Idaho alternative to WV’s Bridge Day is in jeopardy:
Charleston Gazette
Alternative to WVs Bridge Day is in jeopardy
An Idaho event scheduled as an alternative to West Virginias Bridge Day later this fall is in doubt, after a series of BASE jumping accidents there and elsewhere last month left three people dead.
Some residents of Twin Falls, Idaho, have asked BASE jumpers to cancel the Idaho event, called The Other Bridge Day. It was scheduled after organizers of the original Bridge Day, in Fayette County, announced that jumpers, rappellers and vendors would have to go through a new security system and be checked against a terrorism watch list.
BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth, the four types of fixed points jumpers leap from with parachutes. About 450 of them typically turn out to jump off the New River Gorge Bridge every third Saturday in October for Bridge Day, the largest one-day festival in West Virginia.
After the new Bridge Day security measures were announced, some jumpers began planning The Other Bridge Day, a loosely organized event at the Perrine Bridge, in Idaho. By the time the Bridge Day Commission in West Virginia decided to allow participants who dont want their fingers scanned to pay for background checks using a third-party company, already more than 600 people had indicated on Facebook that they would attend The Other Bridge Day.
Then, on May 7, a 73-year-old California man died while jumping from the Perrine Bridge, after setting his parachute on fire, according to the The Twin Falls Times-News. The newspaper said James Hickey had planned to disconnect the parachute and open a second chute, but instead a fireball erupted and he fell 500 feet to his death.
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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150607/GZ01/150609424/1453