10. A Bad Stunt In Hawaii, it is illegal
to jump off most volcanoes. Yet on the island of Kauai, a man jumped directly off the top of Wailua
Falls because he didn't think it looked that far down. He thought it would be a wild stunt
he could easily pull off to impress his friends. In reality, the falls is much taller than it looks
at 200 feet (61m) and the guy nearly died. His name is Shiloh Shahan. He had moved to
Hawaii from California just about two years before the incident. Before he moved back to California,
his local friends took him to Wailua Falls as part of his going away celebration.
When they got to the waterfall itself, Shiloh and his friends could see that the area was
clearly fenced off. There were signs everywhere warning people to stay away from the edge.
All the same, Shiloh said he was compelled to break the rules and jump off the edge. His
friends even filmed his flight down, including the painful smack when he hit the water below. Ouch!
According to what Shiloh said, he pointed his feet so that he didn't do a belly flop,
but he had his head craned in such a way that when he hit the water, his head snapped back and he was
knocked out cold. The only reason he survived was that a few tourists from the bottom swam out into
the middle of the waterfall and pulled him back to shore. Amazingly, he only had a few torn muscles
and wasn’t even injured! 9. Teenage Tragedy
In one of the worst waterfall disasters of all time, 20 high school students were killed
while swimming at a waterfall in Ghana. But what makes this case really strange
is that the students didn't all go over the edge of the falls and break their bodies at the bottom.
Instead, they were killed by falling trees that were uprooted during a sudden storm.
The students were swimming at Kintampo Waterfall, a popular area for picnickers in Ghana. Wind and
heavy rain came out of nowhere, causing massive trees to tip over and literally
land on the high school students who had been relaxing in the pool.
The thing is that the students were at the bottom of the waterfall and the trees that were being
uprooted were landing in the river above. The water from the river spilled over the waterfall,
normally cooling off the locals. But because the trees had gotten tossed into the river,
suddenly they came hurtling off the side of the waterfall like live bombs. Within a handful of
seconds, 20 students had been crushed to death by trees falling over the falls.
According to the headteacher, and one of the witnesses of this terrifying tragedy,
the students had actually gotten trapped by a wall of trees before they could ever escape.
A few trees came down, the students realized what was happening and tried to get away,
but so many trees were falling that it created a barricade. They were stuck in the pool like
a bunch of spiders in a toilet bowl. There was nothing they could do as the trees came tumbling
down on their heads, as if a beaver dam had broken right above them. In the end, 20 lives were lost.
8. The Final Adventure A trio of friends who got famous on
social media for traveling around the world and chronicling their experiences have met a rather
unfortunate end. After traveling through some of the most dangerous countries in the world,
they ended up having their final adventure in the relatively safe country of Canada. They died
after an accident at Shannon Falls, just about 35 miles (56km) from Vancouver in British Columbia.
The trio included Charles Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh, and Megan Scraper. They had hundreds of
thousands of followers online, they were sponsored by brands that promote travel and adventurous
lifestyles, and their corpses were found floating in a pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
According to the Canadian authorities, all three of them fell about 100 feet (30 m) to their deaths
while they were swimming at the top of the waterfall.
Their deaths, while extremely tragic, also brought up an issue about thrill-seeking for the sake of
gaining likes and followers. In the aftermath of the accident, it came out that these people
had previously pled guilty to charges related to poor behavior throughout several national parks
in the US – and this is straight from the National Park Service. Nobody knows what the friends were
doing at Shannon Falls, but they very well could have been up to no good. The Squamish
Search and Rescue team believe they were swimming when one of them got pulled by the current,
the others tried to rescue them before they went over the falls, and then all three were dead.
