Fall Kills Tourist as Yosemite Warns Visitors to Stay on Trails

A tourist from Romania was killed when he slipped and fell at a waterfall in Yosemite National Park—one of three such accidents in a week. Lucian Miu, 21, lost his footing on wet rocks and fell about 20 feet at Bridalveil Fall, NBC reports. The park said in a statement that visitors, after hiking to the viewing platform below the Bridalveil Fall, are leaving trails "to scramble up the boulder field toward the base of the waterfall, bypassing signs that advise against leaving the trail." Those boulders have been rendered smooth by the flow of water and are slippery even if they're dry. It took crews in special shoes and helmets to reach the two people who fell last week at that spot.

The third accident occurred at Lower Yosemite Fall, where a visitor walking on a boulder slipped and fell into Yosemite Creek, per the Fresno Bee. The person was briefly trapped underwater, then was pulled out by other tourists. Hundreds of people venture out onto the boulders below falls every day at the California attraction, the park posted on Instagram, saying that there have been 23 injuries in the past few years. The park quoted one person who fell: "My foot caught, I started sliding and then tumbling down the rock, and then I fell over the edge. ... I just thought I might die." (More Yosemite National Park stories.)