Photo: Henderson County Rescue Squad
A 28-year-old hiker fell from a North Carolina waterfall on Saturday as his friend helplessly watched the tragedy unfold.
Aaron Post, of Charleston, South Carolina, died of his injuries after he slipped and fell while hiking Big Bradley Falls in Saluda, North Carolina, a spokeswoman for the Henderson County Rescue Squad confirms to PEOPLE.
Friend George Hugg, who was hiking with Post, told ABC affiliateWLOSthat the fatal slip happened in the blink of an eye.
“I turned around and I just watched him slide down the waterfall,” Hugg said.
RELATED VIDEO: Woman Falls Off 50-Foot Hawaiian Waterfall
“It’s pretty dangerous in there if you get off the trails and get close to the edge and take pictures like a lot of people do,” he says. “We’re in Bradley at least once a year for some type of incident.”
Henderson County Rescue Squad was one of the many agencies to assist, officials wrote in aFacebookpost.
“Although the outcome is not what anyone wants; everyone worked together as a team to make sure this patient had the best care and extraction they could,” the post read. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends during this difficult time.
The incident comes two years after a47-year-old man hiking Big Bradley with his daughtersslipped and fell about 100 feet to his death,WLOSreported.
Bradley Falls’entryon the Visit North Carolina website warns that hikers should explore “at your own risk,” and that the trail is “especially dangerous at the top of the falls.”
Arledge tells PEOPLE that there are no barriers preventing hikers from going near the waterfall, but that there are signs warning of its dangers.
He adds that authorities have spoken with park officials about possibly putting up barriers, but that there are no plans to do so as of right now.
source: people.com