7. The Deadly Laurel Fork Falls A teenager from Florida died after
falling 80 feet (24 m) down the Laurel Fork Falls in South Carolina. His horrifying death is made
even more shocking because he was only 14 years old. He hadn't been trying to do anything wrong,
he wasn’t trying to take selfies, and he wasn’t breaking any rules. He was simply hanging out
at the top of the waterfall when he slipped on something wet, fell down, tumbled over the edge,
and then cracked his brains open on the rocks below. According to the Pickens County coroner,
he died at the scene from blunt force trauma. His name was Isaiah Oertel, and he was the second
person to die at the Laurel Fork Falls in 2020. Before this, a woman named Taylor Coleman also
slipped from the top of the falls and died when she hit the bottom. Only 30 miles from Greenville,
Laurel Fork Falls seems to be one of the most dangerous recreational places in the whole state.
But what do you think about Laurel Fork Falls? Have you ever visited this North Carolina death
trap? And if you haven't, would you hike the waterfall here knowing people continuously
slip and die at the top? Let us know in the comments and if you’re liking this video,
be sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already! :)
6. Over the Edge In a truly tragic incident,
a man from Utah died while hiking near the Bridal Veil Falls with his fiancée and her
9-year-old son. The woman and her child are perfectly OK, but 40-year-old Adrian Vanderklis
is being put in a coffin. According to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, Adrian was hiking with
the young boy when he slipped on some unstable material above the falls itself and fell down.
He slipped and plummeted from an elevation of roughly 5800 feet (1,768 m). But he didn't hit the
bottom of the falls, instead landing on a vertical slope, a kind of jagged piece of rock sticking out
of the sheer cliff. Search and rescue workers could only reach his body using a helicopter.
They actually had to call the operation off because it got too dangerous with nightfall,
finally rescuing his body the next day. As for his fiancée and her child,
he had been walking alone with the boy when the accident happened. The child was left to
climb back down the mountain by himself to get to where his mom was camped out. Luckily, this
was a very brave 9-year-old. He made it to safety and was able to report what happened to Adrian.
5. Selfie Fail A social media influencer from Hong Kong
has been killed by her own insatiable desire for selfies. She was described by the New York Post
as an Instagram star. Her name was Sophia Cheung, and she was just 32 years old when she died.
She and some friends went to the Ha Pak Lai park early on a Saturday morning to do some climbing
and take some adventurous photographs. When they reached the waterfall on Pineapple Mountain,
Sofia knew that she had to take a photograph at the very edge. It didn't even seem that
dangerous since the pool of water is only about 16 feet from the top of the waterfall. People
fall over 200 feet (61 m) and still survive, yet Sophia died from a fall less than 1/10th of that!
The influencer’s friends were able to call the emergency services and they quickly arrived,
but she was pronounced dead upon her arrival to the hospital. Some say it was really just
a matter of time considering some of the extremely risky photos that she took.
Her specialty was capturing photos on the edges of cliffs, high up where a single misplaced step
could spell disaster. She even photographed herself hanging from the edge of a cliff,
holding on with nothing but her fingertips. For people like these, the truly shocking part
is when they actually go on to live a full life! You can't just stand on the edge forever without
ever expecting to fall off. 4. A Quick Slip
At a California waterfall, a mother slipped and had an accident. It happened at Lake Tahoe,
when Stephanie Williams was hiking with her girlfriend at Eagle Falls. This is close to
Emerald Bay. Everything was fine until Stephanie lost her footing and tumbled over sideways.
At the time of her fall, she was a mother to two teenage boys, 12 and 14. She was the core
of her entire family, according to what her brother told ABC News. Her whole family is
now in disarray with her loss. Her brother also told authorities that she wasn't trying to take
a selfie at the time of her death. It was just a weird accident that could have happened to anyone.
Still, the authorities at Lake Tahoe are warning people about getting too close to
the edge of their waterfalls. Even if it doesn't seem dangerous, one loose rock can spell disaster.
If you're too close to the edge when you trip, that’s the end of your life.
