People Who Took the Plunge Over Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is a group of three massive waterfalls that are a popular tourist destination for people all over the globe.
What makes these waterfalls so breathtaking is the combination of height and extreme volume. But with powerful water comes serious danger.
More than 5,000 people gone over the Niagara Falls, with about 40-50 people making the plunge each year. Not all are accidents though, some people actually do it on purpose.
Here are 25 people who went over the falls, some survived, some did not.
Location
The Niagara Falls are located at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States.
The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries.
Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0 ,Wikimedia Commons
Characteristics
It’s important to first know just how powerful this entire body of water is, so that you understand the magnitude of what happens to a human being going over them.
The power is driven by the force/flow of the water, combined with the height the water falls from. As well, what lies below the falls significantly adds to the danger.
Characteristics: Height
Horseshoe Falls is whopping 187 ft high and 2,590 ft wide.
The height of the American Falls is 98 ft at its highest part, and 1,050 ft wide.
Thomaswm, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Characteristics: Flow
Most of the tallest falls in the world have very little water flowing over them. Although Niagara Falls isn’t the tallest waterfall, its definitely one of the most powerful due to its volume and speed of water.
An impressive 3,000 tons of water flow over the falls every second.
Speeds are recorded at 68mph. The rapids above the falls reach a maximum speed of 25mph.
Characteristics: Below the Falls
The deepest section of the Niagara River is just below the falls at a profound 170ft. The speed of the current makes the deep, treacherous water even scarier, at 35mph.
Also, there are countless giant rocks at the bottom of the falls that can easily destroy things on impact.
Thousands of people have met the bottom, either intentionally or accidentally, and some have even lived to tell the tale.
Joseph Avery, 1853
Avery was in a boat with two other men, rowing from Goat Island to the mainland when their boat capsized.
The other two men went over the falls immediately. But Avery grabbed onto a tree branch and held on tight for an impressive 18 hours. Several attempts were made to rescue him.
One boat succeeded, but then it also capsized, throwing Avery back into the water.
Sadly, none of the men from the boat survived.
Annie Edson Taylor, 1901
The first person ever recorded to survive going over the falls was school teacher Annie Edson Taylor, who purposely went over the falls inside an oak barrel as an adventure stunt to hopefully make her money.
She was 63 years old, and she performed the stunt on her birthday in October. Sadly, her financial gains were minimal.
Francis J. Petrie Photograph Collection, Wikimedia Commons
Ed Delahanty, 1903
Delahanty was a baseball player who was later elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was swept over the falls after falling from a railway bridge where he was recently kicked off a train for being tipsy and disorderly.
Delahanty's body was later recovered near the Maid of the Mist's dock; his body was mangled and one leg was severed.
Goodwin & Company, Wikimedia Commons
Bobby Leach, 1911
Leach was a circus freak who went over the falls in a metal barrel.
He survived, but he spent six months in the hospital afterward, recovering from two broken knee caps and a fractured jaw.
Robert Leach, Wikimedia Commons
Charles Stephens, 1920
Stephens was from Bristol, UK. He made the journey to the falls to intentionally go over in a barrel, like Leach before him. Leach had urged him to test his barrel first, but Stephens didn’t listen.
Stephens went over the falls in his barrel, but when the barrel surfaced the only part of him that was left was his right arm.
Google books, Wikimedia Commons
Jean Lussier, 1928
Lussier was another daredevil in search of a thrill. He decided to change the game this time though, and he went over the falls in a large ball with a spring steel frame and a rubber covering.
Miraculously, he survived.
George Stathakis, 1930
Stathakis, a small-time chef in Buffalo, also set out for adventure and went over the falls in a barrel. But this time, the barrel got stuck behind a curtain of water and could not be recovered for over 18 hours.
Stathakis only had enough air inside the barrel to last him eight hours, so although it is believed he survived the initial fall, he ended up suffocating.
Bonus fact: Stathakis took along his 150-year-old pet turtle. The turtle survived.
William "Red" Hill, Jr., 1951
Hill was the son of a local hero and well-known daredevil. He followed in his dad’s daring footsteps when he went over the falls in a craft he named “The Thing”.
The craft broke upon impact and Hill didn’t survive; his body was found the following day.
This was the final straw—American and Canadian authorities officially banned public stunts at the falls after this.
Toronto Star Archives, Getty Images
Roger Woodward, 1960
Woodward was only seven years old when he was swept over the falls.
Woodward and his sister were in a small fishing boat with one adult. The propellor stopped working. They were about 1 mile from the falls.
The boat capsized in the rapids. Onlookers raced to help, and his sister was rescued a mere 20 feet from the edge of the falls. Woodward wasn’t rescued in time and went over the falls.
Fortunately, he was wearing a life jacket, so he stayed buoyant and was rescued by the maid of the mist.
James Honeycutt, 1960
Honeycutt was the driver of the boat that capsized with seven-year-old Roger Woodward and his sister. Unfortunately, Honeycutt did not survive the fall.
Saffron Blaze, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Nathan Boya, 1961
Boya (born William Fitzgerald) went over the falls in a rubber ball nicknamed the "Plunge-O-Sphere". The ball hit rocks on impact and bounced, but Boya was miraculously uninjured.
