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Woman injured by falling boulder in Torrey Pines

Posted at 7:47 PM, Jun 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-19 02:27:34-04

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- A woman was hospitalized Monday evening after a boulder fell from a cliff onto her leg in Torrey Pines. 

The incident happened on the 12000 block of North Torrey Pines Road around 6 p.m.

The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department says the woman was jogging along the beach when a boulder fell onto her leg. 

Geologist Patt Abbott says these cliffs near Flat Rock are notorious for rock slides, "we’ve had fatalities every few years in this setting."

SKY 10 was overhead as the woman was loaded onto a stretcher and into the back of a truck. Then at the parking lot, our Breaking News Tracker was there as she was  transferred to an ambulance and taken to Scripps Memorial La Jolla.

The 28-year-old woman was in serious condition. No one else was injured by the falling boulder.

This is a sobering warning for beach goers as summer approaches, according to Abbott, "before you go put your blanket next to the cliffs or something, you should look up there and see if you see fractures and see if any rock blocks are pulling away from the others, don’t be there... With the waves undercutting it at the base, gravity pulling it at the top, blocks fall off."

Lifeguard Supervisor Jacob Pflepsen III said they've done what they can to warn people, "we’ve tried to post signs along the way to warn beachgoers of the danger of the active bluffs in fact there’s a sign right there behind us."

"There’s no way to protect other people other than armed guards and not letting them go on the beach," Abbott said.

Pflepsen III said the woman should make a full recovery.