An elderly tourist sustained minor injuries after falling from a three-metre drop at Peggys Cove, N.S. Tuesday afternoon.
The cruise ship passenger injured his head and leg in the fall.
“He was banged up around the head area and I told him not to move and the ambulance was on the way,” says photographer Bruce Stephen, who called 911.
“It was an elderly gentleman and it was a little nasty.”
The incident has sparked questions about whether tourists are aware of the dangers at one of Canada’s most photographed lighthouses.
The government used to hire people to patrol the rocks around Peggys Cove and to warn people about the dangers in the area.
But the government eliminated the jobs because of liability issues, saying it wasn’t safe to have their own employees patrolling the areas they were trying to tell people to stay away from.
The Department of Tourism has placed warning signs on the rocks and says the site’s visitor information centre and brochures highlight the hazards.
“I think they’ve done a great job with the sidewalks and the watches they have with the storms, but there’s always going to be a great deal of danger here for people who don’t know the area,” says area resident Maureen Cameron.
While some tourists say they know to be cautious when visiting Peggys Cove, others admit they think nothing of it.
“They don’t realize the danger, that’s the problem,” says area resident John Corey. “They think everything is safe just because there’s a bunch of people around.”
