The Daily Mail reports that a 130-foot high bridge, infamous for a tragic rope jumping accident, is set to be demolished to avert further disasters.
Demolition work began Wednesday, mere days after 21-year-old Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas from Brazil tragically fell to her death from the structure.
The decision to dismantle the bridge was catalyzed by a grieving family member’s plea to a local politician who has long opposed the unregulated rope and bungee jumping activities at the site.
Rodrigues de Freitas’s uncle, Luis, had the heartbreaking task of identifying her body after she plummeted from Limeira’s Ponte do Esqueleto (Skeleton Bridge). The thrill-seeking group she joined had charged her $56 but failed to secure her harness properly.
“We’re regaining our strength as best we can,” Luis conveyed in a message to councilor Bruna Magalhaes.
The devastated relative added he was spreading ‘the word about the bridge… so that it gets demolished as soon as possible’.
Preliminary work to end the curse of the bridge – part of a railroad project abandoned 30 years ago – began early Wednesday, four days after the tragedy about 100 miles north of South America’s largest city Sao Paulo.
Workers with heavy earth moving equipment blocked off the entrances hours after officials from the Sao Paulo state signed paperwork for its complete destruction.
Magalhaes told the Daily Mail in front of a crew securing the site: ‘This will be done in three phases. The first is today as the earth movers block it off and stopping anyone gaining access.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, died in Sao Paolo, Brazil after operators failed to attach a rope to her harness – in a horror jumping accident caught on camera
Local officials are moving to destroy the notorious structure once and for all, with demolition work beginning in the area early Wednesday morning
Rodrigues de Freitas was sporting a helmet and appeared to be wearing a harness, but she was completely unattached to the structure when workers tossed her over the edge
‘Next, walls will be built to secure the barrier. Then the bridge will be blown up. I don’t know exactly when because that will take a lot of planning due to its size. But hopefully this year.’
Years of being used by all kinds of alleged money grabbers in the name of thrills – whose lack of regulation in rope and bungee jumping made it a notorious but oddly magnetic spot – have taken their toll.
The giant pillars are scrawled with graffiti, the detritus of the uncaring festers in a multitude of cracks.
Rodrigues de Freitas had traveled from her home in a Sao Paulo suburb to be among a large group who put their lives in the hands of these unregulated rope-jump companies on Saturday.
Approaching the bridge, the warning is ominously clear. A sign in Portuguese reads: ‘Danger, risk of death.’
Halfway along the red-hued concrete surface topping the structure, evidence of the makeshift nature of precautions exactly where the horror happened are evident.
Two thin strips of faded and rough cloth are crudely fixed to the low parapet in an apparent attempt to stop ropes chafing and breaking as they go over the side.
Heavy machinery moved in on Wednesday as authorities began the first phase of securing the Ponte do Esqueleto bridge ahead of its planned demolition following the fatal rope jump
Officials say the demolition will take place in stages, with access first blocked before the structure is eventually blown up
The Ponte do Esqueleto -part of a railroad project abandoned 30 years ago – had also gained notoriety as a suicide hotspot, prompting years of calls for authorities to take action
Near them, a flimsy hook is screwed into the concrete, with a piece of wire tied in a circle through it.
At first glance you might believe a rope could be knotted through it – but it looked far too frail to bear any real weight or dramatic force.
The bridge has been the wild west of bungee jumping for this southwestern corner of Brazil for years – plus a notorious suicide spot.
On hearing of Saturday tragedy, furious politician Magalhaes immediately went to a police station to physically confront the men accused of killing Rodrigues de Freitas – as revealed in exclusive Daily Mail video.
She then went to the scene and made a selfie video with the young woman’s body draped where she fell in the background.
Magalhaes raged about being ignored over the danger, saying in the video obtained by the Daily Mail: ‘I was called crazy. Look at the situation here.
‘This young lady here, to me, was a homicide. They threw this lady without a rope. This case is not going to be unpunished, these people will go to jail.’
