A 22-year-old woman from Australia fell 111 metres into a river during a failed bungee jump in Zimbabwe on New Year's Eve, but she survived to tell her death-defying experience.

The bungee cord snapped as Erin Langworthy of Applecross, Western Australia, was at the end of her jump from the Victoria Falls bridge on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. She survived the impact from the fall and overcame two more mortal threats: being dragged downstream towards rapids while her feet remained tied and being eaten alive by hungry crocodiles in the African river.

Langworthy was in pain and weak from the fall but managed to swim to safety. She untied herself when the rope was caught on the rocks. Rescuers reached her from the edge of the river and she was airlifted to a hospital.

"It went black straight away and I felt like I'd been slapped all over," Langworthy told Australian broadcaster Nine News to describe her feeling from the fall.

"I actually had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was caught into," she said.

Langworthy recounted that when she was pulled out of the water, her lungs were filled with water and could not breathe. She rolled to her side and coughed out the water, and some blood.

A camera caught Langworthy's bungee jump from the Victoria Falls bridge, the snapping of the bungee cord and her being swept away in the river. The video aired by Nine News can be seen at http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2012/01/9RAW-Aussie-tourists-bungee-cord-snaps.mp4.

More Bungee-Jumping Risks

In May 2010, Sydney woman Kirsty Moulder, 39, fell into the Waiau River in New Zealand when her feet slipped through the cord in her second bounce after jumping from an old ferry bridge. The jump was 35 metres high but her fall was six metres from the time she slipped through the cord. Moulder hit her head on a rock under the water and suffered serious injury that needed surgery.

Similar bungee jump accidents have occurred in the past, but several millions of accident-free jumps have made the dangerous sport relatively safe since its inception in 1979 and commercialisation in the 1980s. Wikipedia cited two notable fatal accidents that killed Michael Lush in 1986 and Laura Patterson in 1997. Both suffered head and brain injuries.

Bungee jumping also causes injuries in the eye and bones. In his blog article "Bungee Jumping Accident," Elmo Kandel said increased pressure in the eye during a bungee fall can cause a blood vessel to burst near the retina results in blurred vision or even blindness. The bungee jump operator is responsible for ensuring the safety of a bungee jumper through proper equipment and trained operators.