LARA CROFT-STYLE ACT ENDS IN TRAGEDY

[ 14 September 2004 ]

In inquiry has been launched by Yarmouth Borough Council into the death of a circus performer who plunged 30ft. during a Lara Croft-style Tomb Raider act in front of a stunned audience of 800, Norfolk Country Press reports today. Miss Garcia, 38, from Birmingham, used an alleged faulty "descenderit" in the opening sequence of her act to arrive from the roof to the ground during a show at Yarmouth's Hippodrome Circus. The unit's worn ratchet teeth were later found to have caused the equipment's primary braking system to fail.

Borough council solicitor Chris Skinner said: "The prosecution cannot say the extent to which the failure of the main brake caused or contributed to the fatality because we know the second brake engaged." Norfolk Country Press concluded that although the back-up brake would have caused more of a jolt, it would be expected that an artist would be able to withstand the force. The inquiry continues.