Palais Verdes, CA. – Four people fell from an ocean cliff in Southern California before dawn on Monday, and a man was killed and two women were seriously injured, authorities said.
A fourth man, a man with minor injuries, managed to climb off the beach below and warn an officer who was passing by, around 4:30 a.m., said Captain Steve Barber of the Palais Verdes Police Department.
According to Barber, a 25-year-old man from Los Angeles died at the scene. Two women were taken from the beach and each hospitalized in critical condition, he said.
Helicopters of television news showed how a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter lifted one of the victims to a rescue vehicle on top of a cliff.
Police were investigating the incident as an accident, Barber said.
The survivor, 25-year-old Vincent Avila of Los Angeles, was hospitalized with a broken rib and minor kidney damage, KNBC-TV reports.
Advertising
“It’s a miracle,” his mother Irma told the news.
Her son told her that four friends went to the cliffs on Sunday night to play and hang out. She said that when one of the women in the dark went to manage, she slipped and fell. The other three sat on the edge, trying to find her in the dark, and they also slipped.
The Palais Verdes Estates is located on the Palais Verdes Peninsula in southern Los Angeles County. The trail runs along the top of a cliff about 300 feet (91 meters) above the Pacific Ocean.
There have been several accidents in the area over the years, Barber said, and several suicides.
“At the moment there is no indication that it was anything other than an accident,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed without permission.
