This tragic accident took place in Beirut the second week of June 2009. I know because I was standing there the day after this accident happened. I was told that two teenage boys were showing off their diving/jumping skills or lack thereof while passersby were walking as usual in the afternoon on the seaside promenade of Beirut called 'Manara' across the boulevard from the American University of Beirut (AUB).
I was told that the teenager and his buddy had jumped a few times that day. His friend made a safe dive but this teenager slipped as he was about to jump. One has to sprint away from the railing in order to land away from the stone ledge on the bottom where fishermen usually fish. I was told the day after this accident took place that a phone video of the tragic accident surfaced in Beirut and was being forwarded from one cell phone to another. The teenager filmed in this clip slipped and ended up hitting his head on the stone ledge below from a height of over 40 feet.
It was a very sad and tragic accident. I was told that the teenager s face was split in half validated by the second part of the video clip. So for LiveLeakers dismissing the validity of these two clips, if you do not speak, understand Arabic or the Lebanese dialect spoken by the ER staff, you are wrong, this two-part clip is not of two different people, one tanned and one pale white as some have commented but of the same teenager is.
As I mentioned, the first clip was shot in the afternoon (where more than likely using a Nokia phone which takes darker videos in the afternoon) at the 'Manara' boulevard in Beirut by a teenage girl who was heard in the clip saying: Quote - Oh my God! Oh my God! Someone call the Civil Defense - End of Quote. The civil defense is an emergency rescue organization made up of volunteers, similar to the Red Cross. The second cell phone video was shot in the bright-lit ER at the American University Hospital (AUH) less than a quarter mile away. I am not sure though whether it is the same teenage girl who shot the first clip of the accident.
This is going to sound absurd to most of those living in the 'developing nations' but it is quite common for family, friends of wounded or dead patients, and even hospital staff to sneak in a cell phone to the ER and record on their cell phones such clips evidenced by similar cell phone videos of grave wounds I have seen in the ER rooms in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and other war-torn land in the Middle East. The American University Hospital (AUH) in Beirut is one of the top three hospitals there with American medical standards and ethics; however, rules are not always as tight when it comes to turning on the video camera of a cell phone. Hard for most to comprehend but that's the way things are.
Both parts of the video clip are of the same teenager. I was told that he was taken to the ER where all the surgeons were able to do is stitch his deep and severe wounds. The staff tried to keep him alive in intensive care but he died two days later. The city did install a while back barbwires to discourage young men from jumping from the top of the railings and risking injury or death but young men continue to jump as they see this activity as a fun challenge. There have been similar accidents there as a result of carelessness and ignorance by the swimmers, teenagers and even men in their twenties.
One day after this accident took place, I saw teenagers climb on the metal railing and stand between the barb wires to jump in ten foot deep water with blocks of concrete/rocks the size of minivans intended to break the high waves were less than 5 ft away from where the teenage boys were landing. May he rest in peace.