A 14-year-old girl died after falling 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, which is located within the Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona, three days after the majority of the federal staff was placed on furlough. A man who had been injured in a fall at Yosemite National Park in California died the next day, Christmas. At the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which spans the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee, a woman was killed on December 27 by a falling tree.
The Interior Department has ceased most of its operations, but Trump administration officials decided to keep the picturesque, but occasionally lethal, parks open. This decision led to the deaths. In order to significantly reduce the risk of park damage and visitor injury, the National Park Service has already implemented lengthy shutdowns that have prohibited public access to several of its sites around the country. According to Jeremy Barnum, a spokesman for the National Park Service, seven fatalities have occurred in national parks since the closure. He said, “According to officials, four of the deaths were suicides.”
According to him, the park system sees six deaths on average every week, which includes natural causes like heart attacks and suicides as well as accidents like drownings, falls, and car wrecks. The leading causes of death in national parks include drowning, car crashes, falls, and suicides.
Barnum stated in an email that “the National Park System offers a wide range of visitor experiences throughout the year in distinctive landscapes with potential hazards that may exist at parks across the nation.” “Guests can lessen their chance of getting hurt if they make the right preparations in advance, choose the activity that best suits their experience and skill level, research potential risks and environmental conditions before visiting the park, abide by rules and regulations, and exercise good judgment when acting out scenarios.”
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