A forklift driver who was pretending to fall off a cliff for a photograph slipped and plunged 300ft to his death, an inquest heard.
Tragic Jacek Wojtala, 39, was ”joking around” and waving his arms to look like he was about to tumble off a coastal path.
He stood on the edge of the 300ft rock face and ”pretended to fall” as friends took pictures of him, an inquest heard.
But as the drunk Polish national posed for his THIRD mock picture he lost his footing and plummeted onto thick brambles below.
He sustained multiple injuries and died at the scene at Whitecliffs near Seaton, Devon, on April 12 last year.
Eyewitness Mukta Gray, 41, was sitting on a nearby bench when Mr Wojtala, who was married with children, fell.
Speaking at the inquest in Exeter, Devon, she said: ”He was joking around, crouched down making motions like he was falling – he was pretending to fall.
”He leaned back for the third time and he still had a jokey look on his face, seconds before falling to his death.
”He did not scream, I looked on in disbelief. No one grabbed him because they were not near him.”
The inquest also heard how Jacek, of Tiverton, Devon, had been urged by some of his eight friends to come away from the edge of the cliff.
Greater Devon Coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland said he was two and a half times over the legal drink-drive limit when he lost his footing.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, the coroner extended her sympathies to Mr Wojtala’s wife, Agnieszka and their children.
