Bungee Jumping Death: Girl, 17, Dies After Plummeting 131 Feet, Wasn’t ‘Fully Secured’
A teen has died while on vacation in northern Spain after an adventure company failed to properly secure the girl during a bungee jump gone terribly wrong. The 17-year-old Dutch tourist was performing her second bungee jump of the day when she fell 131 feet from a bridge to a dry river bed below.
The Daily Mail reports that the 17-year-old Dutch tourist was camping with a group of friends in the town of Cabezon de la Sal in Cantabria, located in northern Spain. The group secured an adventure sports company to organize a series of bungee jumps for the tourists. The 17-year-old girl successfully completed her first bungee jump earlier in the day before making her way to the arched viaduct for her second jump of the day. However, local police chief Joaquín González says the girl was not “fully secured” before making the jump, and subsequently fell to her death in the failed bungee jump attempt.
El Diario Montanes reports that the teen was in a group of over a dozen other teens, most of foreign origin, according to the report, when the tragedy took place on the bridge. The report indicates that the other teens looked on in horror as the girl fell to her death in the dry river bed below. The police chief and mayor say they were unaware that bungee jumping took place from the bridge, but noted that the jump location was “extremely risky.” The police note that emergency personnel were sent to the scene in a bid to save the young girl’s life. However, despite their best efforts, the teen was pronounced dead at the scene.
An investigation into the the bungee jumping death is now underway, with police trying to determine exactly why the teen was not “fully secured” prior to the jump. Meanwhile, city officials say that psychologists have been called in to work with the group of young people that witnessed the horrifying fall.
This is not the first bungee jumping death in Spain this year. In fact, just last month, a 23-year-old British tourist was killed during her second jump of the day with an adventure company in Lanjaron, Spain. A report by officials in Lanjaron noted that the adventure company group monitor, working alone at the time of the accident, “did not do his job with sufficient care and the necessary precautions” and blamed rope miscalculations for the death. The adventure sports monitor and the group’s owner were accused of negligent homicide in the case.
Should the adventure company be charged with negligent homicide in the most recent case?
[Image Credit: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images]
