Social media is playing a new and unwelcome role in glorifying the potentially deadly behaviours of cliff jumpers, says a local mayor expressing alarm over young people ignoring safety warnings.
With a natural waterslide over a 35-foot waterfall, Lynn Canyon Park is gaining a reputation worldwide as a destination for thrill-seekers.
But as groups of young people capture and share their antics on video, dozens of emergency responders are having to pull the injured out of the canyon. One woman suffered a serious back injury over the long weekend.
Richard Walton, Mayor of the District of North Vancouver, says despite fencing and signage warning visitors about the risks, more action may be needed to deter rule breakers.
“We're moving into a culture where people post dangerous activity and it almost trivializes it -- and diminishes the risk,” he said.
Assistant Fire Chief Mike Cairns said in one instance an injured person wasn’t even loaded onto the stretcher before more people started jumping off the rocks again.
He said despite fatalities in recent years in that very spot, adrenaline junkies aren’t deterred.
Walton said ticketing might knock the wind out of some of the jumpers, but not the ones visiting from out of town, like a group from Utah that have been sharing video of their jumps.
"Even if you ticket people from Utah, the challenge is trying to enforce that ticket, but it's not going to prevent 100,000 hits on YouTube,” he said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Peter Grainger
Have your say: Should out-of-bound cliff jumpers in Lynn Canyon Park be ticketed?
