Cause of death confirmed for free climber who fell from Spain’s tallest bridge

The cause of death has been revealed for a 26-year-old English free climber and content creator who died last year while scaling Spain’s tallest bridge, Castilla La Mancha.

Photographer Lewis Stevenson’s death in the early morning hours of Oct. 13, 2024 occurred due to blunt force head injuries and uncontrolled descent from height, according to coroner documents from Monday’s written inquest, as obtained by BBC News and People.

The death of the “experienced free climber,” who hailed from Derby, England,” was ruled accidental.

The bridge, located about 75 miles southwest of Madrid in Talavera de la Reina, opened in 2011. Though climbing it is prohibited, it has been scaled more than once for social media posterity.

Stevenson had hoped to climb the 630-foot-tall cable-stayed structure with his 24-year-old friend, a fellow Brit, to “create content for social networks,” Councilor for Citizen Security, Macarena Muñoz, said at the time.

But he reportedly felt sick and asked his friend “to take over the lead as he felt ill,” after which Stevenson vomited and became limp before ultimately falling to his death “moments later.”

The coroner’s documents said that neither Stevenson nor his friend were using safety equipment at the time of the tragedy.

Stevenson’s mother, Keilia, previously told BBC that her son “was a thrill-seeker” as well as “a keen photographer and did this all for passion, not as an influencer.”

“We as a whole family supported his adventures around the world, which included amazing places he got to visit like Easter Island and Machu Picchu, but unfortunately those adventures also included climbing great heights which we didn’t particularly agree with but understood this was what he loved to do,” said Keilia.