A 5-year-old boy was rescued Monday after he and his mother fell down a gorge at Niagara Falls State Park. Authorities recovered the lifeless body of the mother, according to Angela P. Berti, a spokeswoman for parks in the Niagara region, while they managed to transfer the little boy to a hospital alive.
"Unfortunately, the female did not survive," State Parks Police Capt. Chris Rola said. "The investigation is ongoing, but we don't believe it is an accident," Rola said.
Rola reported that the woman and the child had been with her husband in the park before falling down the gorge and that they do not know what could have caused the incident. Police were questioning the man along with other witnesses who were in the park at the time of the incident. Rola declined to provide the identities of the woman and child or say where they were from.
The state parks police captain confirmed that the victims fell about 90 feet (about 27 meters) into an intermediate area of the gorge and that Niagara Falls firefighters had to walk on ice to reach them.
"Our rescuers, along with the Niagara Falls Fire Department, were able to get to the two victims fairly quickly," Rola said. "Although the weather is nice, there is a lot of ice down there. It's really difficult terrain that our rescuers were able to traverse to get to the victims and give them that care that saved the little boy's life," she added.
The boy was carried on a stretcher by the Cave of the Winds elevator to a medicalized helicopter and was later airlifted to Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo where he is being treated for a head injury.
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