(CNN) — A man who climbed over a retaining wall and was swept over the largest of the three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls survived a 188-foot plunge into the river below.
“That’s just uncanny that somebody could do that,” Tim Baxter, Director of Operations at Oakwood Cemetery, told WKBW-TV.
Niagara Parks Police say they were alerted to a person in crisis at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.
When officers arrived at the scene, they learned the man was swept over the falls after he climbed over the retaining wall and jumped into the river.
The man was later spotted sitting on rocks in the Lower Niagara Basin. He was rescued and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“It’s happened three times in history that I know of,” Baxter told the news outlet.
Baxter says several daredevils are buried at the cemetery, such as Annie Yates Taylor, who survived a fall over the Horseshoe Falls in 1981.
Others were not so lucky because a trip over the falls is not gentle.
“When the bodies were recovered there they’re literally crushed and you know I don’t want to get into details. I mean it’s not a pretty sight,” Baxter said.
Tuesday’s incident comes exactly 59 years to the day after 7-year-old Roger Woodward, wearing only a life preserver, went over the Horseshoe Falls and lived after the boat he was riding in capsized.
The only other person to go over and live without any protection was Kirk Jones in 2003.
Four years later, Jones tried to go over a second time in a plastic bubble, but he ended up dying in the attempt.
(Copyright (c) 2025 CNN. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)