CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Girl Crashes Bike Near Top of Goldenrod Footbridge, Clings to Ivy To Avoid 30-Foot Fall

Brooke Gelgand was biking to Harbor View Elementary School, just about to ride over the Goldenrod Footbridge, when her hand slipped.

The next thing she knew, she was flying through the air, landing upside down on the steep slope at the bridge entrance, clinging to ivy vines to keep from falling 30 feet below to Bayside Drive.

“I was hanging to the vines with all my might,” Brooke said later. “I was just so scared that I blanked out. Then I tried to grab the side of the concrete to pull myself up.”

Brooke’s mother, Laura Gelgand, was running behind her daughter about 8 a.m. Wednesday when she saw the crash and pushed through a group of morning walkers.

“It was crazy,” she said. “All I could see was the bottom of her shoe. I saw her wiggle, and I yelled ‘Freeze!’” she said.

She was able to pull her to safety, and Brooke was fine besides a big bruise, some scrapes, and a completely wrecked bicycle.

Brooke said she was riding too fast when her hand slipped off the handlebar.

“My other hand slipped forward, and I ran into the side of the bridge,” she said. “I flipped over the handlebar, almost over the side of the bridge. But there were vines attached to the side, and I grabbed the ivy. I was slipping a bit when I heard my mom.”

A friend then drove by and took Brooke to school while Gelgand took the damaged bike home.

“At first she was hysterical,” Gelgand said. “She was saying, ‘I almost died, I almost died!’ I said, ‘You’re fine,’ but as soon as she was picked up, I sat on the sidewalk and thought, ‘She almost died, she almost died.’”

Brooke is an experienced bicyclist who has ridden over the footbridge safely “100,000 times,” Gelgand said. That morning, they were running late and Brooke asked if she could skip wearing a helmet.

“I didn’t say anything,” Gelgand said. “And she went and put her helmet on.”

A friend said he’d repair the damaged bike, and Brooke said she would begin riding after that, even over the footbridge.

“It was scary,” she said. “I feel I’m really lucky.”

The footbridge was built in 1928 and spans the 200 and 300 block of Goldenrod Avenue. The accident occurred on the southwest side of the bridge.