A woman has been critically injured after tumbling off a jet ski into the Delaware River, authorities in Philadelphia reported. The incident occurred on Sunday evening, and a response was mounted by the Philadelphia Marine Unit near Linden and Delaware avenues shortly after 5:30 p.m. As reported by CBS News Philadelphia, the 51-year-old victim had fallen into the river on the New Jersey side but was retrieved on the Pennsylvania side by rescue teams.
Witnesses on the scene watched as emergency services sprang into action to save the woman from the waters. According to NBC Philadelphia, she was pulled from the river around 6:20 p.m. and placed on a gurney before transport to Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital, her current condition remains dire.
While onlookers formed, the efforts of the Philadelphia Marine Unit culminated in the woman's retrieval before the danger of dusk could complicate the situation further. She was then carried to waiting ambulance services on the river's Philadelphia border, in a bid to provide her with critical care in a timely manner. 6ABC reported she had initially swum to a small "Jersey island" following her fall from the Jet Ski before her rescue.
The cause of the accident is still not clear, and investigations as to why the woman lost control of or fell from the jet ski are ongoing. In a statement obtained by CBS News Philadelphia, police have not provided any further details about what may have led to the incident. The identity of the woman has not been released to the public, as officials likely continue notifying next of kin and dissecting the sequence of events that led to this near-tragedy.
