Hikers Go Over Falls in Yosemite: More Thinning of the Herd

Well.

Stupid is, as stupid does, I guess.

Picture this.. Vernal Falls, at Yosemite National Park, California.

Beautiful, isn't it.

And a long way up, a very long way.

Now.

Picture this..  Safety barricades at the top of Vernal Falls.  The concept is that if you stay behind the barricades, you will, as the name implies, be "safe".

This, apparently, was a lesson lost on Hormiz David, 22; Ninos Yacoub, 27; and Ramina Badal, 21, three young adults who were killed when they were swept over the falls yesterday.

A witness to the incident, Jake Bibee, described the event in the Los Angeles times today:

..he saw a man in his 40s leaning out over the waterfall, holding his 6-year-old daughter.

"The little girl is crying and screaming," Bibee said. "There's a 13- or a 14-year-old taking their picture. And everyone at the top of the falls is pissed. I'm kind of a firey guy. I'm yelling at him ... 'Get over here!' "

The man walked back to safety, but three other members of his group had also crossed over a safety barricade.

"They're taking pictures and being stupid," Bibee said. Ramina Badal, 21, of Manteca fell first. Then a man plunged in after her. They were clinging to each other, Bibee said.
"I'm watching the two of them being swept away," Bibee said. "I'm starting to jet for the edge. It's just instinct."

His friend Amanda Lee pulled him back and told him not to go.

A third person also fell in. The man looked back just as he was being swept over the edge of the falls, Bibee said.

"I knew they were not going to make it," Bibee said. "They're going over the waterfall. When we saw the first two, then I grabbed Amanda and held her head down so she wouldn't see. And I didn't look either. I'd seen two people die. I didn't want to watch another."

Tragic.

But, then, I'm a glass half-full kinda guy.

I think it's a wonderful thing that the intelligent, and one assumes, positive addition to the human race, Jake Bibee, didn't lose his life trying to save these idiots - assisted by his equally sensible friend, Amanda Lee.

And, following up on that thought - is it not very apparent that the loss of these three people, while tragic, probably strengthened the human race just a little tiny bit by thinning the herd of the weak and the stupid.

From California you say?

Color me not very shocked.