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LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Yosemite: 3 presumed dead, swept over Vernal Fall:
Yosemite National Park -- One slip in knee-high water, a desperate grab for help and, in one frightful moment, three Central Valley residents were swept screaming over a thunderous 317-foot waterfall to their apparent deaths as dozens of tourists in Yosemite National Park watched in horror.
Ramina Badal, 21, a nursing student at the University of San Francisco, and Ninos Yacoub, 27, of Turlock (Stanislaus County) clung to each other as they were carried over Vernal Fall on Tuesday, witnesses said. Hormiz David, 22, of Modesto followed them over the edge after reaching for them and slipping himself.
Just 25 feet upstream from the drop, the victims had climbed over a metal guardrail, ignoring warning signs and apparently pleas from other hikers to get out of the water. Their bodies have not been found in the foaming, boulder-strewn torrent that is the Merced River. They are presumed dead.
"It's 317 feet down. Nobody can survive a fall like that," said Scott Gediman, a spokesman for Yosemite National Park.
6 dead this year
The tragedy brings to six the number of people killed this year in the rivers and waterfalls of Yosemite, which saw double the average amount of snow last season. The ice sheet blanketing the high country is still melting, turning the rivers and streams into raging whitewater.
Witnesses could not explain why the victims waded into the water above the fall, but they apparently were not the only daredevils in their group.
The tragedy occurred at about 1:30 p.m. on a brilliant sunny day. A group of 12 friends and family had climbed the famed Mist Trail, the park's most popular hike, to the top of Vernal Fall, Gediman said.
As many as 175 other people were resting at the Vernal Fall overlook when the group stopped to have lunch. Witness accounts vary slightly, but apparently another member of the group was the first to climb over the metal rail at the top of the waterfall. Signs depicting stick figures plunging over the fall warn people not to go beyond that point.
Stepping into the river
"He's got a 6- or 7-year-old daughter in his left arm on the edge of the waterfall while his other daughter, about 14 years old, is taking his picture," said Jake Bibee, 28, of Costa Mesa (Orange County), who was hiking with a friend on the Mist Trail that day. "He's on the corner, hanging over the falls. This little girl is screaming bloody murder, and he's laughing, thinking it's a big old joke."
The spectacle infuriated Bibee and several other hikers, some of whom yelled at the man and urged him to climb back over the railing. Meanwhile, apparently inspired by their friend, Badal, Yacoub and David climbed over or went around the railing and waded into the water 25 feet upstream from the fall, trying to reach a rock outcropping partially covered in vegetation about 15 feet from shore.
Gediman said the three waded up to their knees in the rushing waters, were taking photographs and goofing around. He said several witnesses also urged them to get out of the water.
"They basically ignored their warnings," Gediman said. "They did not comply with people telling them it was dangerous."
Bibee said Badal, who is from Manteca (San Joaquin County), was the first to slip and fall.
"This guy is walking back to the group with his two kids still on the wrong side of the railing and we're all staring at him and, right then, the girl fell in," Bibee said. Her friend, later identified as Yacoub, grabbed her hand, Bibee said, and then he slipped and fell.
"He was reaching back trying to grab something. Everyone was screaming. You want to help, but you can't," Bibee said. "I looked at his face and I saw his eyes wide open, absolutely fearful that he was going to die in five seconds. When we saw them go over the waterfall, they were holding each other."
Bibee didn't see David go over the edge because he had turned away in horror.
"Right as they went off the edge I grabbed the girl I was with, covered her eyes and called 911," he said.
Fall, trail notorious
Vernal Fall and the Mist Trail have become notorious over the years for tragedy. Some 2,000 people a day climb the treacherous rock steps on the trail, which is perpetually wet with mist from the enormous waterfall. Yosemite Search and Rescue team members say dozens of people have been injured or killed after falling into the river or plunging over the fall while wading in the pool of water above.
As skies darkened and the search and rescue effort wrapped up Tuesday, the water below Vernal Fall was a frothing white cascade, dangerous and deadly.
On May 13, Kent Butler, 60, a professor from Austin, Texas, slipped at the bottom of the granite steps below Vernal Fall, landed on a rock and slid into the roiling Merced River, where he drowned. In 2007, Kiran Yellajyosula, 27, of Santa Clara plunged to his death off Vernal Fall when he leaned over to wash his hands in the river and lost his balance.
Yosemite area waterfalls in general are dangerous, especially when the water is high, like it is now. On June 29, Dr. Gregory Wayne Meyer, 53, of Whittier (Los Angeles County) and physician's assistant Richard Fox, 53, of Hacienda Heights were swept to their deaths from the Wapama Falls bridge near Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Despite the obvious danger, about 45 people have gone over waterfalls in Yosemite to their deaths since the park was established in 1864; 82 percent of the victims have been male and 68 percent between the ages of 11 and 29, according to the book "Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite," by Michael Ghiglieri and Charles Farabee. Almost all of the park's waterfall accidents were the result of carelessness, often while snapping a photo, they write.
Yosemite Search and Rescue teams will continue to search for the three bodies over the next few days, but Gediman said the bodies are more than likely pinned underneath boulders and debris and might not be recovered until the fall, after the snow has melted.
Bibee said the many witnesses will have to live with memories of the tragedy for the rest of their lives.
"The fear of death in a man's face as he is about to die is not something I've ever seen before and I don't want to see again," said Bibee, who is still furious at the man who first climbed over the rail and endangered his child. "Not just that family was damaged, but all of us who had to watch those people die are damaged."
