N.J. man dies in fall from Acadia cliff Park lifeguards lauded for efforts in retrieving victim from ocean

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – A New Jersey man was killed in a fall near Sand Beach Saturday afternoon despite heroic efforts by two Acadia National Park lifeguards to bring him to safety, a park ranger said Sunday.

Michael D. Lacey, 28, of Marlton, N.J., was unconscious when the lifeguards reached him in the water about 200 yards from Sand Beach on Saturday afternoon. He never regained consciousness and was declared dead at Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor at 2:13 p.m., nursing supervisor Eileen Wignall said Sunday.

Lacey’s death is the first fatality at Acadia this year, according to Ranger Richard Rechholtz, who supervised the rescue.

Rechholtz said the lifeguards on duty when the emergency call was received at 1 p.m. rushed toward the granite cliffs, where a couple had last seen Lacey. One lifeguard ran up Ocean Path, while the other hit the water with a rescue board in tow.

Lacey was swept into the ocean by a wave and floated unconscious in the water for 10 to 15 minutes before help arrived, Rechholtz said.

He apparently fell through a crack in the rocky cliffs that was about 8 feet wide at the top and broader at the bottom, Rechholtz said.

Lacey suffered severe head injuries, Rechholtz said, either during the fall or when he landed on the rocks 60 feet below the cliffs.

Rechholtz said Lacey died from the head injuries or a combination of the head trauma and the drowning. He said Lacey struck the rock on both sides as he fell through the crevasse.

An autopsy will not be performed on Lacey, Rechholtz said.

Lacey’s wife was on the beach and called rangers when she realized that a person apparently had been hurt in the area where her husband had been walking.

Two rangers took care of the woman, including arranging for some of her friends to meet her at a hospital and getting her back to her hotel. Rechholtz said the woman planned to fly home Sunday morning.

Rechholtz said Lacey had been talking to a couple as he stood on the rocky cliffs just moments before he fell. Ironically, they had agreed that the cliffs were treacherous, the ranger said. The couple did not see Lacey fall, “but knew he wasn’t there anymore,” Rechholtz said.

The unidentified couple used a cell phone to call for help.

The Acadia park rescue team, along with the Mount Desert Island Search and Rescue Team, had just finished a morning training session at Great Head on the opposite side of Sand Beach, Rechholtz said. The teams were walking down the trail to get into their vehicles when they received the call.

Ten minutes later, they converged on the beach and cliffs, but Rechholtz decided when he reached the scene that the quickest, easiest way to get Lacey to safety was for the lifeguards to take him to the beach on a rescue board.

Fighting strong currents and frigid water, the lifeguards, John Ralph, 34, and Dana Barrows, 24, held on to the board and used their legs to power them back to the beach. Rechholtz said the lifeguards “did a spectacular job” in getting the victim to the beach so quickly.

Lacey was a big man, at 6-foot-3, Rechholtz said, making the lifeguards’ efforts even more impressive.

“What they did was extraordinary, just to get him on the board, and then to get him to the beach in eight or nine minutes,” Rechholtz said.

Ralph is an experienced lifeguard who has worked at other national parks, Rechholtz said. Barrows just graduated from college. This was their second summer at Sand Beach, Rechholtz said.

Emergency personnel performed CPR on Lacey once the lifeguards got him to the beach. They also tried to resuscitate him by shocking his heart.

Bar Harbor rescue personnel and the U.S. Coast Guard also responded to the call.

Park rangers closed the Sand Beach parking lot once the rescue efforts began and kept people away from the end of the beach while aid was being administered. Lacey was taken on a full-body back board up the beach steps and on to MDI Hospital by the Bar Harbor Fire Department.

In all, about 20 men and women were involved in the rescue effort, Rechholtz said.

Lifeguards were scheduled Sunday to practice the very procedure they used Saturday to bring Lacey to the beach, Rechholtz said. They practiced the maneuver last summer, he said.

He said the rescue personnel would meet for a “stress debriefing” on Wednesday to talk about what happened and its effect on them.

The lifeguards, given a choice, returned to their duties after the scene was cleared, Rechholtz said.