Rope Jumper Falls to Her Death After Operators Fail to Secure Harness
A woman rope jumping from a bridge in Brazil’s São Paulo State on Saturday died after instructors failed to attach her to safety equipment, according to the Civil Police of the State of São Paulo.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, of Jandira, São Paulo, was thrown from the abandoned Ponte do Esqueleto, or Skeleton Bridge, a popular spot for rope jumping about 100 miles northwest of the city of São Paulo. The bridge stands about 30 meters, or just under 100 feet, above the ground, according to a police report reviewed by The New York Times.
Rope jumping is similar to bungee jumping but differs in the type of rope used: While a bungee rope stretches to bounce the jumper up and down, rope jumping uses a less flexible rope that swings outward when it goes taut. Ms. de Freitas, however, was not connected to any rope.
Videos of the incident, which went viral on social media over the weekend, showed Ms. de Freitas lifted over the heads of two instructors, her arms spread like wings, before they threw her off the side of the bridge. The two instructors appeared to be wearing harnesses attached to a rope, and a third helped hoist her up by the ankles before stepping back as she was carried to the edge.
Earlier videos from the same bridge show jumpers being launched over instructors’ heads as Ms. de Freitas was, but with a thick rope clipped in two places to a harness. The clips on Ms. de Freitas’s harness appeared empty, according to the videos.
A nurse was attempting to resuscitate Ms. de Freitas when the police arrived, but officers found her with no vital signs, according to the police report.
Three men who worked for the company offering rope jumps were arrested in connection with Ms. de Freitas’s death, according to the report, which said that two of them had fled the scene after being questioned by police. They were later apprehended. The company was not authorized to conduct jumps from the bridge, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services.
Ms. de Freitas carried a GoPro-style camera when she jumped, the police said, but officers were not able to find it at the scene, and the instructors said they did not know its whereabouts.
Ms. de Freitas was buried in São Paulo State on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
Leonardo Coelho contributed reporting.
