According to Sky Bungee, a bungee jumping company in Columbia, a woman who fell to her death at their site last year did not die because of mixed messages between her and Sky Bungee staff.
The media, the mayor and the family say otherwise, and the incident has been under investigation.
Yecenia Morales Gomez, a Columbian lawyer, 25, fell from the Amaga Viaduct bridge while bungee jumping last year. She took a leap without being attached to a cord.
It has been reported that she allegedly misunderstood the instructor’s commands and thought it was her turn to jump.
The company, Sky Bungee, says the story about the jump has been misunderstood – not the instructions.
Gomez went to the bungee site with her boyfriend to try her first jump at Sky Bungee Jumping, a popular jumping spot.
According to the initial story, Gomez’ boyfriend was the first to prepare for the jump. He and Gomez both had their harnesses secured, but when the boyfriend was given the signal to jump, Gomez might have thought it was her turn, and she jumped off the bridge without being connected to a bungee cord.
An autopsy report revealed that she had a heart attack as she free-fell to the ground. Paramedics and her boyfriend tried to revive her, but she was dead.
Mayor Gustavo Guzmán was one of the first to say that the tragedy was a result of a miscommunication at the jump site.
However, the bungee company, Sky Bungee, gave a statement that contradicted the initial report that Gomez had misunderstood the instructions. The company said they had followed all safety protocols and that no one else had been bungee jumping at the same time as Gomez. They said that Gomez was not confused from the command given to her boyfriend. “At the time of the accident, nobody jumped, neither her boyfriend nor anyone else. Our protocol is designed for single jumps and with only one person per jump. It means that in order to jump a person must finish everything related to the previous person’s jump.”
That doesn’t explain why Gomez jumped, and the incident is still being investigated.
