Runner falls 70ft
Posted: August 4, 2014
Posted in: Public Place Accidents Sporting Injuries
A runner that fell 70ft while competing in an endurance event has been treated for serious injuries in hospital. The 40-year-old man from Otley, West Yorkshire had been running on one of England’s highest mountains, Scafell Pike in the Lake District, when he fell and suffered serious injuries. The unnamed runner said that he battled to stay alert after plunging 70ft down the mountain.
The team leader of Wasdale Mountain Rescue, Mike Gullen, said: “it was a pretty serious incident”. He reported that during the rescue, the runner was constantly falling in and out of consciousness. The accident happened when the athletes were tackling a particularly precarious part of the mountain at Greta Gill on Saturday.
“Multiple and very serious injuries”
It was a fellow athlete in the endurance event that phoned the emergency services. An air ambulance and a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter arrived at the scene. They winched the man to safety and airlifted him to Newcastle’s Royal Victorial Infirmary from the valley floor.
Mr Gullen said: “He had multiple and very serious injuries and was taken to hospital. The alarm was raised swiftly … It is important to remember that people contacting the emergency services should ask for the police, as they are the ones who get in touch with Mountain Rescue.”
A spokeperson from the mountain rescue team said that the man was in a stable condition.
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