A 10-year-old boy plummeted 80-feet down Niagara Falls while he was in the middle of a photo op.
The New York Daily News reports that on Sunday a boy was sitting on the railing at Niagara Gorge so that his mother could take a photo of him. He fell 80 feet when he lost his balance. Shawn Black, Sergeant of the Niagara Parks Police Service, said in a press release that the boy was adjusting his seating position on the railing when he suddenly lost his balance and fell backwards
Police and the Niagara Emergency Medical Service arrived on the scene at about 4:34 p.m. after the 10-year-old hit his head. The child was stabilized and was airlifted to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.
Initially, the hospital had the boy’s condition as life-threatening, but changed it to serious but stable.
According to the report, the boy and his family were visiting the Canadian side of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three waterfalls at the Niagara Falls Park.
Black explained that the fall took place along the retaining wall “paralleling the Niagara River Gorge near the bottom of Murray Hill and the Niagara River Parkway within the parks.”
Luckily, the boy survived after plunging so far down the Niagara Falls.
10-year-old boy plummets 80 feet after losing balance during Niagara Falls photo op https://t.co/4GoPh1WHBU pic.twitter.com/UBRnYoavhY
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 18, 2017
BBC reports that about a dozen people have plummeted down the Niagara Falls since 1901. In most of those cases, the fall was intentional with adventurers either inside a barrel or fitted with some type of protective equipment. Earlier this year, Kirk Jones died after he plunged down Niagara Falls in an inflatable ball. USA Today reports that the daredevil’s body wasn’t found right away until fisherman discovered it in Lake Ontario. At some point Jones fell out of the inflatable ball during the stunt. In 2003, he jumped 178-feet down the falls in his first attempt wearing only his clothes. He had to pay a $3,000 fine for his actions.
BBC also reports that a Japanese exchange student was also killed after she slipped and fell into Niagara Falls after climbing up to get a better view of the tourist attraction.
[Featured Image by John Moore/Getty Images]
