An “incredibly lucky” teenager suffered only minor injuries after falling about 400 feet (122 meters) down the side of a canyon, U.S. officials said.
The unidentified man, believed to be 19 years old, slipped Saturday while walking under the High Steel Bridge in Washington state, one of the highest railroad bridges in the United States, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office said.
Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters mounted a two-hour rescue mission using a rope and harness to scale the bridge and rescue the man who had fallen into the river, the office said.
Incredibly, he only suffered scratches on both arms and was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
West Mason Fire Chief Matthew Welander told Seattle-based news outlet KING 5, an affiliate of Sky’s U.S. partner NBC News, that the crew “hooked him into a harness” and went up completely.
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“He was walking through a landslide that a lot of people use and that has been turned into a kind of trail” and ended up in the river, he said, adding that the man had been “incredibly lucky.”
Sheriff’s Patrol Corporal Tim Ripp, who helped rescue him, said: “We’ve told people to stay off these trails because they are dangerous, but people either haven’t seen the warning signs or ignore them.” .
Photo: Facebook/Mason County Sheriff’s Office
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Corporal Ripp said five to seven people fall off the bridge each year and most die, despite warning signs, including one describing how steep, slippery and unsafe the bridge is.
Lack of respect for nature and inattention are part of the problem as people continue to fall from the bridge, officials said.
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