by Timothy Rutt
LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky may just be applying some pressure to quell the epidemic of rescues and deaths at Eaton Canyon's second waterfall.
Yaroslovsky's’s website has a well-done article on the problems of hikers going on the often-deadly hike to second waterfall and the multi-agency attempt to stop it, and turns up this interesting nugget:
One of the questions our Altadenablog commentors frequently ask is: why don’t they put up warning signs? Turns out most of the involved agencies (county sheriff, fire, parks, and supervisors, and Pasadena Fire Department) agree -- but not the U.S. Forest Service. According to the article, the Forest Service declines to put warning signs on their land -- because “attorneys representing injured hikers might argue that, if agency officials knew there was a risk of injury, then they had an obligation to make the area safer.”
Also this money quote:
By the second or third rescue of the day,” [Altadena Mountain Rescue Team captain Richard] De Leon says, he gets frustrated with the risk takers. “I start thinking, ‘Will you people just stop!’ ”
http://zev.lacounty.gov/news/fatal-attraction-at-the-falls
UPDATE: Eric Pierce sent this photo of a sign he found at the Amicalola Falls in North Georgia -- so some places do have them!
Do you think a sign would help? What other measures would you take? Let us know in the comments.
