3 more Yosemite deaths: Water makes people so stupid

Three hikers plunge down a 300-foot waterfall after they climb over the guardrail and wade in the river, which is raging whitewater now because of the huge amount of snow during the winter. This despite many many statewide warnings about the danger of rivers right now, and news stories about the death of two hikers trying to cross a bridge last month, and signs at the park about current conditions, and did I mention A FREAKING GUARDRAIL.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/21/MN0H1KCRAP.DTL

And it sounds like the dumbest one isn't even one who died.

As many as 175 other people were resting at the Vernal Fall overlook when the group stopped to have lunch. Witness accounts vary slightly, but apparently another member of the group was the first to climb over the metal rail at the top of the waterfall. Signs depicting stick figures plunging over the fall warn people not to go beyond that point.

"He's got a 6- or 7-year-old daughter in his left arm on the edge of the waterfall while his other daughter, about 14 years old, is taking his picture," said Jake Bibee, 28, of Costa Mesa (Orange County), who was hiking with a friend on the Mist Trail that day. "He's on the corner, hanging over the falls. This little girl is screaming bloody murder, and he's laughing, thinking it's a big old joke."

 

My coworker and I just spent a half hour at lunch talking about this.

Idiotic people think every place is their local water park.

Take a look at these pics, and figure out how anyone would climb the fence to go out there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017395/Yosemite-waterfall-3-hikers-presumed-dead-pictured.html

http://sfist.com/2011/07/20/yosemite_majestic_dangerous.php

 

Darwin Award nominees with a bullet.

 

Really sad. But then some people you just cannot prevent injury. There's a picture in the front page of today's local newspaper of the parents of one of the victims and as a parent my heart goes out to them but damn, reading the accounts it was not like even close to an accident.

These people were wading out past posted signs with warnings about the huge waterfall a mere 30 yds away, were being yelled at by others yet ignoring them, subjecting their young (6& 7 yr olds) kids to it, and then they fall in.

There was nothing more that society could do.

 

Look how low these railings are.



Yosemite officials didn't do enough and should get sued.

[/93Devil]

 

Piotr beat me to it. They obviously need to make the guardrail higher.

 

A chest-high fence is no match for a toe-high IQ.

 

It's the park's fault there wasn't a convenient branch for the idiots to cling to. That's how everyone keeps from getting swept over the falls in the movies.

 

What level of stupidity does it take to hop that fence because "you know, whitewater in front of a 300 ft drop just sounds like the most exhilarating spot to take a dip!" And that not just one idiot, but three did it is damn near incomprehensible.

 

Here's a dumbass who lived to tell about her water game:

http://yhoo.it/nxX0hz

 

Being the neurotic child that I was, I remember being constantly vigilant about my family not getting too close to the edge of the Grand Canyon or the rapids at Niagra Falls. My family has video evidence of an eight-year old me nagging them about it.

 

I climbed the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls with my two sons in 2006. Hell, the slippery, steep stone steps up there scared the hell out of me; my wife refused to go. I can truthfully say I felt no urge to go over the rail and stand in the water. In fact, I think I cautioned my younger son not to lean hard against the fence as I took a photo.
Good grief.