A man was injured Friday afternoon at Rainbow Falls in Hilo after diving headfirst off the 80-foot-high waterfall into the Wailuku River.
Two men were in the pond area below the falls when rescuers arrived, with the injured man lying on his back on the rocky riverbank.
“From what I’ve learned so far, one person jumped off the waterfall and the other one went in to help,” Sgt. Norbert Serrao of the Hawaii Police Department said at the scene.
Authorities were called at 2:49 p.m. and police and fire responded quickly, with a county helicopter and rescue diver bringing the injured man to the parking lot, where a waiting ambulance transported him to Hilo Medical Center for treatment.
“Right now, he’s in stable condition, but we’re still assessing him as far as the extent of his injuries,” Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe Farias said after paramedics loaded the man into the ambulance. “He was able to talk to the rescue personnel when they got to him. They were able to ask him questions, and he was answering questions appropriately at the time.”
The injured man was naked when he was rescued, but it’s unclear whether he dived in the nude or lost his shorts in the strong current of the Wailuku.
Neither Serrao nor Farias was able to identify the man, who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s, nor was there information about whether he was an island resident or a visitor.
It is illegal to jump off the falls, which is in the lower section of Wailuku River State Park.
“There are signs posted by the (Division of State Parks) to stay away from the area, stay away from hazardous edges,” Farias said. “Jumping off of the waterfall is obviously not encouraged, not permitted. But people still do that, and we still respond and help them as best as we can.
“We’re just glad we were able to get him and bring him back up.”
It’s not the first time someone was injured in a jump off the popular visitor attraction.
On Jan. 12, 2016, two women in their 20s from Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America cruise ship jumped off the falls, with one woman suffering a back injury and unable to walk afterward. Her companion was uninjured.
And on June 24, 2013, Samson Perez, also known as Samson Moses Kahumoku, of Pahoa was seriously injured after a leap from the falls.
Perez, then 37, the son of slack-key guitarist Moses Kahumoku, underwent surgery at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu and was said by a source to be paralyzed.
Serrao said authorities get calls about jumpers “every couple of months or so.”
“Unfortunately, you could put up all the signs in the world,” he said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
