2 survive plunge over cliff, dry waterfall in van

Rescue requires fire crews to rappel down, cut path through brush

A van with two occupants had its brakes fail Thursday while negotiating down the steep winding road from Polipoli Spring State Recreational Area and rolled off the road, down a 60-foot cliff and down a 25-foot dry waterfall before coming to rest on its wheels in a dry riverbed.

The woman from Kapalua and the man from New Jersey, both 27, survived the fall Thursday night with minor injuries. They even declined transport to the hospital and were picked up by a friend, Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said Friday.

"It was miraculous that they escaped serious injury," a fire official involved in the rescue told Taomoto.

Finding and rescuing them from the riverbed about 2.7 miles above Ali'i Kula Lavender farm took about five hours because fog prevented the Fire Department from using the Air One helicopter; firefighters had to rappel down the 60-foot cliff in the dark to locate the two and later had to chop a trail through thick brush to rescue them, Taomoto said.

"Air One was not used due to cloud cover. It was socked in," he said. "The reason why it took so long was because rappelling over vertical inclines is dangerous in itself and doing it at night is even more dangerous. Everything needs to slow down, be done methodically, checked and double-checked."

Firefighters got the call at about 6 p.m. Thursday; the victims used their cellphone to call for help, he said. Kula crews were on the scene at 6:43 p.m. and could not immediately locate the vehicle. The victims could not help because they could not tell where they were and could not see the road.

Rescue crews sounded their sirens to see if the victims could hear them, which they could in certain locations. That information coupled with GPS data from their cellphones led rescuers to an area of flattened grass that trailed off over a cliff about 50 feet from Waipoli Road, he said. Crews looked over the cliff and saw a debris field below at the initial landing point.

Voice contact was made at that point; the two victims reported that they were OK, Taomoto said. That was about 7 p.m.

A firefighter rappelled down the 60-foot face and did not see the vehicle, a Toyota Sienna. He walked over and looked down the second cliff and saw the van. The firefighter determined that the two victims could not be brought up that way, Taomoto said.

An alternate path to the van was created by machete through the thick brush by firefighters, he said.

When rescuers finally reached them, the victims were "pretty calm," Taomoto was told. Only the front bumper on the van was smashed; the roof and sides of the van weren't damaged, he said.

The victims told firefighters that they had been driving down Waipoli Road after visiting Polipoli park when they lost their brakes, Taomoto said. They tried to pull over on the side of the road but lost control and ended up going over a 60-foot cliff, landing in a dry riverbed, traveling another 50 feet then falling over a 25-foot dry waterfall.

They were able to get out of the vehicle and call for help. Rescuers found them sitting on a rock next to the vehicle, he said.

Although the woman had some dry blood on her and the man felt a little sore, "they were troupers" and traversed the newly cut trail to safety. That involved going up a cliff, too, Taomoto said.

The woman driver came up at 10:37 p.m. and the man at 10:55 p.m. The man and woman are friends; she is originally from New Jersey, Taomoto said.

When asked about the removal of the van, Taomoto said that the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over the Kula Forest Reserve, was notified.

Kula and Kahului hazmat crews and a battalion chief from Kahului responded to the rescue, he said.

* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.