Harriet Forster was visiting the picturesque North Yorkshire fishing village of Staithes, where her aunt lived, when the freak accident happened.
The inquest was told how the schoolgirl, from Weston-on-the-Green in Oxfordshire, was struck by a falling rock moments after her mum, Holly, had cried "big rock, big rock" at her.
In her statement, Mrs Forster told how she and her daughter had gone rock pooling and fossil hunting as they wanted to test out a new children's GoPro camera in the hours leading up to the tragedy.
She said they were around 10ft away from the base of the cliff when a "scattering noise of pebbles" could be heard, adding: "I looked up at the cliff and saw different size stones falling, and one larger bit of rock about 2ft by a bit less than 2ft."
Mrs Forster told how she and Harriet, who was standing closer to the sea than her, were both hit by rocks as they tried to run away.
She said: "I could see Harriet, she was a couple of arms lengths in front of me.
"I was on the floor and Harriet was on the floor. I scrambled and tried to get to Harriet.
"Harriet was in a cleft in the rock with her feet towards the sea and her head towards the cliff.
"I got my hand under her arm pit and back. I pulled her out of the cleft to assess her.
"She was unconscious, her head fell back, she was a dead weight, her hair was streaked with blood, her eyes were rolled back, her right leg was broken, her bone was exposed and her foot was attached by a piece of flesh.
"I realised Harriet wasn't breathing. I just thought 'don't be dead'. Her lips were going blue and her tongue was white.
"I called out for help."
Richard Isaac, an off-duty police officer with West Yorkshire Police, told the inquest at Scarborough Town Hall how he had performed CPR on the girl, before carrying her away from the rock face on a child's surfboard to continue resuscitation.
Despite an air ambulance crew arriving a short while later, Harriet was declared dead after suffering injuries to her head, chest and abdomen, the coroner heard.
Coroner Michael Oakley said Harriet's mum was unable to attend the inquest as she was still "haunted day and night" by the horror of her daughter's death on August 8.
In a statement read to the court, she said: "The sights and sounds of that day are never far from my mind.
"Being without Harriet, who was the apple of my eye and the light of my life, causes me pain that I suspect I will never recover from.
"I would swap places with her in a heartbeat."
After saying around 500 people attended the girl's funeral, Mrs Forster added: "I would like to say on record that Harriet could not have been more loved and cherished by all who knew her."
The inquest was told how the stretch of seaside near where Harriet died has one warning sign, which reads: "Beware, dangerous cliff".
John Woodhead, the north area engineer for Scarborough Borough Council, added that, in the space of two years, there had been 55,000 rock falls near the spot where Harriet was struck.
Making a verdict of accidental death, Mr Oakley described the case as "one of the most tragic incidents" he has dealt with during his 40 years as a coroner.
Adding that the death resulted from the girl being "in the wrong place at the wrong time", he recommended that further, clearer signage be installed, and suggested a permanent barrier should be put up to prevent tourists going near the spot where Harriet died.
Staithes has long been a popular beauty spot for families and is known as "dinosaur coast" because of its Jurassic cliffs.
DEATHS CAUSED BY FALLING ROCK
In June 2015 Georgina Le Fjord, 23, died after she was hit on the head by a rock falling from a cliff on a beach at Llantwit Major, between Swansea and Cardiff on the Glamorgan coast. She was sitting about five metres from the cliff when the rock hit her.
In July 2012 Charlotte Blackman, 22, died at Burton Bradstock beach, Dorset, when she was buried by rocks after the cliff collapsed.
Source: Read Full Article