RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: A young woman died in Brazil after being launched off a bridge for a rope jump without a safety cord, police said Sunday (Jun 14).
In videos of the Saturday accident circulating online, two men hoist the 21-year-old above their heads and launch her off Skeleton Bridge, in the interior of Sao Paulo state, while onlookers realise there is no safety mechanism attached and shout “Guys, the cord!”
“The safety equipment was not properly secured at the time of the jump. The victim did not survive the fall,” police said in a statement to AFP.
Three men were arrested for “homicide with dolus eventualis” – meaning they were aware of the risk of death but went ahead anyway.
“Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances and establish liability,” said the police.
Local media identified the victim as Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, and said she fell around 40m to her death.
Shortly before the accident, de Freitas posted an image of the site on Instagram captioned: “Who was the crazy person who let me come jump off a bridge???”
Previous videos of the extreme sport at the bridge, carried out by the Entre Cordas company, show participants with a thick safety cord around their waists as they are launched off.
Rope jumping differs from bungee jumping in that it uses a less elastic cord, meaning participants swing back and forth rather than bouncing at the end of the jump.
American Dan Osman, considered the inventor of the sport, died rope jumping in 1998 at the age of 35.