Brazilian Auriel Missael Henrique, 41, was riding on a motorbike to see his daughter when he was killed by a razor sharp piece of string from a ‘fighting kite’ dangling across the roadway
A father-of-three has been killed in a sickening freak accident after he was sliced in the neck by a children’s toy while on his way to visit his daughter.
Brazilian Auriel Missael Henrique, 41, was riding with his wife on a motorcycle in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday when tragedy struck. The pair were on their way to visit Auriel’s daughter in the town of Duque de Caxias in northern Rio when they collided with what looked like an ordinary string that was dangling across the road.
But this length of thread came from a fighting kite – a popular pastime in Brazil, which sees participants coat the strings of their kite with glue and powdered glass in order to sever the springs of other kites.
As the motorbike sped down the road the deadly cord, known locally as linha chilena, got tangled around Auriel’s neck, cutting open his throat and leaving him critically injured.
Auriel’s niece Gislayne Crisley said that a passing driver and Auriel’s wife had tried to stop the bleeding and rushed him to a hospital in Nova Iguacu, according to a report on Brazilian news outlet Globo.
Tragically Auriel suffered a cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and died before they could get him medical help. The motorcycle taxi driver and cook leaves behind three children, aged 21, 19 and six, according to local media.
Kite fighting has a long history in Brazil and is the subject of much controversy. The sport sees people flying the kites, with their lethally sharp strings, in the air trying to sever each other’s kite string with deft maneuvering.
There are frequent cases of severe injury from discarded kite strings, with motorcyclists being particularly prone to severe mutilation or even death, as in Auriel’s case, when they collide with the sharp strings. The practice is illegal in Rio and results in more than 100 accidents every year, according to the Brazilian Association of Motorcyclists (ABRAM).
ABRAM reports that half of kite-string accidents result in serious injuries, such as scars and mutilations, and a quarter are fatal. A hotline set up to report their illegal use has had more than 2,800 reports since 2019.
Many motorcyclists employ special antennas with razor blades on the front of their bikes that stick up and sever any string that may cross a rider’s path, before I can hurt them.
The sale and use of the razor-sharp lines is already outlawed in some parts of Brazil, including Rio and there is currently a bill making its way through the country’s congress seeking to prohibit its manufacture, sale and use nationwide. The proposed law would see violators facing one to three years in prison and a hefty fine.The bill was approved by the lower house in February last year and is now heading towards a vote in the senate.