Shearwater Adventures plan to resume bungee jumping tomorrow after it was suspended last month following the near-fatal accident of an Australian tourist.
The company voluntarily stopped its bungee jumping expedition after a cord snapped resulting in Erin Langworthy plunging into the crocodile-infested Zambezi River on December 31.
Langworthy jumped from the Victoria Falls Bridge and fell head-long into the Zambezi River, 111m below the deck, but was saved by company employees.
Clement Mukwasi, the Shearwater spokesperson confirmed the company was ready to resume the activity.
“Since the incident a full and thorough investigation into the cause of the bungee cord failure was conducted which amongst other things included a detailed safety audit and inspection of the bungee jumping system at Victoria Falls,” he said in a statement.
“Unfortunately this process took more time than we anticipated due to unavailability of experts.
“The internationally qualified safety auditors who have audited and inspected our system and equipment have advised that all components of our bungee complied with the international standards for bungee jumping,” Mukwasi added.
He said they had been carrying out legal bungee jumping at the Victoria Falls Bridge for 17 years where about 150 000 jumps have been done without any accident or cord failure.
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He said the South Africa experts had established the rubbers from the cord which broke were not as strong as they should have been.
“We will be taking this up with the rubber manufacturers. The newer rubbers which we will now use were found to be far stronger than the Code of Practice for Bungee Jumping requires,” Mukwasi said.
“To ensure as best as possible the strength and integrity of all rubbers we use, we are arranging to have samples from every future batch of rubber tested before being put into service.”
