Internal memo orders staff not to reveal deaths in national parks

[lapfog_1]

1. this is so stupid it is criminal

In my "youth" ( age 29 ) I taught scuba driving in the Caribbean. I belonged to something called DAN or Divers Alert Network. It was subscription only, no advertisements. The last page or two was a column called "Why Divers Die"... they covered in great detail any reported deaths in the last month or so. Also missing divers, bad dive operations ( boat left before all divers recovered, etc ). I read all the case files and used that to remind myself that diving was not the safest sport, especially for the occasional vacation diver. Of course people did stupid things ( cave diving with 1 tank of air shared with 2 17 year old boys, etc ). But each report highlighted at least a few things that could have resulted in a different outcome.

Waterfalls in Yosemite claim a number of hikers almost every year. Those mountain steams ( in the spring and early summer ) are deceptively fast and powerful. rock "hiking" ( not technical climbing ) is so easy to twist an ankle or slip and fall, and those rocks are not forgiving. I don't know that the public will read or watch a report, but not releasing the information ensures that no one has any clue just how dangerous those vacations to the national park can be..