An 18-year-old man who fell off a La Jolla cliff while taking photographs Tuesday night, July 1, suffered life-threatening head injuries after plunging about 90 feet to the rocky shore below, authorities said.
A friend of the victim’s called 911 about 10:50 p.m. to report the fall at Coast Boulevard and Coast Walk, San Diego police said. The victim was with a group of friends, who said they could not see or hear him after he fell. He had allegedly walked over a low railing on the cliff to take pictures of the street side, then apparently lost his footing, a police official said.
First responders located the man at the base of a sheer cliff. The man was conscious but had suffered major head trauma, described by San Diego fire-rescue battalion chief David Gerboth as life-threatening. He was flown by helicopter to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.
An official said he did not immediately know the victim’s hometown.
In January, a 25-year-old graduate student who was visiting a relative in San Diego died after falling at Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach. Anna Bachman, of Santa Rosa, was photographing a sunset when the ground beneath her gave way. She fell 40 to 50 feet in the area of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Ladera Street.