Another fatal accident in Reynisfjara
On August 2, 2025, there was another fatal accident on Reynisfjara beach, in which a 9-year-old girl from Germany died.
What is known so far?
According to Icelandic media reports, the girl was on the beach in Reynisfjara with her father and sister. A wave swept over the family and knocked all three over. The father and one child were able to escape from the water, but the other child was unable to survive.
According to police, the accident occurred shortly before 3 p.m. Rescue teams, police, and volunteers were deployed. The Coast Guard helicopter took off 26 minutes after the emergency call was received.
At 4:54 p.m., police reported that the helicopter crew had found and rescued the child. The only thing they could confirm was that the child was dead.
At noon the day after the accident, it was announced that the child who had died was a 9-year-old girl from Germany.
Nothing more is known about the circumstances of the accident or the girl's identity.
What were the circumstances at the time of the accident?
After the last fatal accident in Reynisfjara in 2022, a warning light system was installed on the beach. According to previous reports, the traffic light was yellow at the time of the accident.
The warning lights are linked to the wave forecasting system, of Vegagerðin, the Icelandic Road Administration. The green light flashes for low risk, the yellow light for medium risk, and the red light for high risk.
On the day of the accident it was quite stormy, with the wind coming from the south off the sea. About 70 km away in Landeyjahöfn, the ferry service to the Westman Islands was interrupted that afternoon because the weather conditions were too bad for the ferry to land safely. Officially, the readings on Saturday were just below the red warning level. However, I've also read that the warning lights might have been defective and should have shown red; but that was just a guess from a helper on site. In any case, the conditions on site were not good, but only the yellow warning light was lit.
If the warning light is red, you should not go further than the warning sign.
When the warning light is yellow, you should only go as far as the basalt columns at the end of the front cave, not around the corner, not into the rear cave, not to the section of beach further behind.
However, the sign explaining the areas was damaged and torn away in a storm in the spring of 2025, and has been missing ever since – along with the explanation for visitors about what the warning lights mean. So, you know you have to be careful – but you're not currently told HOW careful you have to be.
Tourists are unaware of the dangers of Icelandic nature
The black sand beach of Reynisfjara, west of Vik, is one of Iceland's most popular tourist destinations. However, it's also the country's most dangerous tourist destination. Visitors often fail to assess the danger and go too close to the water.
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| Sign on Reynisfjara beach |
The beach here is known for the occurrence of so-called sneaker waves. These are disproportionately large coastal waves that appear suddenly and without warning among other, much smaller waves. They can reach up to 50 meters farther inland than other waves of the same wave period and sweep away everything that isn't nailed down – tree trunks, rocks weighing tons, and people.
A wave like this knocks you over, first pushing you inland up the beach, and then dragging you into the deep sea with the receding water. If the wave really hits you, you don't really have a chance.
When you stand on the beach at Reynisfjara, you can see the long, flat, black beach.
But you don't realize how quickly and how damn deep the sea gets here – at least that's how it was for me. I only realized this when I saw photos of humpback whales off the coast of Reynisfjara.
The pictures here of the humpback whales at Reynisfjara are from August 2024.
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| Source: RUV / from a video by Guðrún Helga Stefánsdóttir |
A humpback whale can grow to a length of 17 meters and weigh an average of 30 tonnes.
That's roughly equivalent to a fully loaded truck with a trailer. And if you imagine that a truck with a trailer here, just a short distance from the coastline, has enough room to swim safely in the sea, you realize that it must be pretty damn deep here, so close to the coast, probably at least 30 meters deep.
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| Source: RUV / Photo by David Orvar Hansson |
So the sea here isn't shallow; it goes in damn deep, damn fast. And if you get pulled in by a wave, even the best rescue diver doesn't really stand a chance.
So far 7 fatal accidents on this coast since 2007
In January 2017, a German family with two children was swept away by waves a little further along the beach toward Dyrhólaey. The father and two children managed to get to safety. For the mother, help came too late; she was found dead by rescue teams about an hour later.
After the last accident in 2022, new warning and information signs were installed in Reynisfjara, including warning lights. In addition, a 300-meter-long chain was hung along the parking lot so that people use the footpath to the beach, where they are forced to walk past the signs. Police surveillance cameras are also installed at the beach entrance.
Planning further security measures
This afternoon there's a meeting between the landowners, the rescue services, representatives of the Icelandic Tourist Board and the police to discuss measures to better ensure the safety of visitors to Reynisfjara in the future. In case of bad weather the beach or parts of it may have to be closed.
Plans include improving the wave forecast system and adjusting the hazard factor, meaning the red light will flash earlier in the future. A gate will also be installed that will block access to the beach when the light is red.
