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- From: ehsnet!f15.n233.z1.fidonet.org!SKYDIVE (SKYDIVE)
- Subject: Bungee ban/ sport questioned
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- To: skydive@jumprun.ehs.uiuc.edu
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 09:20:06 GMT
- Lines: 56
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- Reply-to: Romulus!everest.stanford.edu!eap@p0.f1.n3607.z1.fidonet.org (Romulus!everest.stanford.edu!eap)
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- NOTE: This message was originally addressed to SKYDIVE
- and was forwarded to you by JODY COFFEY
- --------------------
- From romulus!ra.oc.com!news
- From: romulus!everest.Stanford.EDU!eap (Eric Perozziello)
- To: ehsnet!skydive
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 19:26:52 GMT
-
-
- TRENTON, N.J. (UPI) -- New Jersey's labor commissioner said Monday he
- is considering a total ban on commercial bungee operations in the state.
- Operators who testified at a regional hearing on the amusements
- defended their rides as safe. But some called for government regulation
- and inspection, saying they do not want the business to get a bad
- reputation.
- Labor Commissioner Raymond Bramucci, who chaired the hearing, said he
- must decide what, if any, regulations will make the rides safer, adding
- that a ban is still an option.
- Bungee operators charge around $50 to thrill-seekers who jump from a
- tower or crane, their fall broken by an elastic cord. At least 11 bungee
- deaths have been reported worldwide.
- Because the sport is so new, it is relatively unregulated. In New
- Jersey, for example, it is governed only by the regulations for
- amusement park rides.
- New Jersey did shut down all bungee jumps briefly during the summer
- after a Delaware nurse was severely injured on a jump in North Wildwood,
- a crane toppled over during a high wind in Wildwood and a bridal couple
- in Atlantic City held an unauthorized double jump as part of their
- wedding. Most rides were allowed to reopen after inspections.
- The most dramatic testimony came from a doctor who treated the nurse.
- She broke her spinal cord when she landed on a protective airbag, after
- jumping on a bungee cord that was too long for her weight.
- ``When you hit your head like that, forgive the word, but it was like
- splat,'' said Dr. Maurice Davidson. ``Why her brains were not all over
- the ground, I don't know.''
- Without the airbag, his patient would have been dead, Davidson said.
- Operators were divided on whether bungee jumping is a sport, with
- participants knowingly taking the same kind of risks they would take
- jumping by parachute or ballooning, or an amusement park ride. Davidson,
- who has embarked on a study of bungee injuries, said jumpers have no
- control over the situation once they take off.
-
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