A young woman plunged to her death after slipping from a Good Samaritan’s grip as he tried to save her from a bridge fall following a drunken row with her boyfriend.
Emma Bundy had been at a Christmas party at the Sandy Park conference venue – home of Exeter Chiefs rugby club – when she had a drunken argument with her boyfriend over something a work colleague had said to her.
Following the fight, she ran off towards the A379 pedestrian bridge with her boyfriend Billy Fleming running after her, an inquest at Exeter Coroner’s Court heard.
George Harris was waiting to pick up his daughter, who was working at the event at the end of January 2025, when he saw Ms Bundy in distress.
Mr Harris said Mr Fleming returned to the venue alone and was ‘dismissive’ towards him when he asked about Ms Bundy, saying that he described her as ‘off her head’.
After hearing Ms Bundy crying, Mr Harris walked towards her and saw her ‘hanging by her hands with her legs off the side’ of the bridge.
He rang 999, saying that Ms Bundy was ‘hysterical, crying and screaming’ as he grabbed her wrists and told her to ‘please hang on’.
Mr Harris was able to hold onto her for two to three minutes but said that ‘Emma was not making any sense’.
She then slipped from his grip and fell onto the dual carriageway below.
Ms Bundy, an assistant site manager with Bovis Homes, died from chest and neck wounds, the inquest heard.
Seven months before her tragic death, she moved in with Mr Fleming in Barnstaple, Devon, with her brother Shane saying she was in a happy relationship.
He described her as ‘beautiful, kind and popular’ and loved the healthy life.
However, he said two glasses of wine made her drunk, and Mr Fleming tended to walk away if she had taken alcohol because it caused arguments.
A work colleague said Ms Bundy ‘looked amazing and was hard to miss’ as she transformed from a tomboy in hard hat and hi-vis work clothes into a ‘girlie’ in a red dress for the delayed Christmas on January 31, 2025.
But just before midnight, Ms Bundy was crying and very drunk in the toilets and referred to someone who ‘could be so mean’.
Mr Fleming said she had drunk two bottles of white wine at the black tie event and she ‘could not cope with alcohol’.
He said Emma had had a conversation with a man at the do and Mr Fleming had walked away because of something that was said.
Mr Fleming said they ended up having a row and she swung her handbag at his chin.
He had returned to their hotel room after he had left her by the bridge, and the police turned up later to tell him what had happened.
Mr Fleming said he loved Ms Bundy, saying she was ‘beautiful, kind-hearted and would move mountains for anyone’.
Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death, which followed a domestic argument.
Toxicology tests showed that Emma was 2.5 times the legal drink drive limit when she died, and her intoxication affected her poor judgment and decision-making.
The senior Devon coroner, Philip Spinney, recorded an accidental death conclusion.
He said: ‘She did not intentionally end her life. She was trying to stop herself from falling.
‘It is unclear how she came to be on the wrong side of the safety barriers and was trying to stop herself falling.
‘She was upset at something a work colleague had said earlier that evening.’
He said Ms Bundy had drunk a large amount of alcohol and only argued with her partner when drunk.
Mr Spinney said: ‘It is more likely than not she acted impulsively and did not intend to end her life, this was a tragic accident.’
