International student swept over Niagara Falls after trying to take a picture

[tawadi]

Source: thestar.com

International student swept over Niagara Falls after trying to take a picture

Published On Mon Aug 15 2011

Jayme Poisson and Zoe McKnight Staff Reporters

Over the course of one day, during the height of the Niagara Falls tourism season, three incidents have reminded visitors that the famous horseshoe can prove dangerous and deadly.

A 19-year-old international student visiting Toronto is missing and presumed dead after being swept over Niagara Falls Sunday evening. Police are working with the Japanese consulate to notify her family. No names have been released.

Police say the woman and her friend were taking pictures at Table Rock, near the top of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.



Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1039520--toronto-woman-swept-over-niagara-falls

[Kingofalldems]

1. Why is that lady in the picture letting her son do that?

[RC]

3. For rthe same dumb reason that kid in the orange is standing up there.

Stupididy.

[Johnyawl]

4. because she has 4 sons...

...which means she has a couple of spares.

[some guy]

14. lol

:rofl:

[Lugnut]

16. Because she's stupid.

No child of mine would get that close to the edge of the falls.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

21. And if someone came by and said "please don't do that..."

...I bet the LOUD reply would be "DON'T TELL ME HOW TO BE A PARENT!!!!"

[Roland99]

25. FWIW (and from what I recollect), it's not a big drop just on the other side of that railing

it's been several years since I was there, though, so memory could be off a bit.

But, yeah, it's still not a good thing to teach one's kids that it's ok to stand up there like that. I didn't let my daughters when we were there.

[hlthe2b]

2. A few years back there were a series of these kinds of deaths in Grand Canyon...

Distracted tourists shooting photos just literally walking off the sides of the canyon or rock outcroppings... Geebus...

[PavePusher]

5. Evolution....

...Says that stupidity is a terminal disease.

[PavePusher]

6. Ooops, double tap. n/t

[NashVegas]

7. Darwin

Has a way of taking care of overly-arrogant people.

[MineralMan]

8. Some people are teh stoopid.

What is Mom thinking in that photo? I remember being a kid and my parents taking us to scenic overlooks. "Stay away from the edge and don't climb on that!" You disobeyed at the peril of a sharp swat to the buttocks. My parents did not mess around with such things.

[brendan120678]

23. Hopefully the swat came...

after you had gotten safely away from the edge. ;-)

[Historic NY]

9. I hate people who think they can take a picture better than a post card.

[SonataArctica18]

10. Dawin wins again. n/t

[TrogL]

11. I'm from Niagara Falls and worked across from where this picture was taken

This is a daily occurrence. Some people even jump the fence and stand in a grassy area so the fence isn't in the picture.

Tourists think since they are on vacation they can leave their brains at home.

[Odin2005]

12. Is the mom in that pic a MORON? she needs to get her kid down from the railing!

[tawadi]

13. I know, right? Crazy.

It actually looks as if she is ready to push him over!

[chrisa]

18. If I was watching that, I would be having a heart attack.

[The Roux Comes First]

15. That Silly quasi-Decorative Barrier Looks Like Just About What

we could expect a free-market commercial enterprise to install. Enough to claim "not my fault" w/o actually spending too much.

Sadly, it appears yet another case of too little regulation. Maybe there is a long expanse of lawn just beyond the gimcrackery, but I doubt it.

Parental idiocy I guess must be taken for granted. There was no Bear in this park to plant the young child on for the purpose of pictures.

Do we actually have the time to just let Darwin take out the Repubs??

[Nihil]

17. Speaking as a potential tourist ...

... I'd much rather have a wall and "quasi-decorative barrier" of a fence
on top that you can take your photos over/through than the 20' high chain-link
(complete with barbed wire, electric lines & armed guard patrols) that it would
appear to take to get some morons to understand that it *really* isn't a good
idea to climb over ...

FFS, if you are so stupid as to climb over the fence AND fall into the river,
you were going to catch a Darwin Award somewhere!

:shrug:

[jumptheshadow]

22. Grew up in that area

Even with the decorative fences, it's pretty obvious how dangerous the Falls are. You just don't fool around at all. One slip of a foot, or if your boat conks out in the wrong place, and it's over the side.

[brendan120678]

24. So is it the job of government...

to put a twenty foot high fence around every single natural phenomena that has the potential of being dangerous if idiots don't exercise caution?

That would require quite a bit of fencing.

[formercia]

19. Theme Park Tourism

Nature becomes art and people lose the distinction between an artificial 'safe' environment and real and dangerous Nature.

[Retrograde]

20. Especially when the "attraction" is in the middle of a metropolitan area

Yosemite is off in the mountains; Niagara Falls is between the cities of Niagara Falls, NY, and Niagara Falls, ON; I think this makes people tend to forget just how powerful it is - especially since the area just up the hill on the Canadian side is an amusement area with attractions like going over a virtual falls. On both sides of the border it's easy to get to the water (like stick your toes in the river close) and I'm surprised they don't lose more tourists than they do.

I saw people hopping the fences when I was there last month: they were lucky.