A day before annual 'Bridge Day' event, parachutist injured
1:00 AM
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2007
BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) -- A man who apparently got a one-day jump on a festival celebrating a famous West Virginia bridge was injured after parachuting from a different span.
The man suffered a broken leg Friday after parachuting off a bridge linking Beckley to Interstate 64. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital.
He was with a group of people who had BASE jumping gear, authorities said. BASE stands for the places such jumpers usually leap from: buildings, antennae, spans and earth.
The accident occurred a day before Saturday's annual Bridge Day event, when hundreds of parachutists converged on West Virginia to jump 876 feet from the New River Gorge Bridge, one of the world's longest steel-arch spans.
A jumper was killed at last year's festival after his parachute apparently opened too late.
The man suffered a broken leg Friday after parachuting off a bridge linking Beckley to Interstate 64. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital.
He was with a group of people who had BASE jumping gear, authorities said. BASE stands for the places such jumpers usually leap from: buildings, antennae, spans and earth.
The accident occurred a day before Saturday's annual Bridge Day event, when hundreds of parachutists converged on West Virginia to jump 876 feet from the New River Gorge Bridge, one of the world's longest steel-arch spans.
A jumper was killed at last year's festival after his parachute apparently opened too late.
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