論口音的危害:因爲聽錯指令,蹦極身亡

A 17-year-old girl who died after a botched bungee jump from a bridge in Spain was killed in part because of her instructor’s “poor English”, a court has ruled.

法院已做出判決，十七歲女孩在西班牙大橋蹦極失敗致死一案歸咎於蹦極指導“蹩腳的英語”。

Dutch national Vera Mol died in August 2015 when she went bungee jumping with a group of teenagers outside Cabezón de la Sal, in Spain’s northern region of Cantabria.

2015年8月，荷蘭女孩Vera Mol和幾個小夥伴一同來到西班牙坎塔布里亞北部一個名叫Cabezón de la Sal的小鎮，想要體驗蹦極運動最後卻葬身於此。

The teenager died when she jumped from a road bridge before her rope had been secured to anything, after her instructor said “no jump”, which she may have heard as “now jump”.

在蹦極繩索還沒有準備就緒的時候，蹦極指導對Vera Mol說“no jump”，她卻聽成了“now jump”，於是她從那座公路橋上縱身跳下死於非命。

The instructor has appeared before a court in Cantabria accused of causing the teenager’s death. The director of the company that organised the bungee jump, FlowTrack, will now face prosecution for homicide through negligence, The Telegraph reported.

據英國《電訊報》報道，該蹦極指導因涉嫌導致女孩墜亡而在坎塔布里亞被告上法庭。該公司安排蹦極的經理FlowTrack將面臨過失殺人罪的起訴。

“The use of the poor English ‘no jump’ could perfectly well be understood as an explicit order to jump by the victim,” the judgement read.

判決書上說，“用‘no jump’這樣的蹩腳英語會很容易讓受害者（Vera Mol）誤當成下跳的清晰指令。”

Vera’s death could have been avoided had the instructor used the phrase “don’t jump”, the court heard, which is reportedly the correct terminology, according to the Daily Mail.

據英國《每日郵報》報道，法庭審理指出如果指導說的是正確的術語“don’t jump”，可能Vera的慘劇就可以避免。

The judges on the case added that the instructor should also have checked the teenager’s ID that she was over the age of 18.

審理此案的法官們補充到，該指導應該事先檢查受害者的身份證件以確保她已滿18歲。

It was also alleged that bungee jumping from the road bridge is banned under Spanish regulation.

據稱，根據西班牙法規公路橋蹦極運動現已被禁止。