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SANDY — A 13-year-old girl was seriously injured Saturday after falling near the waterfall on the Rocky Mouth Trail in Sandy.
Emergency crews responded shortly before 11 a.m. and learned that the girl had lost her footing on a steep, rocky hill while hiking with her brother and some friends.
"It appears that she fell forward and struck her head on a rock," said Chris Dawson, a battalion chief with the Sandy Fire Department.
He said crews were able to reach her within 15 minutes of being called, but due to the dangerous nature of the area, they had to set up a rope system to carry the girl to an ambulance, which drove her to a medical helicopter. It took just over an hour to get her to a hospital after the rescue began.
The girl was undergoing treatment Saturday for a head injury and possibly a broken arm at Primary Children's Medical Center, and was in "serious to even critical condition," Dawson said.
"She was still up on the mountainside when our crews arrived, so we had to set up somewhat of a technical rescue to get her packaged and brought off the mountain," he said. "It's actually a fairly dangerous area. It's very steep, a lot of loose rock. We respond up here several times a year for similar circumstances."
Dawson said rescue efforts in that area happen frequently because people are often unprepared for the difficulty of the hike. He encouraged hikers to dress appropriately and bring emergency supplies, such as water, a first aid kit and a cell phone.
"The real big concern we have up there is even though it's a really short hike — it comes right out of a neighborhood and takes only 10 to 15 minutes to get to the waterfall — I think people are lulled into a sense of security up there," he said. "The most common thing that we see up there is people go unprepared. We've even seen people go up on that very dangerous scree field in flip-flops."
Contributing: Karilyn Frazier
