Rappel teams grab man, rescuer, after Palisades fall

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Rappel teams this afternoon hoisted to safety a Fairview man who was severely injured after falling nearly six stories along the Palisades in Alpine and a man who climbed up the cliffs to try and rescue him.

Photo Credit: *Courtesy Palisades Interstate Parkway Police*

Jerry DeMarco

07/01/2013 1:12 a.m.

Julio Beltran, 49, fell 60 or so feet from the Greenbrook Falls overpass just south of the Alpine boat basin around 4:30, Palisades Interstate Parkway Acting Chief Michael J. Coppola said this evening.

Closter EMS and Rescue, the East Bergen Rappel Team, and Englewood paramedics responded after PIP officers located both men, Coppola said.

Rescue personnel reached Beltran quickly. He was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center in the AirMed One medevac, which had landed just off Route 9W.

Beltran sustained “multiple traumatic injuries,” Coppola said.

The man who tried to rescue him, 36-year-old Juan Martinez of Cliffside Park, was uninjured, he said.

Fort Lee Fire Battalion Chief Chris Ipek sustained minor injuries when he fell several feet and was caught by his line, Coppola said.

The acting chief said officers determined that Beltran “walked around the bridge wall when he then slipped and fell.”

PHOTO: Courtesy Palisades Interstate Parkway Police

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