Posted on 06/18/2006 11:34:26 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Today: June 18, 2006 at 9:1:6 PDT
Yellowstone Tourist Dies in 500-Foot Fall
ASSOCIATED PRESS
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - 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.
Not my pic...I was just being nice.
Now I get acrophobic if I get too close to an edge of something without a railing...maybe its from growing up in the flatlands and my brain doesnt trust uneven surfaces, or hasn't really decided what's safe, how far I can push the limits.
Or maybe it's this reoccuring dream I had as a kid about being on a mountain road and driving off the edge of the road into a valley filled with tall fir or spruce trees. I would kick and wake up, and wasn't really frightened as a kid. But as an adult moving to the intermountain west, I have seen too many canyons that look just like my dream.
So maybe I'm not the right person to comment, but if I'm looking at a steep valley like that, with waterfall, and a chest high fence, the only way you would get me over that rail is if I was in a proper safety harness in case I lost my footing, especially if I was doing something so totally consuming as photography.
You can be too aware of the dangers, also.
F'ing hypocrites. Um... did you really mean this to be as hilarious as it comes across?
At the zoo where I work there are people who will regularly step over a fence onto a two foot ledge, next to a high voltage electric wire--and lean way out over a 14 foot drop-- to get a picture of the large gorillas below. And then they get mad if you ask them to remove their person from the area!
It's amazing.
When I was eight my family visited Custer State Park which had a wild heard of Bison
Dad saw a guy getting out of his pickup to take a closeup photo of a lone bull buffalo with his 110 Kodak Instamatic. Dad pulled up behind the guy's truck and announced to the back seat, "Hey kids, you are about to see a guy get killed by a buffalo."
Mom hit Dad in the arm. The buffalo charged. The man dove in the passenger's window of his truck. The buffalo hit the side of the truck and left a huge dent.
Prayers for her and her poor family.
Yep. Buffalo, moose and other big critters like that need to be treated with respect.
A judger judging judgers H-M-M.
UR correct.
They will claim the wall should have been higher.
and they will win.
We visited Alaska a few years back.
Same thing. We went out on a glacier cruise and a whale-watching cruise on cold, choppy water with icebergs throughout. Both times, the captain specifically said, loudly and repeatedly, that nobody was to stand on the railing and risk being thrown overboard because they would likely die of hypothermia if they were in the water. Both cruises, NUMEROUS people received ass-chewings by the captian for climbing on the railing to pose for a photo!
IDIOTS! One was about an 8-yr. old kid. His mom was oblivious.
That's me. But to me any area of the woods with safety fencing is too tame and crawling with humans to waste my time on. I have cut in a few new bits of 4x4 trail where the Clinton interior dept blocked the existing access (I'd be treading lightly if they had'nt forced me to go around).
I am a pretty good judge of what's safe and what is'nt. Don't need no stinking signs to tell me not to stand right on the edge of an eroding cliff.
Bet the flash ram in her camera survived the fall?
At first, I figured her for a Dim or liberal as well, given the fact that she was on the local school board and school boards are often chockablock with liberal activists.
Plus, it seemed pretty stupid to go over a retaining wall next to a 500ft cliff, and stupidity is a common symptom of Dim Disease.
On the other hand, I wondered if she wasn't a lone conservative type, fighting the libs on a school board head on. I don't know what made me consider that possibility, but I'm glad I did.
That's why I'm curious about the source of kcvl's Testimonial, as the author didn't sound very liberal.
When I first read the news article (off another web site) I did a bunch of Googles, trying to find out if she was liberal or conservative (Dim or GOP).
I know it's vicious, but I wanted to gloat over the senseless death of a liberal School Board member, whom I hold responsible for poisoning the well of young American minds (almost a capital offense in my book).
I didn't find much one way or another. For starters, her name was spelled as Chamberlin AND Chamberlain in various news reports. I did find a controversial Rockford School Board but it was in IL. So at first I didn't get much info about Rockford, MI.
After reading the FR post and comments, I did more searches, including her daughter's name, as well as her husband and son's. Didn't find much there either.
The mention of her son Alex, entering 11th grade, further confused me with respect to the Testimonial, as it mentioned her difficulty with conception and childbearing.
From further browsing it looks like Rockford, MI is a small, mostly white, heavily Republican, almost crime free, European immigrant melting-pot, middle American town. Not the kind of liberal East Coast city I've had to endure for most of my Stateside life. Almost makes me want to move to Rockford.
I also finally found the Rockford School Board web site and her profile: Deborah Chamberlin. As a "stay-at-home Mom and volunteer", who named her daughter after a beatified Catholic icon, she doesn't fit the profile of a Godless liberal activist.
So, I feel bad now, as I suspect my first instinct to gloat was wrong, and expressing my sadness and condolences to the family and friends are in order.
My only consolation is that I spent the time to research this woman before forming a prejudiced opinion and posting an inappropriate comment that would dishonor her memory.
I have read the comments regarding this story. I just want to make a few clarifications to some of the comments being made. This accident did not take place at the Tower Falls overlook where some people think it happened. It was NOT where the pictures on this site indicates. I was in Yellowstone last weekend when this happened and was in this area not too long after she fell. The rangers were just getting ready to repel down the side of the cliff. There is no three or four foot retaining wall or fence at the pullout where the family stopped. It is only a small rock retaining wall (if you can call it that) about one foot tall. There are also no signs in the pullout area where they stopped. I will agree that maybe this was in poor judgement, but she did NOT disregard warning signs or climb over tall fences to take her picture. This is a horrible accident that has left a family without a wife and a mother and is incredibly sad.
Very sad. And shame on us for jumping to conclusions.
And from that day on you never messed with Mom and Dad.
Do you live near Yellowstone? If so, could ya take a picture of the exact spot and embankment below it that she slipped on and post 'em?
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