Video footage shows the harrowing incident in which a young woman almost fell to her death at the Grand Canyon. Emily Koford, 20, was stepping backwards to get the right angle for a photo of her mother, when she temporarily lost her footing.
Koford was visiting the Arizona landmark with her mother, Erin, on October 28, when the event unfolded as they stopped to take a picture. Kevin Fox, who filmed the video, was watching on from a nearby ledge on the south rim of the canyon. In the footage, he swoops around the park, illustrating just how high up the pair is and how far anyone stepping over the edge would be falling.
In the clip, we can see the heart-stopping moment Koford is so focused on the picture that she isn’t looking where she’s placing her feet. She ends up almost slipping off the edge entirely. In some places, the canyon is more than a mile deep, meaning death is almost certain.
Speaking to ABC News about the near-miss, Koford’s mother, Erin, said: “I saw that the ledge was right there and I said: ‘Don’t take another step back.'” She said her stomach “went up into [her] chest” when she saw her daughter stumble. After it happened, she “was scared and angry all at the same time.” In the video, she can be seen grabbed and shaking her daughter. She says she remembers saying: “You just scared me to death, Emily.”
Emily told ABC her mother was “gritting her teeth she was so mad.”
ABC said there have been a reported 64 deaths since the National Park opened, including 17 last year.