Waterville firefighters and police work near where a girl landed on a rocky outcropping in the Kennebec River and was rescued Monday by firefighters near the amphitheater at Head of Falls Park in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE — A girl was recovering from “serious but non-life-threatening injuries” Tuesday, a day after jumping from a railing next to a footpath overlooking the Kennebec River, police said.
In a statement, the Waterville Police Department confirmed that a juvenile female had been taken to the hospital by LifeFlight of Maine helicopter following the incident.
The incident occurred around 3:50 p.m. Monday at the north end of the RiverWalk at Head of Falls near downtown Waterville when police received a report that a juvenile female was experiencing “an unknown mental health crisis,” according to a statement from Waterville Police Maj. Jason Longley.
When police arrived on scene, the girl leapt toward the river, Longley said.
“A single officer responded to the area of Head of Falls for a welfare check,” Longley said in a statement. “When the officer arrived on scene, he observed the juvenile jump over the railing that she was sitting on, falling approximately 25 feet onto the rocks below.”
The girl fell onto a rock outcropping beside the river and sustained “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” according to police. She was eventually carried out of the embankment in a basket lifted by a Waterville Fire Department ladder truck extended over the edge of the RiverWalk’s concrete platform.
A LifeFlight helicopter was called to the scene and flew the girl to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor shortly before 5 p.m.
The Waterville Police and Fire departments responded as well as Maine State Police.
“(Officers) immediately responded to the area to not only render aid but extract the juvenile from the rocks below the RiverWalk,” Longley said. “Due to the quick work of our first responders, the patient was safely rescued from the rocky shore and provided immediate lifesaving care.”
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