YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A man who was at first believed to be suicidal was rescued from the side of the Palisades this afternoon after he slipped and tumbled nearly 100 feet below the Alpine lookout.
Using cellphone GPS, Palisades Interstate Parkway police found the man’s car at the lookout near Exit 2 of the parkway after getting a call from a suicide prevention hotline, Acting PIP Police Chief Michael J. Coppola said.
Soon after, another call came from the hotline that the man “was alive but injured below the cliffs,” he said.
Several PIP officers, as well as a Bergen County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit, covered a half-mile of the rugged hillside before finding him.
A marine unit in the Hudson River took him to a waiting ambulance at the Alpine boat basin, Coppola said. He was then taken to ENglewood Hospital and Medical Center, the acting chief said.
Police determined that the man walking on Old Route 9W north of the State Line Lookout, then “turned and began walking east when he intentionally slid off the side of the cliff,” Coppola said.
He sustained non-disclosed injuries that the acting chief said weren’t life threatening.
One officer was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion.