STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. - A teenage boy and an 18-year-old man were hospitalized with serious injuries after they fell several hundred feet from a cliff at Stone Mountain Park, police said Tuesday.
The two were in a restricted area on the back side of the park when they fell. WGCL-TV reported the teens were walking along an area known as the Lincoln Cut, which is typically closed to the public.
"It's restricted because it's dangerous and if you don't know what you're doing, if you're not trained in this particular area of the mountain, then you need to stay away from it," park spokesman John Bankhead told WSB-TV.
A man, his 12-year-old son and the two teens were hiking and wandered into the restricted area, apparently bypassing fences and signs warning visitors to stay out, Bankhead said.
"They started up the mountain, didn't notice any signs about the restricted area and came off the back side of the mountain, where they're not supposed to be," Bankhead told WSB-TV. "One of the kids saw this pipe and decided to go down it for some reason, started to slide but couldn't stop. The second kid, the older kid, went after him, and that's when the problems happened with those two," Bankhead said.
The more seriously injured teen was airlifted to the Atlanta Medical Center and the second teen was taken to the Gwinnett Medical Center.
Ange Landress told WSB-TV that her stepson, Jason, was taken to the Atlanta Medical Center with two broken jaws and bruises on his brain and lungs.
The extent of the other teen's injuries wasn't immediately clear.
Both teens were alert and conscious when they were being taken from the park, Bankhead said.