E2NZ.org

Tarla Carpenter hanging by her armpits on the bungy swing

An Australian tourist, Tarla Carpenter was left hanging above a chasm after a serious harness failure left her dangling by her armpits at the Nevis Bungy Swing in the Nevis Canyon, Queenstown.

The swing is 160 metres above the canyon floor and riders move at speeds of up to 150kph in a 300 metre arc.

The tourist attraction, run by AJ Hackett, offers thrill seekers a death defying leap over a mind numbing drop. Tarla Carpenter and her boyfriend Matthew Pararta were on vacation in New Zealand when the couple opted for a ride on the bungee swing.

A restraining strap with an empty carabiner, could be seen dangling behind her. It is hard to tell what exactly happened but in the above picture it looks like the webbing seat she was sat on either detached, or slid up her back.

“I think she’s gunna fall!“

The ride started well with Tarla and her partner both seemingly strapped into their harnesses in a seated position. However, after leaving the platform Tarla  suddenly slipped through her hardness and the couple swung out over the chasm. She was just inches away from falling 500 feet to the rocky bottom.

“Everything that was around my legs became around my underarms” a traumatised Tarla told reporters from Australian TV show A Current Affair “and it felt just like I’d slipped through like a net almost, and then caught me under my arms”

“Get us up!” shouted Matthew “I think she’s gunna fall!” and by the time the couple came back into sight of the platform she was “barely hanging on. It was a near catastrophic malfunction of her safety equipment” according to the Current Affair reporter.

“I just pretty much hung on for dear life and just gripped on to whatever was in front of me” said a visibly upset Tarla, who has been left with “horror holiday memories”

Tarla said it was a miracle she didn’t fall to the ground and her shocking experience has turned her off bungy jumping forever.

We think Tarla was incredibly lucky to have survived her ordeal and our best wishes go out to her.

Unfortunately, as our regular readers will know, there have been a high number of near misses and fatal accidents in New Zealand’s adventure sports industry, ‘accidents’ that have continued to occur despite new registration requirements.

The new regs, made under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, only came into effect until October 2011 – three and a half years after the drowning  death of British tourist Emily Jordan sparked a review of the adventure tourism industry within NZ.

Incredibly there will a a further delay of  three years until all 1,5000 adventure tourism businesses must be registered and in possession of a safety audit certificate in New Zealand. How many people will be traumatised, maimed or killed in that time?

We’re very disappointed to see something like this has happened and it makes us question how many other near misses there have been. This one only seems to have come to light because an TV show got hold of the footage. (read Australian Tourist Injured In Bungy Accident, Another Has Collapsed Lung May 2010, to see how wrong things can get)

For background read this article in the Sydney Morning Herald - “Adventure tourism a deadly business” August 24 2010:

There have been several bungy related ‘accidents’ in New Zealand (partial source NZH):

In May 2010 Australian tourist, Kristy Moulder, slipped out of her bungy harness and was seriously injured in the rocky Waiau River.

In 2009 New Zealand university student Catherine Peters died after she fell fell 20 metres from the Ballance Bridge swing in the Manawatu Gorge. Alistair McWhannell was later found guilty of manslaughter. The court was told that bridge swing was dangerous in that “the  rope was allegedly too long and not tied off properly.” At the time of her death there were no required safety standards for  bridge swinging in New  Zealand:

In May 2003, Rotorua woman Jamie Shaw, 19, suffered severe bruising  after falling more than 8m into a stream after her foot slipped from the  bindings during a tandem bungy in Rotorua.

In September 2000, a Taiwanese tourist, 29, received head injuries after  slipping from a harness and falling 25-30m into the Waikato River.

And in 1997, Canadian Nancy Todd, 20, plunged into the Shotover River  near Queenstown after part of her bungy detached as she rebounded from a  jump in Skippers Canyon.

You may also be interested in our blogs tagged Adventure Tourism deaths and these posts:

Carterton Ballooning Tragedy, Urgent Checks Follow Air Worthiness Concerns (Feb 2012)

Thrillseekers Adventure Ltd Fined For Bungy Fall (May 2011)

Tom Donaldson Inquest – Coroners Says ‘Warn Tourists’ (Nov 2010)

Wellington Reverse Bungy Closed Amid Safety Fears (Dec 2010)

Tourists Seriously Injured In Bay Of Islands Boat Incidents (April 2011)

Alistair McWhannell Guilty Of Manslaughter In Swing Bridge Death (June 2010)

Fox Glacier Plane Crash, Nine Dead Including Four Tourists (Sept 2010)

Tourists Injured in Queenstown Jet Boat Crash, Another Died Swimming With Dolphins (Nov 2010)

Australian Tourist Seriously Injured By Dophin Boat (Dec 2010)

Tourists seriously injured in collision between Outward Bound cutter and a Dolphin Watch Ecotours (Feb 2011)