A 16-year-old girl was lucky to be alive after getting pushed off a three-story bridge at a park in Washington state, relatives said.
In a jarring 9-second clip, Jordan Holgerson is seen hesitating atop a bridge in Moulton Falls Regional Park in Yacolt, north of Portland, where she visited Tuesday with a group of at least three other people seemingly eager for her to take the plunge, the Longview Daily News reported.
The bikini-clad Holgerson apparently was having second thoughts and mumbled, “No, I won’t go,” according to the footage.
That’s when an unidentified woman suddenly shoves the teen forward, forcing her to plummet into the water from more than three stories in the air, according to the park’s website, which warns visitors not to jump off the bridge.
Holgerson was being treated at a local hospital for five cracked ribs, a bruised esophagus and injuries to her trachea, as well as air trapped in the lining of her lungs, her mother said.
“She is lucky she is not paralyzed or dead,” Holgerson’s mother, Genelle, told the newspaper. “We’re lucky she is going to recover and not have permanent injuries.”
The woman who shoved Holgerson apparently was tired of waiting for the teen to leap on her own, Holgerson said.
“I’m very upset with her,” she told the newspaper. “She is an adult, and I’m sure she should have known better. She could have killed my daughter.”
The incident is being investigated by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Longview Daily News. Messages seeking additional comment early Thursday were not immediately returned.
Holgerson told KATU that the woman who shoved her daughter should “realize what she did wrong” and turn herself into authorities.
A 47-year-old man was injured in July 2017 after jumping off the same bridge, landing in the East Fork of the Lewis River, The Columbian reported. The unidentified man suffered a bad landing in the deep channel surrounded by rocky terrain and had to be rescued by emergency crews.
Clark County Fire Chief Ben Peeler told the newspaper last summer that it’s illegal to jump from the bridge.
“You’ve got to land in there just right or you can get hurt,” Peeler said. “Every summer we have a couple of people out there who get hurt, and people do drown.”
Swimming is allowed at the 387-acre park, but visitors do so at their own risk, according to its website.
“The river can have swift currents and water depths can vary,” the website reads. “Park users swim at their own risk. Parents are urged to be vigilant watching children near the water. Please, no diving off of the bridge.”