The 5-year-old boy who survived a 90-foot fall into the Niagara Gorge at Niagara Falls State Park on Monday after his mother jumped with him from above is in critical condition following surgery at Oishei Children's Hospital, state Park Police said Tuesday.
Park Police in a statement said they are not releasing the names of the boy and his mother, who was killed in the fall, because of the boy's age and the ongoing investigation.
They did reveal that the family involved is not from the immediate Buffalo Niagara area.
State Park Police previously said the incident began when the woman, her son and her husband went to the park Monday afternoon. Police have said they don't yet know what prompted the woman to jump into the gorge with her son from the park's upper level.
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They fell about 90 feet, not quite to the bottom of the gorge, and landed near the entrance to the Cave of the Winds.
Niagara Falls firefighters and Park Police officers walked across more than 300 feet of icy terrain on the bottom of the gorge to reach and begin treating the victims, police said.
Shortly after 2 p.m., rescuers placed the boy on a stretcher and brought him up the Cave of the Winds elevator to a waiting Mercy Flight helicopter, which took him to Oishei.
The State Police aviation unit recovered the woman's body. Niagara County Crisis Services is assisting the family, Park Police said.
Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said in an interview that he doesn't know all the facts of what happened but it's the latest incident highlighting, for better and for worse, how much the falls remain a draw.
"The Falls is one of those places that attracts artists and poets and people who just love nature, and they enjoy it," Restaino said. "But it also happens to be a spot, unfortunately, where people who are either curious, or are chasing other things, often find themselves, too."
Given how often people travel to Niagara Falls to attempt to take their own lives, state parks crews have installed emergency crisis hotline phones in and around Goat Island. Whenever there is an event like this one, the mayor said, Park Police and state parks officials assess what happened and what new measures should be put in place.
Restaino said he is not sure how much more can be done to prevent suicide attempts at Niagara Falls State Park without infringing on public access to the natural wonder.
"You're not gonna put a fence up, and barbed wire, like a concentration camp," Restaino said. "So there's those beautiful views, and that closeness, and yet there's this risk."
Anyone contemplating self-harm can call the 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255.
Stephen T. Watson
News Staff Reporter
I report on development, government, crime and schools in the northern Erie County suburbs. I grew up in the Town of Tonawanda and worked at the Post-Standard in Syracuse before joining The News in 2001. Email: swatson@buffnews.com
