Man Suffers Minor Injuries in Fall off Cliff
Apparently unaware that there was a sheer drop on the other side, a 19-year-old camper jumped through a bush on the edge of a cliff overlooking San Onofre State Beach early Sunday and plunged 60 feet before his fall was broken when he landed in a tree, state park officials said.
At about 2:25 a.m. other campers “went over to check out the noises” being made by Robert Bellamy of Cerritos when “all of a sudden he disappeared,” Park Ranger Don Monahan said Sunday.
Bellamy, who suffered only cuts and bruises, landed in the tree about six feet off the ground.
Park rangers plucked Bellamy from the tree and he was transported to San Clemente General Hospital, where a hospital spokesman said he was treated and released.
Monahan said that Bellamy could not remember what had happened after rangers helped him out of the tree and walked him to the beach.
Other campers have accidentally fallen down the cliff, Monahan said. “People start wandering around on the bluff in the dark and you can’t see where the cliffs are,” he said.
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