Maria Eduarda Rodrigues De Freitas, 21, Lost Her Life on a Bungee Jump After Workers Forgot to Tie Her Safety Rope to Her Harness
This might be the worse case of negligence we’ve ever heard about, and apparently she survived the fall at first.
The rope was never attached. It stayed on the platform as staff carried Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas to the edge, swung her, and launched her over. She fell roughly 130 feet in free fall. Earlier jumps that morning had gone fine, with the team running their usual pre-launch checks. Hers got skipped.
The bridge already had a reputation. Locals call it Ponte do Esqueleto, the Skeleton Bridge, an abandoned, never-finished railway viaduct between Limeira and Cordeirópolis in São Paulo. It sits on federal land and has been used for unofficial extreme sports for years. Residents say Maria Eduarda’s death is roughly the fourth at that site in about three years. Two women were gravely injured there last August.
The city of Limeira says it sent official warnings to the federal government months ago, demanding action on safety, maintenance, and access control. Nothing substantive happened. Mayor Murilo Félix has now said the city will sue the federal government over the failure to act.
The activity was run by two operations, Entre Cordas and Ih Voei. Entre Cordas translates to “Between Ropes.” Staff wore branded shirts and a company banner was strung up at the site. Tickets ran about 130 to 180 reais, roughly 25 to 32 dollars, and more dates were already scheduled in São Paulo and Minas Gerais at higher prices. About 100 people were expected to jump that day. Both companies deactivated their social media accounts shortly after she died. A lawyer for the operators later said rope jumping isn’t formally regulated in Brazil but isn’t prohibited either, that similar events had run at the site before without government intervention, and called it a “triste fatalidade,” a sad fatality.
Minutes before the jump, around 7:31 a.m., Maria Eduarda posted Instagram stories and photos from the bridge, showing the setup, the wristbands, the company banner, and the view. One caption read, “Quem foi o doido que deixou eu vir pular de uma ponte???” Who was the crazy one who let me come jump off a bridge. She had traveled about two and a half hours that morning to get there. Her fiancé was with her. He became ill after learning she had died, was treated, and survived.
Higor William Diniz Ferreira was in line near her. He had booked through a social media ad that featured an instructor claiming four or five years of experience and a clean record. He aimed to leave home at 6 a.m. and didn’t get out until around 6:40 a.m., which put him roughly five to ten people behind her in the queue. He later told EPTV/G1 it was supposed to be him. “Era pra ser eu.” After the fall, he described chaos at the site, people passing out, one staff member putting a hand to his head, grabbing his things, and leaving before police arrived. Instructors ran into the mata, the surrounding woods, reportedly fearing a lynching. The Águia police helicopter helped track two of them down.
Six people connected to the event were taken into custody, five men and one woman. Three remained in custody, including the 32-year-old who led Entre Cordas. Police described some of the detainees as “desnorteados,” disoriented, and said they couldn’t fully explain how the rope went unattached. The case has been registered as homicide under dolo eventual, a category in Brazilian law for when a person consciously accepts the risk that their actions could kill. She died of polytrauma. The Civil Police are still investigating.
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