Ontario teen about to start at UBC dies in fall while at Vancouver park with three pals

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VANCOUVER — A 17-year-old from Ontario who was about to start his studies at the University of British Columbia is dead after climbing over a fence and falling off a cliff in a popular Metro Vancouver park.

North Vancouver assistant fire chief Dwayne Derban said the boy was with three friends in an off-trail area of Lynn Canyon Park when it happened Sunday afternoon.

Derban said the area had a chain-link fence about 1.5 metres tall marking the edge of the cliff as well as signage warning people to stay away from dangerous areas.

But Derban said the teen’s friends told firefighters that he had climbed over the fence to get a better view of the river canyon and he “just got too close” to the edge.

“The cliff that he fell over was about 50 metres. He fell onto rocks below, it wasn’t into the water,” Derban said, adding a first responder found the boy had no pulse.

The teen had been enrolled at the University of British Columbia, where the new semester starts next week.

“They were four friends, all just finishing high school,” Derban said, adding the other three students have plans to start university in Ontario and the United States.

“They were all academic and looking forward to an exciting future,” he said.

The area where the boy fell is “completely safe as long as you stay within the areas that are meant to be walked in,” Derban said, adding no one should hop any fencing.

“People go over and you can see paths on the other side and it looks inviting, like an awesome view, but the dangers that are inherent are just not worth the risk.”