RED BULL gives you wings, or so its advertising claims, but the slogan adopted by the energy drink has taken on a new meaning in recent days.

In the same week that the Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was released from hospital after a near-fatal crash, Red Bull has sponsored a Belgian daredevil to take even greater risks than Hammond did by illegally jumping off Irish landmarks to promote the extreme sport of base jumping.

In the first recorded case of base jumping in Ireland, Cedric Dumont has completed three out of four planned parachute jumps from high locations and then posted the videos online. The video of the third jump, completed on Friday morning, shows him stopping his car on the M50 toll bridge in Dublin, climbing over a safety fence and jumping off the Westlink bridge.

According to 37-year-old Dumont, the freefall of one second and 38-metre drop made it Europe’s lowest base jump. But the video, which has been watched by hundreds of fans on the YouTube website, may now be used by gardai as evidence against him.

National Toll Roads (NTR) said it was appalled at Red Bull and Dumont for performing the stunt on the Westlink. “This extremely dangerous stunt was totally unauthorised,” said NTR. “It’s an incredibly stupid act. They have shown no concern for health and safety. They’ve also shown no concern for fellow drivers by parking their car where there is no hard shoulder. That is illegal, as is climbing on the railings. We will be pursuing this matter.”

The “base” in base jumping is an acronym for building, antenna, span, earth. Dumont’s four jumps will cover each of these letters — the M50 bridge jump completed the ‘s’, but the earlier ‘a’ jump off the Kippure broadcast mast on the Dublin-Wicklow border is set to land him in hot water too.

RTE said it was “absolutely livid” after viewing the online video of Dumont climbing over security fencing before diving off the 110-metre high mast. It is understood that RTE Transmission Network (RTENL), which owns the mast, has forwarded the video to gardai in Bray and asked them to investigate.

Ray Maguire, business development manager of RTENL, said that Dumont could have done himself harm in a number of ways. “This is a highly powered system and we always turn it off when we need to do maintenance work,” he said. “This guy could have fried his insides with radiation. To trespass is irresponsible, but to jump so close to support wires and the trellis fence on the ground . . . it’s stupidity of the highest order.”

Base jumping is a secretive sport because of the difficulty jumpers have in getting permission to use buildings. They usually progress to the extreme sport after years of regular jumps from planes. According to Dumont’s website, “searching for new, and preferably legal, jump sites has been a fruitful activity for many devotees”.

When contacted by The Sunday Times, Dumont said he would be able to talk only after Monday, when his fourth and final jump is scheduled to take place from a cliff on the Aran Islands. Red Bull, whose headquarters is in Austria, said it “supports extreme-sports athletes all over the world, including Cedric Dumont, but that “it is not responsible for their actions”.

This is not the first time Red Bull has become mired in controversy. Ireland’s food safety authority investigated it after the death of an 18-year-old boy who drank three cans of Red Bull before a basketball tournament in 1999. An inquest ruled that he died from sudden adult death syndrome.

Dumont’s first Irish jump last week was done with full permission. His 90-metre leap from a Harland and Wolff crane known as Goliath was the first time the Belfast shipyard had permitted anyone to use its machinery for a stunt. According to David McVeigh, the sales director, Harland and Wolff was impressed at the team’s professionalism and the fact that they were insured for the jump.

A former Irish base jumper said Dumont was ruining the sport for Irish participants. He said publicising a location's suitability would only ensure authorities made it harder to access places like the M50 bridge, which he claims was used previously by Irish jumpers

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