Safety and Possible Injury
In August 1998, Jérôme Charron died in a reverse bungee ride accident at the Ottawa Exhibition in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada when he was hurled 40 meters into the air before plummeting to his death as his harness had detached. In February 2000, the firm responsible for the ride, Anderson Ventures, was fined $145,000 for this incident. Provincial inspectors had inspected the ride just 4 days before the incident and approved it, but did not see the strap because it was in a nearby box.
Ordinarily, the bungee cord is changed to adjust the body weight of different riders. The operator in Ottawa instead used a lead between the carabiner and the bungee cord for this purpose. Using a lead is faster than changing the cord, so more rides can be offered; however, using a lead is less safe than switching bungee cords. The problem occurs when the lead cord wraps around the carabiner, tightens and through friction undoes the twisting safety mechanism that keeps the carabiner locked. In this case, the operator was using dual carabiners. On the bounce back up, the lead cord tightened, causing both carabiners to open. This fact was discovered by the Ottawa Police who investigated the death. A video of the incident depicts it.
Read more about this topic: Reverse Bungee
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