A woman in her 20s was seriously injured Saturday morning when she fell about 60 feet from the Kaau Crater Falls trail in Palolo, the city Emergency Medical Services Division said.
The woman reportedly slipped and fell from the trail to the water at 9:06 a.m., EMS said.
Fire rescue personnel airlifted the woman off the trail about an hour after she fell, a spokesman for the Honoulu Fire Department said.
Capt. Tyler Chan said the woman appeared to be going in and out of consciousness while rescue personnel were with her.
Paramedics treated her and transported her to the trauma center in serious-to-stable condition, EMS said.
On Oct. 5, a 23-year-old woman died on the same trail after falling about 30 to 35 feet into a waterfall pool from a ledge, EMS personnel said at the time.
The Medical Examiner’s Office identified her as Kaitlan Prugger, a University of Hawaii graduate student. She died of head injuries due to a fall, according to the autopsy report, and the death was classified as accidental.
Fire Capt. Carlton Yamada said Prugger was with two other hikers above the first waterfall on the trail when she fell about 10 a.m.
"Apparently she was trying to get a picture looking down and basically lost her footing and ended up injuring herself and landing in the pool," Yamada said by phone. "When her friends went down to her side, they found her unconscious and started bystander CPR with the assistance of two other hikers on the trail."
The department sent two crews to the scene, one by helicopter and one on foot. The helicopter crew immobilized Prugger’s spine, loaded her onto a stretcher and airlifted her to Palolo District Park about noon, Yamada said.
The second fire crew continued to the waterfall and escorted the woman’s companions, a man and woman also in their 20s, off the trail, which Yamada said was muddy and slippery.
CORRECTION: A woman was seriously injured in a fall from the Kaau Crater Falls trail Saturday morning. A previous version of this story stated that she fell Sunday. This has been corrected online.
