High water levels mean high-risk activities
Officials warn the bridge jumping causes serious injuries, death
High water levels at area hot spots may mean more recreation, but some are engaging in risky behavior. While bridge jumping is not a new activity to those who monitor State Parks land, it is a dangerous one they don’t condone. “It’s an activity we don’t allow inside the park,” said Dan Tynan, sector superintendent for Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. “It’s an unsafe activity.” Currently, tributaries and rivers leading down to Folsom Lake are flowing swiftly at high levels as snow melts and recent rainfall travel downstream. The amount of water following and collected has filled the lake almost 97 percent full, Tynan said. “It hasn’t been that high in ages,” Tynan said. While boaters and fishermen have already started taking advantage of the high water levels, so did a group of teenagers Tuesday afternoon. A group of teens, who declined to give their names, were taking turns jumping off Salmon Falls Bridge, located off Salmon Falls Road near Pilot Hill about 20 to 30 minutes outside of Auburn. The teens said they typically keep an eye out for law enforcement or State Parks rangers, but otherwise enjoy what they say is a popular summertime hangout. When asked whether they thought jumping off the bridge was dangerous, some said it was while others said it wasn’t. The group measured the distance from the bridge to water level with rope. On Tuesday it was about an 18-foot drop. Normally, one man said it’s about 55 to 60 feet. “Usually you can see the entire cement beams of the bridge,” Trevor Jones said. “This is probably the highest I’ve seen it.” Scott Liske, Auburn State Recreation Area ranger, said bridge jumping is an illegal activity that can result in arrest and other penalties and fines on top of serious injury. He added that jumping causes distractions to motorists on the bridge and swimmer or rafters below are typically not expecting someone to jump from above. Liske said oftentimes jumpers don’t think of the dangerous landing spot below. He said the ground is constantly changing throughout the day and rocks and holes can be in places people may not think of. “People see rocks and cliffs and think how much fun it would be jump off into the water,” Liske said. “I can think of the two fatalities and handful of serious injuries as a result of people bridge jumping.” The Journal’s Ben Furtado contributed to this story. Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com or post a comment.
----------
“People see rocks and cliffs and think how much fun it would be jump off into the water. I can think of the two fatalities and handful of serious injuries as a result of people bridge jumping.” — Scott Liske, Auburn State Recreation Area ranger
----------
|
Change Location:
|
STUPID!
I am with you LocalGirl......truely STUPID!!!!
Awww, the kids are just having fun. And the parents who will get to pay the medical bills and/or funeral costs are where?
To P.C.S.O. & The State Park Rangers, Since there is a license plate number here, shouldn't some one be cited?
To "Logan", You're a freaking moron.
To "Logan's Parents", wow, how proud you must be. Oh wait let me guess. When the story breaks about "Logan's" upcoming funeral, we'll all have to read about what a GOOD kid he was, blah blah blah. No sympathy for the stupid.
Hey "ltheazyc2" why would P.C.S.O. cite someone in El Dorado County?
In the second picture, catch the little **** on the right hand side climbing up the bridge support structure about 10 feet above the deck of the bridge.
Darwinism in action.
This looks risky! Those kids should be sitting at home making comments on the internet.
Wow you commentors are such a bunch of pansies. Thank God there are still kids out there who are enjoying their youth, instead of living virtually through tv or vid games. I'm sure there have been hundreds of jumps made in the past couple of weeks and no fatalities or injuries Maybe we should make a law that they at least have to wear helmets. Waaaaaaaaaaaaa !!! Good for you Logan. I envy you.
24 years ago I was jumping off this same bridge and I was never injured. Just living life is a risk. Riding my horse is a risk. People are going to die jumping from bridges and walking across the street. People die scuba diving and skydiving but do we say they're stupid? If they want to risk their life doing this activity who are we to call them stupid.
i have had my time jumping off bridges and ropeswings at every puddle in the area. i had not been injured until a ropeswing at rollins fractured both my ankleswhen i undersetimated the depth of the lake. i still have problems with one of them. i am lucky. the force of a body hitting the water surface is taken directly to the feet and a shockwave is sent through the skeletal system. under the right conditions, this can lead to a compressed spine. paralization is highly probable. these people are not dumb, just in full belief they are bullet proof. i feel that injuries are not reported at the time due to inebriation or fear of reprisal. the impact on the water is what kills a suicide jumper. does more need to be said?
Bridge jumping, drinking and driving, drugs, unprotected sex, most kids don't use good judgement. Common sense doesn't kick in until sometime after the 25th birthday.
Look people who are saying the kids ought just have their fun. I did a lot of stupid stuff like this, too, when I was a kid back in "the day" but now people are sue-happy. Just wait, one of these kids will get injured or killed and the parents will sue the county for not inforcing the laws or maybe this paper for publishing pictures of them jumping and all the people who were watching.
I'm surprised to see kids today doing this kind of thing. In a weird way it makes me feel better about today's youth. I'm not condoning or even talking about the kid who jumped from a moving truck. That's simply stupid and there is no other word for it.
Yes, jumping from a bridge is risky. But for God's sake thirty years ago nobody would have even batted an eyelash. I jumped from the Imperial Beach pier into the Pacific with my cousins, something that seemed like a thirty-foot drop but was probably more like twenty feet. Nobody paid us the slightest attention. We used to jump off the roof of our houses and off rocks into the river and do all sorts of nutty stuff. The thing is there are people who never think through what they are going to do before they do it - no matter what it is - and those who do and take the calculated risk. I remember diving down from swimming on the surface to check out a dive hole to make sure there weren't any logs or rocks even if we had used that hole many times. Things change. But others would "just do it". These are the people CanyonRat referred to that Darwin was talking about. I never saw anyone get hurt but it happened back then and it still happens today. I'm sorry to hear about getalong's experience.
When I was in Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War we lived on a supertanker pier that was fifty-five feet above the water. I remember my shock when a crazy, bored sailor stood at the edge and then said "I can't stand it any more. I'm going in the water." He stepped off the pier and hit the water in his uniform including boots and then swam over to a ladder and hauled himself out of the water, no worse for wear. We weren't allowed in the water because the Marines had decreed that anything found swimming in the water would be shot first and asked questions next.
I can't tell you how many people I have talked to who tell me they wouldn't even go aboard a submarine much less live on one. Yeah, it was dangerous but on the other hand it was thrilling and important. I hope the kids of today grow up willing to take risks like that because our country doesn't need a bunch of pampered, overprotected rollie-pollies such as the people depicted in the movie Wall-E.
miwtant, I totally agree with your post. I think that I would much rather see kids doing this kind of activity, something that most of us did at that age, than sitting around playing video games. Now that I'm much older I look back and sometimes call myself stupid out loud but dang, it was fun. All my friends did the same and some of us broke a few bones but risk taking is a part, a very important part of life. Without risk the new world would have never been discovered, man would not have landed on the moon and Microsoft, a different kind of risk taking, would not exist.
So young people of the world, go out and take a risk, it will make you stronger and probably wiser later in life, it will build inner strength and as an added bonus you can say I did that, whatever the "that" may be.
As a father, it was my duty to chew the kids out when they did things that could endanger their life or limb, inside though, I was very proud.
Cool , trim the population.
all you guys are lame. im the sexy kid in the black shorts about to jump out of the truck while driving close to 30 mph. and the drop was only 20 ft. all you people piss me off. im sorry im stayin in shape by climbin to the top of that beam every day while all you worry warts are becoming more obese while you leave unnecessary comments about kids you don't even know. oooo my gosh what are those kids doing!!!???? jumping off a bridge!!!???? ive never heard of such a thing.
freakin losers