July 10, 2019

"I was floating in a cloud. I had no sensation of up or down. I didn’t have any sensation in my stomach like you might have on a roller coaster... that moment when your stomach is in your throat."

Said Roger Woodward, who was 7 years old when he became the first person ever to survive going over Niagara Falls falls without being inside any sort of barrel or other enclosure. He was wearing a life jacket however. He's quoted in "A man was swept over the largest waterfall at Niagara Falls, police say. He survived" (WaPo), about a new case of survival, by an unnamed man:
With no protective covering and facing a roughly 188-foot drop into a roiling pool of water filled with large rocks, history suggested that the man’s survival was unlikely. Scores have died taking the plunge either by accident or, in most cases, intentionally. According to the Buffalo News, it is estimated that 25 people annually commit suicide by going over the falls.

But as authorities scoured the lower Niagara River for the man Tuesday morning, they came across an unusual sight. The man was sitting on rocks near the edge of the river — and he was alive. He was found with non-life-threatening injuries and transported to the hospital for further care, police said.

21 comments:

David Begley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann Althouse said...

Weird near-homophone typo. Thanks. Fixed.

Craig Howard said...

I was also 7 when Roger Woodward went over the Falls; the story, of course, received extensive and dramatic coverage in the Buffalo papers [we had two of those then].

It was my first experience of someone my age making important news and I lived vicariously through Roger for several days. I'm experiencing a weird flashback to that time now. Hadn't thought of him in decades.

Ralph L said...

You could say he wandered lonely, too.

Paul said...

25 commit suicide each year over the falls? Guess we have to ban them!! Do it for the children folks!

I also wonder how many are pushed...

PJ said...

It seems unlikely that young Roger was the “first person ever” to accomplish the feat, though he was undoubtedly the first to have the event contemporaneously recorded in a manner that makes the information available to modern journalists.

rhhardin said...

"I had no sensation of up or down."

That's what Einstein thought, to come up with special relativity.

General relativity had to wait for tensors.

Chuck said...

Wow! 25 people a year committing suicide going over Niagara Falls? That's almost as many as the number of couples who honeymoon there. I recall hearing the startling numbers of people who were committing suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Something about those national landmarks, I guess. With the Golden Gate, there were stories about how they were setting up cameras to watch for jumpers, and even talk of setting up nets, right? What ever happened to the Golden Gate Bridge-suicide phenomenon? There's really nothing that can be done with Niagara Falls, I expect, to deter suicides.

{#4}

mezzrow said...

I met Roger through work when I was in my twenties. Good guy. He just dropped the Niagara Falls story in at some point and I got the same story then. The most amazing part is that he lived to tell the tale.

john said...

"...Jones suffered two fractured ribs and bruised some vertebrae. He was later arrested and banned for life from the Canadian side of the falls, according to the Free Press. Jones died in 2017 at 53 years old after attempting to go over the falls again, this time inside an inflatable ball with his pet boa constrictor, Misty."

Some people gotta do what some people gotta do. The snake however was probably not given a say in the matter.

rcocean said...

1995 - Robert Overcracker rides a jetski over the brink of the Horseshoe Falls to help promote awareness for the homeless. His parachute did not open and Robert ended up promoting better parachutes. He plunged to his death and his body was never recovered.

From surfing the net, it seems you can safely go over the falls, if your "Barrel" is sufficiently floatable and protected. Jetskis - Kyacks-Canoes - etc. seem to be a death sentence.

Original Mike said...

They have to fish a body out every couple of weeks? Good grief.

PB said...

No mention of blood alcohol. Drunk people seem to survive a large number of accidents that normally kill or maim.

PB said...

It's mesmerizing to watch the speed and volume of water flowing in the river above the falls.

PB said...

Sometimes falling feels like flying, for a little while."

Original Mike said...

Blogger PB said..."It's mesmerizing to watch the speed and volume of water flowing in the river above the falls."

I was dragged on a trip to Niagara Falls when I was a teenager, but when I got there my response was, "Holy Crap, this is awsome!"

madAsHell said...

1995 - Robert Overcracker rides a jetski over the brink of the Horseshoe Falls to help promote awareness for the homeless.

Someone needs to tell Funk & Wagnalls to update the definition of futility.

Andrew said...

I haven't seen it mentioned yet in the comments. Roger's sister almost went over the falls, and was rescued at the last minute. Google "miracle of Niagara Falls."

Roger credits the Spirit of the living God for saving him and his sister.

Original Mike said...

"Roger credits the Spirit of the living God for saving him and his sister."

If God had been quicker, he could have rescued both of them.

Yancey Ward said...

"No mention of blood alcohol. Drunk people seem to survive a large number of accidents that normally kill or maim."

Probably an illusion- drunk people are far more likely both to die in and survive such accidents because they are far more likely to have them.

D 2 said...

When I think of Niagara Falls, I think of the 1950s. People across the east (and maybe the Midwest?) driving over, to see. Hotels you pull into. Maybe get a nice meal at this out of the way diner in a small town off the highway that your neighbour Bob talked about, you just got to go there, try their pie.

In my mind, places like Niagara then sort of coasted on laurels maybe for a decade or two. You woke up in the late 70s or early 80s and the world had moved on to Santa Fe, wanting to see some other mystical aspect. There is still good pie at the diner near Rochester and hearing that mad rush of water makes you pause, but did you ever see....

I wasn't alive in the 50s but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Thank you for posting this.