Three people have died from accidents in the national park system since the Trump administration decided to leave the parks open despite the ongoing government shutdown. The parks are open to the public, but the Interior Department has halted most park operations leading to a host of problems including pile up of human excrement. During previous government shutdowns in 1995 and 2013, the Clinton and Obama administrations, respectively, decided to close the parks altogether for fear that keeping them open would jeopardize public safety and the parks’ integrity. A total of seven people have died inside the parks during the current shutdown, but officials believe four of those deaths to be by suicide. On Dec. 21, a 14-year-old girl fell 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook in Arizona. On Christmas a man died from a fall at Yosemite National Park. And two days later a woman was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
