UMVA has learned that a shocking incident in Brazil has left a 21-year-old woman dead after she was thrown off a 40-meter bridge without a safety rope attached.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was taking part in a rope-jumping activity at Ponte do Esqueleto, near Limeira, Sao Paulo, when the horrific accident occurred. Footage circulating on social media shows Rodrigues de Freitas wearing a helmet and what appears to be a harness, but the rope that was attached to the bridge was coiled on the ground — not connected to her or her harness.
An off-duty nurse, Rayza Dias, who rushed to Rodrigues de Freitas' side on the ground, revealed that she was still alive after the plunge. Dias even joked with Rodrigues de Freitas, saying, “Nobody dies on my shift.” However, Rodrigues de Freitas was later pronounced dead at the scene by emergency response teams.
A video clip shows three workers hoisting Rodrigues de Freitas over their heads before hurling her over the edge, with one holding her legs, the second holding her torso, and the other holding her shoulders. Another angle shows the young woman’s actual fall to her death. Immediately after she was thrown off the bridge, people can be heard shouting, “the rope!” when they realized the safety equipment had not been connected.
According to information obtained by UMVA, a witness who was supposed to jump right after Rodrigues de Freitas told investigators that the instructors did not perform a safety check when it was her turn to jump. Others at the scene reported a serious failure in the equipment check, and that the instructors simply forgot to connect the safety system to Rodrigues de Freitas.
Moments before her jump, Rodrigues de Freitas shared her jump wristbands on her Instagram stories and wrote: “Who was the crazy person who let me come jump off a bridge?” Her fiancée was on hand to witness the tragedy and had to be taken to hospital.
The bridge where the tragedy occurred, known as Skeleton Bridge, has been abandoned for years and falls under the responsibility of the federal government. Local officials said the instructors had belonged to a private company that offered rope-jumping activities, but suggested they had not been properly regulated.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that six people were arrested in connection with the incident, three of whom were charged with homicide with implied malice. The suspect’s legal teams claimed that the workers were very experienced, but they were unable to explain the error or why final security checks weren’t conducted for Rodrigues de Freitas’ jump.
The City Hall of Limeira said it would be suing the federal government for failing to adequately manage the bridge, noting it “had been adopting administrative measures and demanding action from the federal agencies responsible for the area.” The mayor added that Rodrigues de Freitas’ death “makes the continuation of this omission unsustainable and unacceptable.”