Eagle Falls is only about 80 feet (24 m)high, but that’s still high enough to kill. Stephanie
hit the ground like a doll made from thin twigs and broke so bad there was nothing the doctors
could do to save her. 3. A Haunting Photo
At Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Roy George Rinashe Dikinya was taking photos of his family. They were
all taking photos together at the very edge of the falls. Sadly, when it was Roy’s turn
to take a picture, he stepped a little too close to the edge and fell right over. A woman screamed,
there was abrupt panic, and Roy was gone. The only thing that remained of Roy was a terrifying photo
from the very second right before he fell 350 feet (107 m) to his doom. He got the picture he wanted,
standing on the rocks at the biggest waterfall in the world in nothing but a pair of sandals. Those
rocks he was standing on were extremely slippery though, and sandals aren't exactly the proper
footwear for wandering astride a giant waterfall. According to rescuers with the Zimbabwe National
Parks and Wildlife Authority, it was too misty and raining too much for them to search for
Roy right away. They had to put off the rescue attempt for a little while, until the weather
was better. When they finally did go looking for him, they found various parts of Roy scattered at
the bottom of the gorge, wedged between rocks. It looked as if when he fell, his limbs got trapped
on the rocks and tore away from the rest of his body. He was in such terrible shape that they
couldn't even positively identify him, though they are certain that it was Roy whose body they found.
2. Hugged to Death Yosemite National Park
is one of the most beautiful yet terrifying parks in all of the United States of America,
especially considering how many people die in climbing accidents.
But climbing isn’t the only cause of death here. Not so long ago, Hormiz David, Ninos Yacoub,
and Ramina Badal fell from the top of Vernal Fall and died. According to the eyewitnesses who
watched the victims go over the edge, two of them were holding on to each other in a final bearhug
as they fell 317 feet (97 m) to their deaths. How did three people manage to fall over at the
same time? According to those same eyewitnesses, the three of them entered the water above the
falls, located not more than 25 feet from its precipice. The witnesses were screaming, yelling
at them to get out of the water, but it seemed that they just didn't quite understand. They had
been seen earlier climbing over the barricade to take pictures at the edge of the waterfall.
The witnesses had screamed at them to go back to the safe side of the barricade, which they did.
But shortly later, they hopped over the barricade again and made their way to a rock in the middle
of the river to take photographs. The woman in the group slipped, her friend reached for her, his
friend reached for him, and all three ended up in the water being swept over the edge of the falls.
1. The Survivor In Tennessee, a local woman named Kim Hembree
miraculously survived a terrifying tumble down the face of a waterfall. She was enjoying a leisurely
bicycle ride with her husband down a trail famous for its waterfalls. And like almost every other
person we talked about today, she stopped to take a picture at the top of one of the waterfalls.
At the time, it was dry; there wasn't even any water flowing down it. She started to
take pictures while her husband tried to get her away from the edge. He felt that something
could go wrong at any second. But sadly for her, she didn’t listen and something did go wrong.
Kim slipped off the edge and fell somewhere between 35 and 40 feet (10-12 m). Her husband
shrieked, immediately called for help, and then made his way down the waterfall
to where his wife laid seemingly dead. But Kim wasn't dead. She was horribly injured,
but still alive. She had a gash across her face, her right ankle was broken,
her right leg was shattered, and her L5 vertebrae was fractured. In the end, she had to get a bone
graft from the top of her leg to reconstruct a bone in her ankle. Plus, her nose had smashed
all the way through her skull because she hit a fallen tree at the bottom of the waterfall.
The swelling in her face was so bad because of this that doctors feared performing surgery
would cause an infection that could spread to her brain. She did survive in the end, and although
she isn’t terribly disfigured, she’ll have some pretty rough scars for the rest of her life.
Would you dare get as close to a waterfall as any of these unfortunate people?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments and thanks a lot for watching. Remember to subscribe
to keep up to date on all the best videos from the channel! See you next time! Bye! :)