Editorial
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The Sea Cliff Bridge has been an iconic and eye-catching structure since it was officially opened back in 2005.
Advertising executives have been drawn to it ever since and, more than a decade later, the bridge still appears in television commercials.
Apparently it’s also featured in a few video games.
It has certainly become a tourism drawcard for the city, with plenty of people coming to feast their eyes on the coast-hugging bridge.
But, for some, that quest to get the perfect view or the ideal Instagram photo leads to them taking risks.
They walk along train lines, climb around fences and scale steep rises where the footing is not sure – all to get to the cliff overlooking the bridge.
A cliff that has no fencing and – if images online are any indication – features large patches of bare earth near the precipice, which is testament to the number of people who have walked right to the edge and stood there.
In the early afternoon on Saturday, a group of friends were walking in this area, along the top of the cliff.
They stopped for a rest, one man sat down on loose soil, slid downhill to the edge and plummeted 40 metres.
At this stage it is unclear whether the man was taking a photo at the time he fell – but that hardly matters.
The weekend’s tragedy already has some people thinking twice about taking a journey to the cliff side.
“Looks like we won’t go there again,” one person wrote on the Mercury’s Facebook page while tagging in their friends.
“OMG, lets not do that with the kids again,” wrote another.
It's definitely worth rethinking the idea of going to what has been tagged “the secret lookout”.
Not only is it trespassing – the presence of a fence across the path at the top blocking access is proof of that – but it’s also dangerous.
That’s a heartbreaking reality that one family is dealing with right now.