A man died in West Virginia recently as his parachute didn’t open in time following a leap from a 876 foot bridge. The death was part of the Bridge Day festival, where hundreds of people come to jump from the bridge.
And the part that is hard to ponder, is that the jumping continued following the recovery of the man’s body in the river below. Most people could not see the man actually hit the water, but they knew of his death. Yet, they continued to jump anyway.
Part of me feels that this is entirely inappropriate. One of their fellow base jumpers die and they continue to jump the very same day. No cancellation out of respect to the man or his family, just more jumping.
Yet, another part of me can see how they would wish to continue. This isn’t a festival celebrating the harvest or a town’s 200th anniversary. This is a festival about jumping off a bridge and falling through 876 feet of air. The possibility of death had to have loomed in the minds of the jumpers from the beginning. Thus they continued to jump. Maybe in memorial, or maybe because they traveled to West Virginia, thus, they might as well jump off a bridge.
Either way, It leaves a bad taste in my mind. I guess, I won’t be jumping off any bridges anytime soon.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,223297,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/21/bridge.death.ap/index.html
Fox and CNN report on the story as well.
2 users commented in " Base Jumper Dies and Festival Continues "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI agree whole-heartedly. The events should have been cancelled out of respect. I was there. Thank God I arrived too late to witness the horror. I arrived about 15 minutes after it happened and I couldnt tell anything adverse had occurred. The jumpers were jumping….some performing acrobatics in the air. After I had been there for about 2 hours I overheard some people in the crowd talking about it. Even then..I thought they must surely be talking about another time and place. The bible says that in the last days mans hearts will grow cold and he will be a lover of himself. It sure seems that this is what was going on at Bridge Day. I just cant help but think of the poor mans family. The people who loved him. I hope they are being supported. They are in my heart felt prayers. Cheryl
I was also there. The man that died was a pioneer of the sport and was one of the first to have ever jumped El Capitan in the late 1960’s. His buddy was also there for this jump and the one where he died. They both wanted/would have wanted the jumping to continue. Jumping was stopped and the family allowed to leave the bridge. The famlies were not hurt or upset that jumping continued.
Just because there are car crashes everyday doesn’t mean we stop driving does it? Or do you feel that is “different?”
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