93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
A man is hospitalized this afternoon at Columbia’s University Hospital after falling off a cliff this weekend at Pinnacles Youth park. That’s about 12 miles north of Columbia, near Highway 63.
Boone County Fire Protection District assistant chief Gale Blomenkamp tells 939 the Eagle that the man suffered serious injuries when he fell about 30 feet from the cliff. Our news partner KMIZ’s Mitchell Kaminski quotes a Boone County Fire Protection District official on-scene says the man was conscious and breathing as he was loaded into an ambulance.
Witnesses tell ABC-17’s Kaminski that the man was jumping around from rock to rock with a group of friends, who say he lost his balance when he hit a loose piece of gravel. He then fell over the edge.
Boone County Fire Protection District assistant chief Blomenkamp tells 939 the Eagle that the man was wearing cowboy boots when he fell from the cliff. A man who was at the park at the time of the incident, Joshua Taylor, tells ABC-17’s Kaminski that there were a group of guys walking around and that one of them was climbing around and jumping around on rocks.
The Pinnacles Youth park website says the park has 70 acres of natural, open space for public day use. The website says the park was deeded to the youth of Boone County in 1965 and “has been maintained for over 50 years by the Boone County Pinnacles Youth Foundation using only donations and volunteer labor.”
