Woman dies after unsafe rope jump from São Paulo bridge

A 21-year-old woman died after a rope-jump operator launched her from Limeira’s Skeleton Bridge without attaching the main safety line, turning a high-risk tourist attraction into a case study in oversight failures. Witnesses said bystanders warned that the rope was not secured before the jump, but the woman was still sent off a platform about 40 metres, or 130 feet, above the ground.

The woman was identified by multiple Brazilian and international outlets as Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas. She died on Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Limeira, in São Paulo state, after falling during the stunt at Ponte do Esqueleto, a bridge already known locally for adventure sports and now under intense scrutiny over how such activities are authorized and supervised.

Local authorities arrested three men linked to the company operating the jump, and the Civil Police are investigating whether criminal charges should be filed. The São Paulo Governor’s Office said the death occurred after the woman was thrown from the platform without proper bungee-style equipment attached, while video of the incident spread widely online and intensified demands to examine who was responsible for the safety check.

The case has also opened a broader fight over jurisdiction and accountability. Prefeitura de Limeira said it intends to sue the federal government over what it described as official omission tied to the bridge’s conditions and oversight. That dispute matters because the bridge’s legal status and maintenance responsibility now sit at the center of questions about whether operators were being monitored closely enough before a fatal mistake was allowed to happen.

The bridge had already been the site of another serious accident in August 2025, when two women fell there and were gravely injured. That history raises the stakes for regulators and local officials, because it suggests the danger was not limited to a single lapse on one day. Rope jumping, unlike traditional bungee jumping, uses a less elastic cord that creates a swing rather than a bounce, but the fatal outcome in Limeira points to a more basic failure: whether the safety system was checked at all before the launch.