Tourist Stranded After Glass Bridge Shatters Around Him

Reader, have you ever found yourself on a vacation, wondering if your life could perhaps be more like a movie? And by “like a movie,” I mean specifically Shrek, Indiana Jones, and pretty much every other action/fantasy movie created over the past century featuring a bridge that suddenly breaks leaving our heroes – or occasionally villains – in a massive pickle? Well, one poor, poor tourist visiting the Jilin region north-east China got to live the full action flick experience, finding himself stranded on a roughly 853 foot tall, glass-bottomed suspension bridge after a sudden onslaught of approximately 93 mile-per-hour gale-force winds broke several panels of glass throughout the structure. 

While fortunately, there were no casualties stemming from the incident, the poor man was stranded on the bridge for roughly about 30 minutes on Friday afternoon until“firefighters, police, and forestry and tourism personnel” were able to rescue him, The Guardian reported.  

"The staff of the scenic area rushed to the scene as soon as possible, brought emergency equipment and successfully transferred the trapped person to a safe area," local authorities said in a statement posted to Weibo, per CNN, noting that the man was taken to the hospital for assessment. He was ultimately discharged “in stable emotional and physical condition.”

Although everyone was still ok, commenters still dubbed the entire fiasco a “nightmare," questioning if glass bridges are actually safe.“So many glass-deck bridges have been built in recent years and are very popular with tourists," one person wrote per The Guardian. "But how can we ensure their safety?”

"Things I worried about have happened -- never risk trying dangerous things in the future," added another per CNN. 

Yet as the publication noted, several jurisdictions have previously put safety measures in place to prevent these terrifying scenarios, including Hebei Province in north China, as outlined in a 2018 report. “For example, glass bridges should not be built in areas with high seismic activity and must be closed during bad weather and natural disasters, and the number of pedestrians on such bridges and walkways will be limited to no more than three per square meter.”

So folks, take a step out on a bridge. You'll be fine – probably.