A 14-year-old boy injured his leg after jumping from Dunbar’s harbour on Thursday evening, prompting a Dunbar RNLI tombstoning warning. Volunteer crew members helped him onto the lifeboat, brought him ashore and handed him to the Scottish Ambulance Service.
The incident happened at around 6.30pm, just as Dunbar RNLI was about to launch on a training exercise. Laura Kirkham said bystanders did the right thing in flagging the crew down while waiting for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Laura Kirkham at Dunbar
Kirkham, the Dunbar RNLI lifeboat helm, said tombstoning, or cliff jumping, into the harbour can lead to serious life-changing injuries and even death. She said the jump might seem like fun and that people may want to cool off in hot weather, but warned that hidden rocks and unknown depths can turn those few seconds into lasting consequences.
The boy managed to get himself onto the steps near the harbour entrance before the volunteers helped paramedics move him to the lifeboat. After he was transferred to a waiting ambulance, the crew returned to their exercise.
HM Coastguard on Wednesday
The warning came after a second harbour call within 24 hours for the crew. On Wednesday, HM Coastguard paged the volunteers after a report that someone was in distress in the harbour, but they launched, found nothing untoward and were stood down.
For people in Dunbar, the immediate takeaway is simple: harbour jumps can end in a rescue, and a quick decision on the steps or shoreline can decide whether help arrives in time. Kirkham’s warning points to the risk the crew sees from the water itself — hidden rocks, unknown depths and injuries that may not stop at the first impact.
