Fatal accident at Arnarstapi

mbl.is

A fatal accident occurred at Arnarstapi in Snæfellsnes yesterday. This is stated in a report from the West Iceland Police.

The conditions for performing rescue work were very difficult. The beach was accessible only by sea. The man was pronounced dead at the scene by a doctor who was the first to arrive on the scene, along with a rescue team, the announcement reported.

Slippery cliff face

It was raining with fog at the time of the accident and the cliff face was very slippery. The circumstances of the accident are being investigated by the West Iceland Police.

The police got the notice of the accident just before noon yesterday about a man who had fallen off the cliffs at Arnarstapi and was lying motionless in the beach below the cliffs.

In his mid seventies

The man who died in this accident was in his mid-seventies. The accident was reported to the police by a local tourist group. Jónas Ottósson, a police officer with the West Iceland Police said that the man had not been a foreign tourist.

Arnarstapi.

Arnarstapi. mbl.is/Alfons

The accident happened in a creek behind the marina at Arnarstapi and to get there was very difficult, according to Jónas.

“We need to go over the data we have just collected. We think we know what happened, but it needs to be confirmed,” he says, adding that the field research is complete.

Took time to procure a boat

Jón Þór Víglundsson, information officer of the ICE-SAR Landsbjörg, says that the conditions for rescue work were challenging. Rescue workers from Lífsbjörg rescue team in Snæfellsnesbær were preparing to set up lines and glide down to the shore when it was discovered that it was possible to get to the man from the ocean.

There was no lifeboat on site and it took quite a long time to get a boat from the marina at Arnarstapi because the coastal fishermen had prepared their fleet for the severe weather that lay ahead, according to Víglundsson.

A doctor on board the boat then confirmed that it was a fatal accident. A lifeboat later arrived from Snæfellsbær with police and ambulance crews on board to get the deceased from the scene.

The rescue work was completed about 1:30 pm yesterday. The lifeguards from Lífsbjörg were subsequently treated for trauma as is the norm when such events occur.

Asked if the Coast Guard helicopter had been called in for the accident, Jón Þór says it was on a different call at the same time. Arrangements were being made to get the patient from the helicopter on board an ambulance while it was assisting Arnarstapi, but before this, it was confirmed that it was a fatal accident. Therefore, the helicopter did not go to the scene.

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