree inspection works. This is not the same statutory territory as highway inspection regimes – it is far more nuanced and must be far more reactive and flexible, especially given the resources available and the huge number of trees involved in the Surrey CC estate.’
The inquest previously heard that a ‘pathway for avoiding Brooke’s death’ was for the erection of advisory notices between May 2022 and May 2024 warning against rope swings.
Mr Collett rejected this in his conclusions because there was a lack of evidence that a rope swing would have been discovered in that period.
He added: ‘It is doubtful that vigorous children and teenagers would take much notice of warning signs.’
Assistant coroner Ivor Collett said he sees what happened on the awful day of Brooke’s death as an accident which was not readily foreseeable by either of the local authorities involved
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Tree that crushed girl, 12, should have been worked on but lacked ‘concrete plan’, inquest told
The assistant coroner told the inquest that a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report was ‘not warranted’ as ‘there is a sufficient system already in place’.
Mr Collett ended the inquest by paying tribute to Brooke’s family.
He said: ‘They have provided a voice for her when she has been unable to speak for herself.
‘Brooke was plainly a light that shone in their lives, and while that light shone far less than half as long as was its due, it clearly shone more than twice as brightly.’
The formal cause of death was recorded as blunt force trauma to the chest with traumatic asphyxia.
It took emergency services between 90 minutes and two hours to free Brooke using specialist equipment.
Two brothers, Edward and Patrick Delaney, were found by Brooke’s friends. They attempted to lift the branch and performed resuscitation before paramedics arrived.
Brooke’s mother Claire Etherington described Brooke as a girl who loved dancing, art, singing, and photography, noting that she ‘never went anywhere without her eyelashes on’.
Her father, Lee Wiggins expressed his devastation, stating: ‘If only people had done their job properly, Brooke would still be here.’
Surrey County Council chief executive Terence Herbert said following the verdict: ‘I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Brooke Wiggins.
‘We have played a full part in the inquest proceedings and note the coroner’s conclusion that this was a tragic accident.’
