July 26, 1992 52 pages

Office, Editorial 985-2131

Fashion: 13

Special feature
Our Town: 21

Classifieds 986-6222

Distribution 986-1337

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

A YOUNGSTER takes to the surf at West Vancouver’s Ambleside Beach on a hot, sunny afternoon. The
weather office is predicting that sunny skies are here to stay for awhile, with temperatures expected to

reach the mid-20s.

24-year-old lives after falling 50 metres
from Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge

Mer fall follows twin tragedies

IN WHAT apparently was a practical joke gone horrifical-
ly wrong, a young woman survived a 164-foot (50 metre)
fal from the Lyan Canyon Suspension Bridge early Friday

morning.

Astounded rescuers are calling
the misadventure a miracle.

Stephanie James, 24, of Var.
couver, fell the equivalent of ap-
proximately 20 storeys before
landing in Third Falls Pool. She
was listed Friday in stable condi-
tion in the intensive care unit of

By Michael Becker

News Reporter

Lions Gate Hospital, where she
was taken for precautionary
observation.

last Sunday that claimed the lives

of a 15-year-old boy and a 27-
year-old man in the canyon.

Emergency personnel at the
scene found James — a svif-
described non-swimmer — bruised
and scraped but conscious and
crying for help as she fought to
stay afleat in the frigid creek
walter.

Said LGH Dr. Warren Mayo,
“She’s perfectly stable. I think

she’s a very lucky woman — 1b-
solutely. She should be so lucky
buying lottery dekets."

To press time Friday,
had declined to tik with
press.

Emergency response crews were
called to the scene at about 2:20
a.m. on Friday.

According to North Vancouver
District, Fire Department reseue
commander Gary Calder, the
woman said she had been on the
suspension bridge with friends.

“What she told me is that she
was with her friends and that she
had flipped back, pretending to
flip back off the bridge.

“She had done that once and

James
the

ae tS

had got quite a reaction from her
friends, and so she did it again, to
have another sort of joke, and of
course the second time she did it.
she did it in reality,” he said.
Responding — firefighters tossed
an inner tube attached to a rope
down to the screaming woman.
She managed to grab hold, and
the men on the bridge guided her
away from the falls at the pool.
Last year in August, 21-year-
old Thomas Lee of Coquitlam and
17-year-old Sung Un Yon of
Burnaby died in Third Falls Pool
after jumping in and succumbing
to the suction of a hydraulic

See Misadventure page &