Second person in a month dies in bungee jumping accident in Spain

Concerns were raised in Spain on Tuesday over the safety of bungee jumping after a 17-year-old Dutch girl died after falling over 40 meters off a bridge on Monday evening.

The girl, who has not been named, had bungee jumped from a bridge close to the town of Cabezon de la Sal, in the northern community of Cantabria.

She had been staying at a nearby campsite with a mixed group of foreign tourists and is the second person to have died in this fashion in a month in Spain, following the death of a 23-year-old British woman, who was killed in Pinos de Valle in the southern province of Granada.

In the Granada case, it appears that a breakdown in communication was responsible for the tragedy as the woman jumped as the guide was checking the length of the cable she was attached to and before the cable had been checked to see if it was the adequate length.

The circumstances leading to Monday's tragedy are not yet clear, except that the girl had fallen 40 meters off the bridge into a dry riverbed below. She had been part of an organized tour group, which was led by a guide.

The sport involves jumping off a bridge attached to an elastic cable, and the cable retracts in order to stop a person from hitting the ground. Endit