The 130-foot-high bridge where a young student was thrown to her death without a bungee rope attached is set to be blown up to prevent further tragedies, Brazilian authorities have announced.
Barriers and trenches are already surrounding the so-called “Skeleton Bridge,” an abandoned railway viaduct in Limeira, São Paulo state, where Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, died Saturday in an unthinkable tragedy that was caught on camera, reported CNN Brazil.
Authorities on Monday called on the federal government to implode and demolish the structure, echoing a desperate plea by the dead student’s family.
De Freitas’ uncle, Luis, previously said in a letter to a local politician that he was spreading “the word about the bridge … so that it gets demolished as soon as possible,” Brazilian journalist Paulo Mathias reported.
The death of the student, an aspiring physical education teacher, was caught in horrific videos that showed instructors picking her up over their heads and throwing her off — with the rope left at the top, unattached.
Trenches had previously been dug around the bridge in 2024 to prevent vehicles and thrillseekers from getting close, but they were illegally filled in by trespassers, according to local reports.
The city of Limeira this week committed to reopening the containment ditches in the short term while it waits for demolition crews.
Because the bridge was owned by a now-defunct railway company, no one has claimed responsibility for dealing with it.
No exact timeline for the demolition has been given.
Three instructors have been charged in relation to de Freitas’s death and are being held in pre-detention.