3 days ago
Man seriously injured after falling 40 feet into gorge while reportedly running from authorities
Authorities rescued a man who fell off 40 feet off a cliff while reportedly running from law enforcement in Clark County Sunday morning.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, the incident happened at the Mad River Gorge and Nature Preserve.
Brennen Kumbusky found the victim around 7:30 a.m.
He lives close to the nature preserve and had to walk more than a mile to find where the screams for help were coming from.
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'I'm like, oh brother, I need to get you some medical help, he's like 'Oh, no don't call 911,' I'm like no, I'm calling 911 right now,' Kumbusky said.
Kumbusky added that the man had injuries all over his body, including a compound fracture on one leg.
However, he didn't understand why the victim was reluctant to help.
'This is where, in his head, if he thought they were out to get him?' Kumbusky said.
He said the man had fallen about 40 feet from the rock cliffs into the gorge.
News Center 7 confirmed that Clark County Sheriff's Office deputies tried to stop a man for several traffic violations around 2 a.m. on Sunday.
The driver took off, and a deputy spotted the empty car near the Mad River Gorge & Nature Preserve.
An Ohio State Highway Patrol helicopter and Springfield police responded to the area to help out, according to Clark County Sheriff's Office incident report.
Deputies and officers found an abandoned boat that had been set on fire and aviation crews saw a single individual running on foot from the area.
The search was called off around 6 a.m. due to the large amount of area to cover and the limited time aviation crews could help out, according to the report.
About an hour and a half later, deputies learned that Kumbusky had found a man at the bottom of a cliff in the area of West National Road and U.S. 68.
The sheriff's office is working to determine if the injured man they were called to help rescue is the man who ran from them.
'It's part of the process to link or see if any of these things are linked together, see if there's any separation between them, but we're still currently investigating,' Clark County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Kristopher Schultz said.
Schultz and Kumbusky both said this man is lucky to be alive.
'There was a huge rock that was next to him, so if he would have been five feet over it would have been, it would have been bad,' Kumbusky said.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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