Man 'lucky to survive' bridge fall

Police say a man is lucky to be alive after he broke his back when he fell 10m off a bridge into a river.

Emergency services took 45 minutes to get Oliver McDonald, 24, out of the river at Stratford after a witness raised the alarm early last Saturday morning, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

He was taken to Taranaki Base Hospital but was later transferred to Wellington Hospital.

"He was very lucky to survive the fall at all," Senior Sergeant Shaun Keenan said.

He said Mr McDonald had been walking along the rail bridge rather than the designated foot bridge.

"He actually landed on the river bed, so he was lucky in that he didn't land in the water because it can be quite deep.

"He landed on a lot of smaller rocks instead of larger ones and injured his back and not his head.

"If he had gone either way left or right it would have been a fatal fall."

- NZPA