Videos went viral this week of a youth identified only as Noah jumping from the Hidalgo Park bridge in León, Guanajuato, onto a transit vehicle below as part of parkour, an increasingly popular form of athletic training.
Officially originating in the 1980s in France, parkour pulls from many ancient traditions and cultures from around the world. It is a kind of training and gymnastics where participants take on challenges to move from one obstacle to the next in the most fluid and efficient way, often including jumps and rolls. It takes place mainly in urban settings and groups of young people can often be found in parks practicing.
The pastime has become popular in the last several years across Mexico and recently in Mexico City, young people have been filming themselves jumping and riding on Metro cars and other public transportation.
The León incident was captured on several cellphone videos and shows the young man jumping from the bridge onto a city bus known as an oruga or caterpillar become of its several sections connected by moveable accordion-like connectors that allow one section of the bus to turn independently of the other and then pull the back section behind it.
One of the biggest dangers, according to León public transport association president Daniel Villaseñor, is that the accordion-like middle sections could crush someone if they landed on it. He added that the fabric of those sections is not strong enough to take the force of a jump and could rip. The young man in the video does not land on the middle section of the bus, but Villaseñor said it was still disruptive for the driver and passengers when they heard someone jump onto the top of the bus and then run off into the traffic laughing.
Villaseñor warned against these kinds of tricks and feats and urged the public to report those involved to the authorities. The young man in question, Noah, is expected to have to pay some kind of fine or have to perform community service, but as of now, authorities have not located him.
With reports from AM and Noticias Vespertinas
