It was a terrifying moment as a suburban woman and her 7-year-old son fell to the bottom of the French Canyon at Starved Rock State Park while hiking on a spring break adventure this week. Vi Nguyen reports.
It was a terrifying moment as a suburban woman and her 7-year-old son fell to the bottom of the French Canyon at Starved Rock State Park while hiking on a spring break adventure this week.
Authorities said the Tinley Park woman was trying to grab her son, who had slipped, when both fell at least 30 feet Tuesday while walking on the trail. The family was enjoying a day at the park for spring break when the incident happened.
Pictures shared with NBC Chicago captured the moments crews rescued the pair from the bottom of the canyon.
“Just talking to them a little bit sounds like the son has special needs and just slipped off of the trail and went little off the trail and fell down into the canyon and mom went to grab him and fell along with him,” Utica Fire Protection District Chief Ben Brown said.
Brown along with firefighters from multiple departments responded to the call just before 6 p.m.
“Access was difficult,” he said. “We had to use the rope system, the high-angle rope system, to get to the patients.”
Members of the Division 25 Technical Rescue Team worked quickly and carefully to get the mother and son to safety.
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“They set up three-to-one mechanical advantage, we lowered a rescuer over the edge about 30 feet to the ground and we did a total of four rescuers over the edge,” Brown said.
It took crews about an hour to get to the 37-year-old woman and her son. Both alert and awake, the pair were airlifted to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
“The son was really cool, we kept him entertained with some Minecraft and one of his games that he likes to play,” he said. “The group that was over there with them did a fantastic job keeping them calm.”
Officials said the woman’s husband was also rescued. He slid down to help them before emergency responders arrived and ended up stuck. Firefighters said they were grateful everyone made it out.
“It made me feel good that they were very happy and very thankful driving away father and the two kids going to the hospital to meet their family,” Brown said.
Fire officials are using this opportunity to remind those visiting the park to be careful on the trails.
“You can go out and enjoy the park from the trail and see all the fun things and enjoy it that way,” he said. “That’s our message: stay on the trail, follow the directions of the safety measures out there.”
He said on average authorities receive three to four calls for falls a year at the park.
His firefighters train every year for the rope rescue and run drills over at the park. Their next training is set for May.
