ROCKPORT - A Coaldale man was killed after what appears to have been a tragic accident in the Lehigh Gorge State Park on Sunday.
State police at Hazleton said Lee Kenneth Mantz, 44, of Coadale, was riding a bicycle with his wife along the trail in Lehigh Township when the couple stopped to take pictures of the scenery.
As Mantz stepped onto a rock cliff to grab photographs, he lost his footing and slipped, falling off the cliff and into the river, police said. It appears, police said, that Mantz hit his head on the cliff's rocks prior to falling into the river and that could have caused his death. Police said they found evidence of head trauma on Mantz, though an autopsy to determine his official cause of death will be performed Tuesday.
He was found unresponsive in the river about 3/10 of a mile from where he fell, police said.
Weatherly police, an off-duty Lehighton police officer and two Department of Conservation and Natural Rescources workers pulled him from the water to the river bank. Then firefighters hoisted him about 10 to 15 feet over the bank, Weatherly Citizens Assistant Chief Eric Brill said.
He was pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m. by Carbon County Coroner Bruce Nalesnik.
Brill said emergency responders were dispatched to rescue Mantz at 10:57 a.m. but did not leave the scene until about 1:30 p.m.
The accident occurred near what locals call the Penn Haven Junction, which is more than four miles south of the Lehigh Gorge entrance in Rockport, outside of Weatherly. Police said the accident scene was between Rockport and Jim Thorpe.
While troopers drove to the scene by vehicle using the park's trail, firefighters from Weatherly rode along an active railroad track that runs behind the borough building, Brill said, providing rescuers with a quicker response time.
Kidder Township Fire and water rescue teams from Penn Forest Fire Company were dispatched to the accident. Crews from Lehighton Fire Company were dispatched to the accident but cancelled once Weatherly found the patient was rescued. Lehigh and Lausanne Fire Company was also dispatched but no firefighters from the department responded. Weatherly Ambulance also responded.