Boy 'died trying to save friend'

Hayden's school was exonerated by the coroner

A 12-year-old boy fell 30ft (9m) to his death trying to save a friend during a school skiing trip to the Austrian Alps, an inquest heard.

Coroner Roger Sykes said the parents of Hayden Waller, from Wigmore, should be "proud" of his actions.

He said he was satisfied that staff at the Howard School in Rainham, Kent, had carried out adequate risk assessments before taking the pupils to the resort.

A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded.

The coroner said the school was not to blame for the accident, which occurred when the boys were on an allocated period of unsupervised free time.

Slipped and fell

However, he concluded that the school should make it clearer to pupils which areas they were allowed to go to and which were off-limits before embarking on any more trips.

The inquest heard that Hayden and his friends were trying to climb to a plateau on a mountain near their hotel but had found it too steep and so had turned back, on the afternoon of 18 February.

As they clambered backwards down the mountain, Hayden had tried to grab hold of one of the other boys as he slipped and fell above him, but in doing so he himself had lost his balance and plunged to his death.

Mr Sykes said: "I believe that the most likely explanation for Hayden's loss of balance was that he did attempt to break the fall of the boy in lead.

"That clearly would have been an instinctive reaction on his part, but I believe it is an action of which his parents can justifiably be proud."

'Caring young man'

Mr Sykes said it would be useful on further trips if they were to give pupils maps setting out clearly which areas they were allowed to go and which they are not.

He added that the 38 boys on the trip, who were aged between 12 and 18, were accompanied by seven teaching staff, far exceeding the recommended teacher to pupil guidelines of between one to 10 and one to 15.

A statement issued on behalf of the boy's parents by their solicitor after the inquest said: "Hayden was a charming, likeable, caring and confident young man who was loved by everyone who knew him and will be greatly missed.

"It is extremely important to ensure that lessons are learnt as a result of what happened to Hayden so that other parents do not have to suffer what they are going through now."