A disused bridge in the Brazilian countryside is being sealed off and will eventually be blown up. A 21-year-old woman fell 130 feet from it to her death during a rope jumping stunt, because the safety rope was never attached to her. Her family says the structure must go so that nobody else suffers the same fate.
A fatal mistake caught on camera
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas came from São Paulo and hoped to become a physical education teacher. Over the weekend she visited the bridge, known locally as Ponte do Esqueleto, or Skeleton Bridge, on the border between Limeira and Cordeiropolis.
She asked to be launched from the edge airplane style, lifted above the instructors’ shoulders with her arms spread wide. Video shared on social media shows two men holding her by the arms while a third held her feet.
As the men swung her out over the drop, onlookers began to scream. They had realised that the rope was not attached. Maria fell the full 130 feet and was pronounced dead at the scene when the authorities arrived.
Arrests and anger online
The footage caused horror online, and many users demanded justice. Three men were arrested on Sunday: Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, Vitor de Freitas Goncalves and Maicon Fernandes Cintra. They have been charged with homicide, a charge that covers people who did not intend to kill but carried out dangerous acts.
Police investigator Andrea Levy said the instructors admitted that Maria had not been attached to the safety ropes. However, they could not remember whose job it was to make sure she was connected to the equipment.
Rope jumping differs from bungee jumping, which uses elastic cords for a vertical, bouncing fall. Rope jumping uses low-stretch climbing ropes that turn the fall into a horizontal, pendulum-like swing.
A family fights for demolition
Maria’s relatives got in touch with local lawmakers and asked for the bridge to be torn down. One of them was her uncle Luis, who identified her body. He said he was spreading "the word about the bridge… so that it gets demolished as soon as possible."
The bridge was originally part of a railroad project that was abandoned three decades ago. Work to close it off reportedly began on Wednesday. Workers were seen blocking the entrances only hours after São Paulo officials signed the paperwork approving its destruction.
Councilor Bruna Magalhaes explained that the job will happen in three phases. First, earth movers block the access so nobody can reach the bridge. Next, walls will be built to secure the barrier. Finally, the bridge will be blown up.
She said she does not know exactly when the last step will happen, because a structure of that size will take a lot of planning. "But hopefully this year," she added.
For now, the bridge is closed to the public, the three instructors face homicide charges, and a grieving family is waiting for the structure that took their loved one to come down for good.
Image credit: X
Source: The Mirror US
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