Safety rules urged for bungee-jump

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 10

Safety rules urged for bungee-jump

By

TOM METCALFE

A call for a set of minimum safety standards for bungee-jumping operators is based on general principles, and is not a crusade against bungeejumping, according to a spokesman for the Consumers’ Institute, Mr David Russell. “If you go parachuting, you’ve got Civil Aviation keeping a check on your safety. If you go whitewater rafting, the Marine Division of the Ministry of Transport have some responsibility for your safety,” he said. There were no checks on the safety of bungeejumping equipment or the competence of operators. “It’s a general principle. There should be some controls over the competence of the operator and the equipment they are using,” he said. “The public should be able to make use of bun-gee-jumping facilities with a degree of confidence that the operators know what they are doing.”

Mr Russell suggested that bungee-jump operators should get together and decide on some basic standards for the industry. Those standards could be adopted and administered by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, he said. "We don’t consider this a major issue." he said. “This is definitely not a crusade against bungeejumping. Anyone who wants to go bungee-jump-ing goes with my good wishes." The medical superintendent of Lake County Hospital in Frankton. Dr John Hillock, said local bungee-jump businesses did not have a bad accident record. There had been no serious injuries, and the only bungee-jumper to have been injured dislocated her shoulder when she was lowered into a raft after her jump. He said there were "a dozen other activities in the area that would provide more business" for the hospital than bungeejumping.