Should natural beauty spots be made safer?

[Alloverthegrapevine]

[[BBC News - Terror after girl falls 100ft down Llanberis waterfall
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53570487]]

I'm sure it was awful, terrifying for all concerned and thank goodness the little girl is OK.

The family "have called for better safety measures".

Do we really want safety barriers and signs all over our natural beauty spots though? Surely people should be able to recognise that a child near a waterfall is potentially dangerous and act without a sign to tell them so?

Oh dear, what happened there?

[[BBC News - Terror after girl falls 100ft down Llanberis waterfall
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53570487]]

I give up, don't think that's me!

No but parents could be deemed responsible for evaluating risks

No, people should be responsible for their own well being.

No, parents should be capable of taking care of their kids or not take them to such places.

I have been taking my kids here for years. I have never allowed them to climb up the area where the (young!) child seems to have fallen from. Neither have I let them out of my sight. The girl is very lucky not to have had a serious or life threatening injury.

Why should signs and barriers be put in a natural place of beauty.. Also someone else's land?

It was so dangerous that they felt they should climb up again to see if there was a sign?!

How were these people staying 2 metres apart from locals and others on such paths I wonder.

The same type of people want a label on a bottle of milk saying 'contains milk'. A cliff with a fast flowing waterfall is obviously dangerous for a small child. Common sense is needed, not signs.

I thought the same as you OP when I read the article earlier. Obviously I have every sympathy for the family and can only imagine the terror they felt, but we often go on rural walks and bike rides and as a parent I consider it MY job to risk assess. I don’t need a barrier to tell me something isn’t safe.

I wonder if incidents like this are a direct result of over-cautious attitudes to health and safety. We are so used to being in environments which have been risk assessed that we have come to expect that public places - even wild ones - are somehow 'safe', and subconsciously trust in that assumption even when it goes against apparent common sense.

No, that's ridiculous. Putting in barriers and safety measures are sanitising the great outdoors.

If you're too thick to keep hold of your 6 year old standing on the top of a waterfall, then you're too thick to leave the house.

Same type of people who try to climb Ben Nevis in flip-flops and act all surprised when they have to be pulled off the summit by Mountain Rescue.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53570487

Funnily enough the people who call for everywhere in nature to be hedged in and made inaccessible don't seem to have any problem at all with living in places where tonnes of metal pass at great speed all day and you are likely to die if you step off the kerb. It's only nature that's seen as so unimportant that you can't leave it alone.

When i read the quote about them returning to,check there were signs etc i immediately thought they were looking to sue council. What happened is awful and must have been so scary for her but it looks like there is a barrier already in place

Yes I was thinking exactly the same what did they want signs to say? Warning only intelligent people allowed?

no.
parents should supervise and make dc aware of danger.

That little girl was amazingly lucky to get away without injury.
It's not possible to make places like this entirely safe, it's not a park, people do have to take personal responsibility.

I know this particular waterfall well.
It's a popular but hazardous swimming spot and a quick google will show you that fatalities have happened here in recent years.

Accidents can and do always happen unexpectedly but I have to say it would not be easy to fall in / over without intending to, unless you were doing something fairly risky.

If the media reports are correct, she fell from the top pool (first pic) down the dramatic chute into the main pool (2nd pic). Neither are very easy to access.