MADRID, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The death of a 17-year-old Dutch girl in a botched bungee jump in August 2015 was partly due to the "poor English" of her instructor, a court in Spain has ruled.
Vera Mol died after jumping off a road bridge outside of the town of Cabezon de la Sal, in the region of Cantabria in northern Spain, before the rope she was attached to had been secured.
The Spanish media reports on Tuesday that in the finding of the court, the instructor's poor English could have been a key factor in the accident, with Mol hearing the phrase "now jump" instead of "no jump," which is what the instructor actually said.
The correct English would have been "don't jump" and that was reflected in the court judgement which read; "the use of the poor English 'no jump' could perfectly well be understood as an explicit order to jump by the victim," adding that the "misunderstanding derived from the incorrect use and pronunciation of English."
However, that was not the only failing in the death, the court decided, given that Mol was not attached to a safety line. She was also underage and the instructor failed to check her ID or to find out if she had parental permission to make the jump.
The court also noted it is "expressly forbidden" to practice bungee jumping from a road bridge such as the one where the fatal accident happened.
The director of the Flow Track company which organized the excursion will now face trail for homicide through negligence.