For whatever reason, Magalhaes said Rodrigues de Freitas’s body was not removed until 2pm.
A flimsy hook sis crewed into the concrete, with a piece of wire looped through it to hold a rope
Two thin strips of faded and rough cloth crudely fixed to the low parapet in an apparent attempt to stop ropes chafing and breaking as they go over the side
An aerial view of the abandoned bridge that is a 130 foot drop to the ground
In her office on Tuesday, she said: ‘I’ve been saying for many years we have to stop this. These groups are totally unregulated.
‘What has now happened has proved my point but made me sad and angry.’
A group called Entre Cordas was running the event on Saturday, while video footage also showed operatives wearing t-shirts with the branding Ih Voei.
Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42 and 27-year-old Vitor de Freitas Goncalves have been charged with homicide with eventual intent. It means they did not intend to kill but are accused of a dangerous act that carried a fatal risk.
Startling interrogation footage reveals Feliciano Egoroff, who carried Rodrigues de Freitas at the front, telling cops he and Fernandes Cintra were responsible for attaching the rope.
‘It’s him or me who does that,’ he said in the clip, reported by EPTV.
But then Feliciano Egoroff repeatedly insisted he could not recall other details of what happened in the lead up to the tragedy.
‘I went to the front first,’ he said. ‘After that it erased from my mind. I can’t remember.’
Speaking to the Daily Mail from her office on Tuesday, local councilor Bruna Magalhaes said for years she had been urging against the dangerous rope jumping activity but her warnings fell on deaf ears
Three men, Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, were arrested for homicide with eventual intent
Investigators are looking for a GoPro camera that Freitas had on her at the time of the fall which could show footage of the fatal incident
Fernandes Cintra said he had been the instructor at the young woman’s feet. ‘In the procedure, sometimes I’m the one who places the rope, sometimes it’s Felipe.’
He said it was difficult to understand how the mistake leading to the tragedy happened.
‘It’s us three on the job. I can’t understand at what moment I didn’t see the rope,’ he said. ‘I simply cannot understand.’
According to a police report seen by the Daily Mail, Rodrigues de Freitas was given a GoPro camera to hold and record her descent.
But it is understood the camera, which could hold further clues to the horror, has mysteriously vanished.
Asked where it was, de Freitas Goncalves told police: ‘Right, yeah, we don’t know’.
Rodrigues de Freitas’s very final moments were relived by off-duty nurse Rayza Dias, who told Brazilian TV she rushed down to help when she witnessed the horror.
Dias said the young woman was breathing heavily and still had a weak pulse when she began battling to save her life.
A graffiti-covered sign on the way to the bridge ominously warns in Portuguese ‘Danger. Risk of death’ complete with a skull and crossbones
A view from the top of the cliff. The giant pillars are scrawled with graffiti, the detritus of the uncaring festers in a multitude of cracks
‘I even talked to her. I checked her pupils, both were dilated,’ she said. However the injuries were so traumatic, there was no saving her.
One adventurer who jumped from the same bridge that day has claimed ‘standards’ slipped as organizers tried to clear a huge backlog of jumpers.
A man, identified only as Emanuel, told Brazilian influencer Diego Schueng: ‘It had rained, there were delays and there were many people waiting to jump.
‘In my perception as a participant, the organization left a lot to be desired.’
Rodrigues de Freitas’s mother, Valdenia Rodrigues, paid tribute to her daughter in a gushing Instagram post.
‘My beloved daughter, today alone I wanted to hug you more than a thousand times,’ she wrote.
‘How much your departure hurts me. I love you eternally, my princess. And thank you so much for being a part of my life for these 21 years.
‘What an honor it was to hear you call me mom. God, thank you for this privilege.’
Rodrigues de Freitas was buried on Sunday.
Her mother wrote on a separate Instagram post after the service: ‘That damn rope took you away from me forever.’
