Dramatic video shows the moment a 59-year-old man is pulled from rushing waters by rescuers after he was spotted clinging to a log less than 100 yards from the brink of Niagara Falls
- Man, 59, was nearly swept over Niagara Falls just moments before being rescued
- Witnesses on shore called 911 with reports of a man clinging to a log on Thursday
- In the video, first responders are seen holding the man above water as they make sure he’s secure before they are all pulled to safety
- Officials said he appeared to be suffering from hypothermia and couldn’t speak
- Once he was rescued he was taken to hospital where he is in intensive care unit
- Cops are trying to determine how or when the man entered Niagara River rapids
Dramatic video shows the moment a 59-year-old man was pulled from rushing, frigid waters by rescuers after he was spotted less than 100 yards from the brink of Niagara Falls.
No one could say how or when the unidentified man entered the Niagara River rapids.
Witnesses on shore called 911 with reports of a man clinging to a log shortly before noon.
In the video, one first responder is seen holding the man’s head above water as he waits for another rescuer to assist him.
In the video, one first responder (in yellow) is seen holding the man’s head above water as he waits for another rescuer (in red) to assist him
The second rescuer is then seen holding the man above water as all three are pulled to safety
The second rescuer is then seen holding the man above water as all three are pulled to safety.
With tourists cheering on shore, the victim was pulled out at 2pm and taken to a hospital.
New York State Park Police Major Clyde Doty said the man ‘had a life jacket on’.
‘He had jeans on and thermals on under that,’ added Doty, who was among tethered rescuers who waded into the 51-degree water on a day the area saw its first snowfall of the season.
Niagara Falls Fire Chief Joe Pedulla said the first rescuers to reach the man fitted him with a flotation collar, but the disoriented man seemed to fight it, slipped out and was carried closer to the falls, where Doty lunged and grabbed him.
‘If he wasn’t there, I don’t know what would have happened,’ Pedulla said.
Doty said he was making his way into the river to position himself for such a scenario when he heard the crowd of onlookers gasp.
‘Once I heard that, we picked it up and moved much quicker, and then a second gasp,’ he told reporters.
‘There was a difference in that noise. I looked up river and saw him coming.’
After intercepting him, Doty, with one foot in a crevice and the other behind a rock, braced himself and the man against the current for more than an hour until they could be brought to shore.
With tourists cheering on shore, the victim was pulled out at 2pm and taken to a hospital
The man appeared to be suffering from hypothermia and was unable to move or speak coherently, he said. The man’s name has not been released, but police said he is from Niagara Falls (the falls are pictured)
The man appeared to be suffering from hypothermia and was unable to move or speak coherently, he said.
‘I just kept telling him, ‘We’ve got help coming. I gotcha. We’re not going anywhere,’ Doty, a 28-year veteran of the police force, said.
The man’s name has not been released, but police said he is from Niagara Falls.
Authorities said the victim is still in the intensive care unit at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.
Pedulla said rescuers were challenged by the depth and strength of the rapids near the brink.
The New York Power Authority, which diverts water for the production of hydroelectricity, lowered the water levels to give rescuers better access, he said.