Grief counsellors to help staff at Capilano Suspension Bridge

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Police have identified but are not naming the man who fell to his death at the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver.

Mounties confirm the 30-year-old man was from St. Catharines, Ontario and was here on vacation. The man’s name is not being released at this time at the request of his family.

The accident happened Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

Cpl. Richard De Jong of North Vancouver RCMP says they are now reviewing video surveillance tape from the tourist attraction, and sorting through witness accounts.

He says he hopes police can provide a more detailed account of why the men fell later this week.

Terrain where the man fell was so steep, it took high-angle technical crews to get to the body.

“He was laying along the canyon floor motionless on the rocks below. He fell about 200 feet,” notes De Jong.

Chris Freimond with the park couldn’t provide many more details. “There are differing accounts from different people who saw it happen, but at this point, we don’t know exactly what happened.”

The coroners service has now taken over the investigation.

Grief counsellors will spend the next few days helping staff at the bridge and park deal with the death. Sue Kaffka with the bridge says the mood is a lot different than usual, following the tragedy.

“[Staff] are used to Capilano being a happy place,” she notes.”It’s very different for them and that is why we’ve brought counsellors to work with them and help them through it.”

The fatal fall comes nearly two years to the day a California teenager fell to his death at the tourist attraction. On June 6, 2010, the tourist, on a class trip, climbed over a railing and fell more than 30 metres from a fenced off viewing platform near the bridge.

The official RCMP finding was that the teen was under the influence of LSD at the time of the incident.

Back in 1999, an 18-month-old survived a fall after her mother dropped her from the bridge itself.