First responders are once again reminding Lynn Canyon visitors about the dangers of cliff diving after yet another swimmer was injured Wednesday afternoon.
The latest accident saw a 20-year-old slip while getting ready to leap down into the water near the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. The District of North Vancouver Fire Department said the young woman injured herself on the rocky cliff before plummeting several metres into the creek.
"Basically hit her back and her hip and then landed face-forward onto the water," said Jeremy Duncan, assistant chief of operations.
"She wasn't really able to swim so her friends helped tow her to the (shore)."
Fortunately, a park ranger witnessed the accident and immediately called for help.
Firefighters used a raft to reach the woman's location then placed her in a full-body cast, while their colleagues rigged a pulley system to carry her approximately 50 metres in the air so she could be transported to hospital.
"The safest way was to pull her straight up onto Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge," Duncan said.
She was quickly taken away in a waiting ambulance. First responders said despite suffering injuries to her hip and back, the situation could have ended much worse.
Her friends did not seem to understand the severity of what happened, however, with one telling CTV News: "She seems fine to me."
Since 1985, 34 people have died at Lynn Canyon Park, and many others have been left seriously injured. Firefighters urged anyone thinking about cliff diving into the water to reconsider.
"It's never safe," Duncan said. "The hydraulics of the water change every single year. There's lots of debris, there's lots of undercurrent, there's rocks that you can't see."
With files from CTV Vancouver's Ben Miljure and Breanna Karstens-Smith
Crews were called to Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver where a woman injured her back and hip while cliff jumping. Live coverage shortly and you can read more here: https://t.co/fh0wYf6skh pic.twitter.com/aRmM8iTN5I
— CTV Vancouver (@CTVVancouver) September 6, 2018