A deadly bungee jumping incident in Spain could lead to criminal charges against the operator, according to prosecutors.
Vera Mol, a 17-year-old from the Netherlands, was killed after she allegedly misunderstood a request from her instructor and jumped without a properly secured harness. Her instructor allegedly said “No jump, it’s important, no jump,” which she apparently misheard as “Now jump”.
An appeals court in northern Spain has upheld a ruling that the instructor for Aqua21 Aventura can be held criminally liable for what happened, including a charge of accidental homicide, if prosecutors decide to press ahead.
The company appealed this last year, claiming that Mol had jumped prematurely, and that it had been an accident. The court countered by saying that the instructor had spoken in broken English that should never have been used in a life or death circumstance like that.
The instructor should have said, “Don’t jump,” rather than “No jump,” the court said. They also found that proper measures were not in place, and that the company didn’t even have the proper permits to jump where they did.
Though the ruling on this appeal from last year was issued on June 7, it was only made public just now. It’s now up to prosecutors to decide whether they want to formally proceed with the case.
Source: New York Times.
Photo: Supplied / Facebook.
