Woman Survives 150-Foot Plunge From P.V. Cliff
A Hawthorne woman winding up a low-key birthday celebration early Saturday with a visit to a Palos Verdes Peninsula cliff accidentally stepped off the edge, falling 150 feet before becoming entangled in brush, police said.
Irene Annette Wilson, 40, underwent surgery Saturday at Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, a hospital official said. The official declined to detail the woman’s injuries but said she was in serious condition.
According to police, Wilson and a male friend were sitting at the edge of a cliff in the 1700 block of Paseo Del Mar in Palos Verdes Estates when Wilson stood up, stepped backward, and plunged 150 feet. Earlier, the pair had spent a quiet evening dining at a Torrance restaurant to celebrate Wilson’s 40th birthday, police said.
Brush growing at the side of the cliff, 50 feet from the bottom, broke Wilson’s fall, said Ed Jaakola, a lieutenant with the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department. “That brush probably saved her life,” Jaakola said.
Paramedics reached Wilson at about 4 a.m., he said, lowering her to the bottom of the cliff and sending her to the hospital aboard a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter.
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