Teen involved in fall from bluff out of hospital
Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006
MAYSVILLE - Samuel Boner, 15, who was rescued from the face of a bluff on Tuesday, was back at work Thursday driving a tractor for his father on a chicken farm, but he thinks he will use a bit more caution when he goes out in the hills and bluffs behind his house.
Boner and his friend, Mike Rice, 18, were doing some climbing on the bluff Tuesday. Boner fell into a small cedar or pine tree growing out of the bluff. When Rice tried to make his way down to his friend, Rice also fell into the tree but continued on, falling another 80 feet to a sloped bank leading down to Spavinaw Creek.
"We were doing some stunts," Boner said. "We do a lot of climbing on the rocks."
The pair had a long rope and were attempting to get down to a point where they could use the rope to rappel another 80 feet to the ground. Rice had climbed part way down to that point and urged Boner on, telling him to "come on down," Boner said.
Boner started down, but the grade was too steep and there was no foothold. "I couldn't hold on any longer and fell backward about 5 feet into the tree," he said.
Boner said the tree caught him under one leg and under his arm, and he managed to hang on and get to a little ledge in the rock face only a few inches wide and a foot or 2 long. When Rice attempted to get down to him, he also fell onto the little tree and tried to grab the tree but fell another 80 feet to the rocky ground below.
The bluff is undercut from the point where the small tree juts out of the rock, Boner said, making it a straight drop from the tree to the ground.
Rice landed on his side, rolled and was lying there on his back, Boner said. "I thought he was dead, but he opened his eyes and looked up at me."
When Rice got up, he told Boner he was going to get help. Boner was considering trying to come down with the rope, but Rice told him to stay there.
Rice told Boner that his arm was broken and said," My knee," when he tried to walk. According to Boner, Rice broke both bones in his wrist and fractured bones in his knees. Boner said Rice's pants were torn all the way up the side of one leg and he was bloody.
Rice made it all the way out to Arkansas Highway 43, about three quarters of a mile, and flagged down a car, Boner said.
Boner said he had to wait on the rock ledge for about four hours while Rice went for help. Boner was finally rescued by Deputy Doug Gay of the Benton County Sheriff's Office.
"He just took me down real slow," Boner said of his descent with Gay from the rock ledge.
Gay used rappelling gear that he carries in his vehicle and a pick-off strap to go down and secure Boner and rappel another 80 feet straight down to the 45-degree slope, which continues down to Spavinaw Creek.
Rice was airlifted to Northwest Medical Center of Washington County in Springdale after his fall Tuesday. He is now out of the hospital, Boner said, and Rice will stay with his mother in Kansas until he recovers from his injuries.
"I'm not going to do any more rock climbing unless I've got the real gear and have gone to college to learn to do it," Boner said. He said he had wanted to go to college and learn to rock-climb but isn't quite so sure he wants to do it anymore.
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