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    Another Near-Fatal Incident on Las Vegas Strip: Tourist Plunges 30 Feet

    By Todd Jacobs | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Sun, Jul 17, 2011
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
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    The Las Vegas Strip has been the scene of three deaths and now a near fatal accident on one of the pedestrian bridge escalators July 15 at 4:30 a.m., brings safety into the spotlight once again. The Las Vegas Sun reported a French tourist fell more than 30 feet from the top of the pedestrian bridge escalator attached to the Caesars Palace corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

    Witnesses told Las Vegas Metro Police the 39-year-old man was standing on the hand railing at the top of the escalator descending from the pedestrian bridge. Las Vegas Metro said later that alcohol played a role in the accident. The man was attempting to ride the railing to the ground before he plunged off the side of the escalator to the concrete below.

    The incident comes at a time when Las Vegas Sheriff Doug Gillespie has stepped up patrols on the Las Vegas Strip after three murders in the short span of one month. Suspects in all three murders are behind bars and all three murders are not related.

    The pedestrian bridges transport pedestrians over the most dangerous intersections on the Las Vegas Strip. There are four pedestrian bridges with the recent addition of the City Center bridge across Las Vegas Boulevard connecting to Planet Hollywood.

    The pedestrian bridges have served their purpose keeping pedestrian versus car incidents down on the Las Vegas Strip but they have become dangerous in the late evening and early morning hours due to transients and the drunk revelers on the sometimes dimly lit bridges connecting the casinos.

    Yahoo News reported the June 25 stabbing death of one man and another critically injured stabbing victim on the pedestrian bridge between the MGM Grand and the New York, New York. The funeral of the victim was the scene of a brazen walk up shooting, injuring seven and lending credence to the gang-related theory of the stabbing death.

    The two other deaths on the Las Vegas Strip in the last month are also separate incidents. One involved a man involved in a verbal shouting match with another man on the casino floor of O'Shea's Casino. The verbal altercation became physical and after one punch to the jaw and nose, one man lie dead.

    The second stabbing death was possibly another gang-related murder in the 3700 Las Vegas Boulevard South area of the Strip. Las Vegas Metro Police have stepped up their gang enforcement units in the tourist corridor and have also brought in more plain clothes detectives to keep the most famous stretch of road in the country safe.

    Todd Jacobs is a Las Vegas resident of 16 years and has knowledge of the city and Nevada.
     

    6 comments

    • John R
      John R  •  10 mths ago
      For all the people that go to Vegas these crimes don't happen that often, I feel safer walking on the Strip than in my own city. As for drunken stupidity, yes that happens all the time there, but only the fool is to blame.
    • ICU2
      ICU2  •  10 mths ago
      This #$%$ was standing on the hand rail before he fell off ??................. Yep , he deserved it !!!
    • Queen
      Queen  •  10 mths ago
      Oh well, blank happens when a drunk acts stupidly.
    • elvis
      elvis  •  10 mths ago
      Just the media mkaing Vegas look bad again. The two stabbings were simply thugs in gangs, not related to random tourists. The man who died from the punch was a freak accident involving a fight, and the tourist was simply a drunk guy who fell to his death. These things happen.
    • frankd
      frankd  •  10 mths ago
      The same thing happened to me exactly three years to the day it happened to my friend Hal in another city but not in the summer but in the fall two weeks after it happened again.
    • Glen E
      Glen E  •  10 mths ago
      I THOUGHT IT WAS A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED,NOT HIS LIFE. LOOKS LIKE GAMING WILL HAVE TO STEP IN AND IMPOSE A CONNOT GAMBLE WHEN DRUNK LAW LIKE COLORADO
     Post a comment
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