Hesham Sayegh, 1981
Sayegh was a two-month-old baby who was dropped over the falls by his 27-year-old mother. She dangled him over the railing for several minutes before dropping her infant into the crashing waters below.
The baby’s tiny body was never recovered.
The mother was originally charged with second-degree homicide, but the charges were dismissed.
Robert F. Tobler, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Karel Soucek, 1984
Soucek was another person who went over the falls in a barrel. He was reportedly under the water for a concerning amount of time, but eventually emerged with only minor injuries to his face caused by his wristwatch during impact.
His speed over the falls was recorded at 75 mph. It took 45 minutes to recover him and the barrel.
Nick Starichenko, Shutterstock
Steve Trotter, 1985
Trotter also went over the falls in a barrel. It was his second attempt, actually. The first attempt was intervened by authorities a year prior.
Trotter survived the fall with no major injuries. He was only 22 at the time, making him the youngest person to survive the plunge in a barrel.
Ethan Sahagun, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
David Munday, 1985
Munday had made several attempts at going over the falls in a barrel. His first attempt failed when the Dam Control reduced the river depth and grounded his barrel. The second attempt failed when his barrel got lodged at the top of the falls.
His third attempt was successful and he survived with no injuries.
Joe Fielder, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Peter De Bernardi & Jeffery James Petkovich, 1989
De Bernardi and Petkovich went over the falls together in a reinforced barrel. They performed the stung to draw attention to an anti-substance campaign.
About a year later they made another attempt but were stopped by authorities.
Jessie Sharp, 1990
Sharp had plan: He was to kayak over the falls, and continue paddling down the river to a restaurant where he set up a dinner reservation.
After beginning the plunge in his plastic kayak, he quickly disappeared into the falls. His kayak was recovered, but his body was not.
Unfortunately, Sharp refused to wear a lifejacket in case it hindered his ability to escape. He also refused a helmet in order to keep his face visible for cameras.
Steve Trotter & Lori Martin, 1995
Trotter made his second descend over the falls with a partner this time, Lori Martin. Amazingly enough, the two survived, making it Trotters second successful plunge over the falls.
San Francisco Chronicle, Getty Images
Robert Overacker, 1995
Overacker went over the falls on a jet ski to raise awareness for the homeless. He wore a rocket propelled parachute with the plan to drop the jet ski and slowly descend into the water below.
Unfortunately, his parachute failed and he fell to his demise.
Kirk Jones, 2003
Jones approached the adventure a little differently. While feeling a little tipsy with his friends, he made the impulsive decision to swim over the falls and see if he survives. His friends planned to record the event.
Jones started swimming about 100 yards away from the brink of the falls and then went over the edge with his arms in the air.
His friends weren’t able to work the recorder, so it wasn’t document, however Jones did survive. He was fined $2,300 CAD. He had then told authorities it was not a stunt; it was actually an attempt at ending his life.
His name will come up again later in the list.
StockMediaSeller, Shutterstock
Unnamed, 2009
A 30-year-old Canadian man went over the falls in an attempt to end his life. During the ordeal his clothes were ripped off and he suffered a head injury and hypothermia, but he survived.
His name is not mentioned to protect his identity.
Ludmila Ruzickova, Shutterstock
Ayano Tokumasu, 2011
Tokumasu, a 19-year-old Japanese exchange student, was swept over the falls. Surveillance cameras in the area show her climbing onto the railing near the water's edge and sitting on a pillar block.
She stood up, lost her balance, and fell over the edge into the Niagara River, about 66 feet upstream from the falls.
Her body was recovered 4 days later.
Unnamed, 2012
An unnamed man in his early 40s became the fourth person to survive an unprotected trip over the Horseshoe Falls.
Witnesses report seeing his “deliberately jump” into the river after climbing over a railing, in what is believed to be an attempt at ending his life.
He survived, but with life-changing injuries.
Kirk Jones, 2017
Jones was mentioned earlier in the list. He was the tipsy guy that swam over the falls and survived. He got a whopping fine for the stunt, and then told authorities it was actually not a stunt after all, and that he had intentions of ending his life.
Well, in 2017 he did it again. This time he perished in the fall.
Unnamed, 2019
At about 4:00am, authorities were called to a person in crisis at the brink of the falls. As soon as officers arrived, the man jumped, going directly over the falls.
Officers then searched below and found the man sitting on the rocks near the water’s edge just up from the falls.
Statistics
This list only included 25 names of the thousands of people who have gone over the Niagara Falls.
Between 1958 and 1967, an average of 7 people per year went over the falls. From 1978 to 1988, the average was 12 per year.
Statistics: Intentional Acts
The majority of fatalities are intentional attempts at ending their lives. Many of these cases are not publicized by officials.
By 1900, approximately 1,000 people were believed to have gone over the falls with intentions of ending their lives.
In 2011, it was reported that 5,000 bodies had been recovered from the foot of the falls since 1850.
Of the daredevil attempts, the survival rate is a surprising 75%.
Final Thoughts
Some say Niagara Falls has a “hypnotic allure” that gives people the uncontrollable urge to jump into the powerful, swirling waters.
It’s a terrifying thought, though. All visitors to the Niagara Falls are urged to adhere to safety precautions and do not attempt any sort of adventure over the falls.
Not only is it unlawful and strictly enforced, it is also highly dangerous.
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