Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Joy Ride

Five men and one woman miraculously survived a terrifying plunge when their all-terrain vehicle plummeted over a Massachusetts cliff in total darkness -- sending some of them tumbling as far as 700 feet down into a ravine, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

"I'm glad to be alive," said Kurt Wolfard, 29, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was visiting friends and family when they decided to take a ride at about 1:30am local (Eastern) time Sunday.

"The trail was rough, of course, because we were going through the forest," he said. "Once we got to the crest of the hill, I don't think the driver realized how far we were over the cliff -- and we went off."

Rescuers said the five-wheel vehicle fell 50 to 75 feet down a sheer cliff face, then tumbled the rest of the way down a steep slope covered in jagged rocks.

The passengers toppled down the mountain with their belongings, trying to grasp at the cliff to break their fall. "I felt my face and thought it was water or sweat," said Wolfard, who fell just 30 feet. "It was blood -- gushing out of my head."

"When the police told me that it was a 720-foot drop with gravel slopes, jagged rocks and land so steep that trees don't grow, I couldn't believe I even survived," he said.

All members of the group were rescued within four hours, authorities said. Four were hospitalized, three in serious condition. Wolfard and another man were treated and released.

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