Living to tell the tale: Woman speaks out after falling off Cape Breton cliff
The beauty of Cape Breton's coastline attracts many to the cliffs for a closer look, but that can be dangerous.
Swivel Point in Sydney Mines is no exception.
“I went to take a picture of the nice view, and it was too late – and I was gone,” says 24-year-old Taylin Kavanaugh. “It's just not worth the picture.”
It was about a year ago when Kavanaugh says she fell 60 feet – about the height of two telephone poles – to the shoreline below after the ground beneath her crumbled.
She says she wasn’t even daringly close to the edge of the cliff when it happened, but about three or four meters away.
“It was definitely a horrible experience,” said Kavanaugh. “I couldn't move lying on the beach. I didn't know if I was going to die. I didn't know what was going to happen.”
Kavanaugh is speaking out after seeing someone post a picture of erosion in Point Aconi to social media.
Today, still recovering almost a year later, she walks with a cane.
“I shattered my pelvis on the right side, I broke a couple vertebrae in my lower back, and I broke my arm and my elbow, so I was in a wheelchair for almost two months after the accident,” she says.
CBRM Councillor Gordon MacDonald says there's not much that can be done to protect people from getting too close to the cliff's edge.
“You can go all around the island and there are big cliffs everywhere,” says MacDonald. “You absolutely have to use caution and you can't put signs up everywhere.”
It's not the first time someone had to be rescued after going over the side of a Cape Breton cliff - and MacDonald fears it won't be the last.
“There is all of kinds of erosion going on around here and people have to be cautious when you get out to those cliffs that are 25 to 65 feet high,” says MacDonald. “You should use extreme caution.”
Kavanaugh says the ground along the coast can be deceiving.
“You can't see what's underneath, and how far the erosion really goes back,” says Kavanaugh. “And, what looks like solid ground sometimes isn't. It happens really quickly.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Air turbulence: When can it become dangerous?
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
'Mr. Trump doesn't worry us', says Canadian ambassador
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues the 'Team Canada' charm offensive to U.S. lawmakers and business leaders, Canada's ambassador to the United States downplayed the effect of another Trump presidency on Canada.
WATCH Why today's inflation numbers are good if you have a mortgage
New inflation data is 'welcome news' for consumers and an economist says it could signal the possibility for a interest rate cut as several core measures also continue to ease.
'Miscommunication' Liberals say of Speaker Fergus event invite Conservatives call partisan
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is facing fresh Conservative-led calls to resign, this time over "very partisan" and 'inflammatory' language used – the Liberals say mistakenly – to promote an upcoming event.
Toronto Blue Jays fan struck by 110 m.p.h foul ball offered tickets, signed baseball by team
The Toronto Blue Jays have offered tickets and a signed baseball to a fan who says she was struck in the face by a 110 m.p.h (177 km/h) foul ball at Friday’s game.
OPP continues to investigate boat collision north of Kingston, Ont. that left 3 people dead
Ontario Provincial Police continue to investigate a long weekend fatal boat collision on Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont.
opinion Tom Mulcair: With Trudeau spiralling, Mark Carney waits in the wings
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
Loblaw boycott organizers say they plan to keep movement going past May
The organizers of a month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned stores say they've decided to extend the boycott past May.