Woman plunges 500 feet to her death

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

.....and just look at some of the thread headings over at the AOL board! That's a rough crowd.

Yellowstone Tourist Dies in 500-Foot Fall

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (June 18) - A woman lost her footing after stepping over a retaining wall to take a photograph and went over a cliff, falling 500 feet to her death in a canyon, park officials said.

The 52-year-old woman was visiting the park with her husband and two children.

Her husband flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911 after the Saturday morning accident at an overlook along the Yellowstone River, park officials said.

A ranger rappelled down the canyon wall to reach the woman, but she was dead at the scene.

In Michigan, The Grand Rapids Press on Sunday identified the woman as Deb Chamberlin, 52, of Rockford, vice president of the school board in the west Michigan community.

"It's hard for me to articulate right now because I'm still in shock," said Rockford Superintendent Mike Shibler, who said he spoke to Chamberlin's husband, Gary.

It was the second fatal accident in Yellowstone this year. In February, a woman was killed in a snowmobile accident.

06/18/06 11:21 EDT

Edited June 19, 2006 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[Joe G]

Rockford, MI is where Randissimo lives.

[AllenLowe]

so Weizen, why are you posting this - is she a Democrat? Are you saying Democrats are too dumb to see a cliff right in front of them? Are you saying Democrats take bad photos? And please, no more Hitler jokes -

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Allen, no bad jokes, okay? ....and no showing up at the funeral with your "buy both (boxes) for $90 shipped" sales pitch!

[sal]

I am very sympathetic to her widow and her children. I lost my mother way too early, and it is a terrible tragedy.

But the National Parks are dangerous places. I remember when I was at Yellowstone people were doing stupid shit left and right....getting too close to the bison, stepping too close to the geysers/thermal vents, climbing over guardrails, leaving food around the campsites, etc. Too many people don't respect nature, and they forget that it's wild and unforgiving.

[sheldonm]

I am very sympathetic to her widow and her children. I lost my mother way too early, and it is a terrible tragedy.

But the National Parks are dangerous places. I remember when I was at Yellowstone people were doing stupid shit left and right....getting too close to the bison, stepping too close to the geysers/thermal vents, climbing over guardrails, leaving food around the campsites, etc. Too many people don't respect nature, and they forget that it's wild and unforgiving.

[Ken Dryden]

I can't understand why anyone would feel the urge to climb over a wall to "get a better photo," though I'm sorry the woman fell to her death at Yellowstone.

I visited the old Miami Serpentarium years ago and noticed that the retaining walls were low enough on which to sit above a poisonous snake pit and also a crocodile pit. A few years later, some father and his son sat on the latter wall, throwing berries at crocodiles, when the kid fell and was immediately attacked and killed by a croc. While I'm sure that if this produced a lawsuit, the plaintiff's attorney claimed it was an "attractive nuisance," but anyone with common sense would have kept their distance and avoided sitting on the wall.

Another memory from my teen years was an unsupervised child sitting on a balcony rail some 30 + feet above the lobby of the Ringling Mansion in Sarasota. Although no accident took place, you have to wonder where the parents were and what the hell they taught their kid.

[The Red Menace]

so Weizen, why are you posting this - is she a Democrat? Are you saying Democrats are too dumb to see a cliff right in front of them? Are you saying Democrats take bad photos? And please, no more Hitler jokes -

Comrade Lowe, you are a wonderful jazz scholar and a man of sound ideological principles. How I would like to build some barricades with you!!! But you must not issue these political taunts outside of the proper forum, lest you be whisked away to a virtual gulag of the Internet. Even venerable Uncle Joe, while consuming many vodkas after a long, hard day of sending kulaks to their deaths, once proclaimed, "Come, let us talk now of other things besides politics." Then he gave forth with a heartfelt sigh and a deep, booming laugh, and the twelve of us drinking with him gave forth with our own heartfelt sighs and deep, booming laughs. The next night there were only eight of us, but no matter!!! He was a man who inspired a certain kind of love; yes, a passionate love of one's own life!!!

[AllenLowe]

sorry - I though Weizen's original post was in code -

[BruceH]

The moral of the story: Those walls are there for a reason.