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TagsStorm clouds hung menacingly above her; beach sand was 35 feet below her. A New Jersey teenager felt she had no choice but to jump.
Springfield’s Melanie Rossomando, who was celebrating her 17th birthday Saturday at Casino Pier amusement park in Seaside Heights, was captured on video jumping out of the stalled Sky Ride chair lift and onto the sand because she feared she’d be struck by lightning.
"In my mind it was a metal death-trap," Rossomando said, according to a story in the New York Post.
A boardwalk passer-by took the video as the storm clouds moved in quickly and focused on Rossomando and a friend who were “freaking out” when the power went out and the ride stopped short.
"We were three seats away from getting off and then it stopped," she said.
CBS News reported she walked away with just a few bruises.
“It was pitch dark above us and the lightning was right there,” Rossomando said. She noted that it didn’t take her long to figure out what she needed to do.
“My friend looked at me,” she said, according to NBCnewyork.com, “ and she was like, ‘We have to jump.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah. We’re jumping. That’s it.’”
They threw out their belongings and kicked off their shoes. Then Rossomando made her leap.
“Broken leg, broken arm, whatever, that completely beats getting struck by lightning,” she reasoned. “And I just knew the way to fall. I went straight and cradled myself to the side.”
An off-duty EMT rushed to the beach to stay with Rossomando until an ambulance arrived and called her father, Pete. Her friend, meanwhile, never jumped. Emergency responders got her down after helping turn the power back on with a generator.
Pete Rossomando said, “I’m glad I didn’t see that. We were walking back to the car, and we started laughing. ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if it was on YouTube? Ha ha.’ And it was.”
He noted that the teen’s doctor credited her fitness for her ability to make the jump without becoming seriously hurt. She has been preparing for the upcoming soccer season, NBCnewyork.com reported.
“And the fact that she had the presence of mind not to land on her legs, to land on her side,” he added, was also a factor.
Operators of the ride, which takes riders along the beach and boardwalk and provides views of the house from MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” thought they had evacuated everyone and didn’t know Rossomando jumped until seeing the video the following day.
—JOE GREENE, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
