ATV rider survives 100-foot fall down Windrock Mountain

A Georgia man celebrating the fifth anniversary of a friend’s recovery from a wreck on Windrock Mountain survived, but was injured, when he plunged 100 to 150 feet down a hillside on an all-terrain vehicle Friday night, a rescuer said Saturday.

“He was fortunate,” said Terry Allen, chief of the Anderson County Rescue Squad in Clinton. “He went off a very high embankment.”

Allen did not identify the man, who is in his mid-50s, because he wasn’t sure if all family members had been notified.

The man had been riding on an unmarked, closed trail in the Windrock Campground Area. He went off an embankment that is about 60 to 70 feet high before falling 100 to 150 feet down the mountain, Allen said.

Trees broke his fall.

The man, who was not wearing a helmet, had a cell phone and was able to call his friend and 911 at about 10 p.m., although he couldn’t say exactly where he was, Allen said.

Searchers found him within a few hours.

A mountain rescue unit had to climb down the hillside with ropes to reach the man. They used ropes, pulleys, and a basket to haul him back up the hill.

Rescuers had him out of the woods by about 1 a.m., and they loaded him on an Anderson County Emergency Medical Services ambulance, which took him to Kellytown Baptist Church in Oliver Springs.

A Lifestar helicopter flew the injured man to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Allen said.

He said the man had injuries to his lower body and possibly to his chest and abdomen.