‘The rope, people, the rope!’: 21yo woman hurled to death after workers allegedly forget to attach bungee rope

A 21-year-old woman, named as Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, has died after a bungee jump went terribly wrong in Limeria, Brazil, on June 13th.

Reports and video evidence indicates the workers allegedly forgot to attach the bungee cord to her. Footage captured from multiple angles showed the woman being carried to the edge of Skeleton Bridge, apparently unaware that the safety rope was not attached.

In the immediate seconds after she was released, bystanders can reportedly be heard shouting “The rope, people, the rope!”. She then fell 130ft to her death. Emergency services were summoned, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her body was recovered and transferred to the Legal Medical Institute for investigation, and six people were arrested at the scene. O Globo reports that three instructors were initially detained and face charges of homicide with “dolo eventual” (assuming the risk of causing death through negligence).

A report from local TV station Arapuan alleges that a final equipment check wasn’t performed before the jump and that the group responsible for the activity wasn’t authorized to be at this location.

“Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?”

De Freitas, a physical education and sports management student, also reportedly posted how excited she was for this jump in an Instagram story just before her death. O Globo says she joked: “Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?”

Skydive California underlines that for physically healthy people under proper supervision, bungee jumping is statistically very safe. The fatality rate is around 1 in 500,000 jumps, so comparable to or safer than many everyday activities like driving. Even so, there are multiple incidents of bungee jump injuries and fatalities.

For example, in 2021 25-year-old woman Yecenia Morales Gómez jumped from a viaduct in Colombia to her death without her bungee cord attached after hearing a signal to jump intended for her boyfriend. Another woman, Erin Langworthy, had her bungee cord snap during a jump from a bridge over the Zambezi River in Zambia, hitting the water and surviving with serious injuries.

The Bungee Store gives advice to potential jumpers, recommending that you ensure you are booking with a reputable operator with an impeccable safety record:

“Check the safety standards they stick to, read their Trustpilot reviews, certificates and ask as many questions before making the decision to bungee jump with a specific provider.”

They underline that “there’s no shame in postponing your bungee jump to a time when you’ll feel more prepared.”