Zipline worker exits hospital, enters rehabilitation center

A worker who was critically injured when a tower at a zipline attraction near Hilo fell Sept. 21 has been released from the hospital, but the zipline course remains closed and officials are continuing their investigation.

Curtis Wright, 43, of Miamisburg, Ohio, was released Tuesday from the Queen’s Medical Center to a Honolulu rehabilitation center, his employer said.

Wright is standing, he is walking for brief periods, his punctured lung has healed and his breathing has stabilized, said John White, president of Experiential Resources Inc., Wright’s employer.

Wright was injured and co-worker Ted Callaway, 36, of Pasco, Wash., was killed when a tower fell as they were tightening a cable on one of the eight ziplines operated by Lava Hotline in Paukaa, just north of Hilo.

Wright was standing on a tower and Callaway was making a test run on Zipline No. 8 when one of the towers fell. Callaway fell an estimated 200 feet, police said.

Hawaii County Police Lt. Greg Esteban, commander of the Criminal Investigation Section, said police are investigating "new information that has developed," but said he could not elaborate.

Esteban said the case remains classified as an industrial accident.

"We’re consulting with an outside engineering firm to assist us in this investigation" as officials examine the structure and the integrity of the surrounding area, he said. "We’re looking at other aspects and information that wasn’t readily available at the scene at the time."

The zipline attraction remains closed to the public, White said.

Police said workers were tightening a cable on a zip­line, which had been in use for about a week, because operators were getting complaints its ride was slow. Lava Hotline owner Gary Marrow said just after the accident that customers had not used that line, and that only four of eight ziplines at the site had been open to the public.

Marrow would not comment Tuesday and referred the Star-Advertiser to a public relations person, who did not return calls from the newspaper.

The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Committee is investigating the workplace fatality and injury. Any details of the investigation, which might take six months, could not be released, a Department of Labor and Industrial Relations spokesman said.

State Rep. Mark Nakashima (D, North Kohala-South Kohala-Hamakua-North Hilo-South Hilo) will reintroduce a bill to regulate ziplining operators in Hawaii.

Nakashima has consulted with Steve Gustafson, a board member of Professional Ropes Course Association, which has drafted a set of standards for ziplining courses and submitted them to the American National Standards Institute. Nakashima said he plans to use those standards in his bill.

Gustafson’s company, Experienced Based Learning, has built five zipline courses in Hawaii, including one at World Botanical Gardens, seven miles from the Lava Hotline site.

White said Experiential Resources Inc. is bringing in outside soil specialists, engineers and other builders, including a zipline expert familiar with national standards.

White said his company has been working with Marrow to check and recheck the remaining seven ziplines on the course to clear them for opening, but said "it’s not necessarily up to us" when operations will resume.

The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Committee "shut down the course," he said. "In conjunction with the County of Hawaii, they want to double-check everything."

Wright’s wife and children will arrive this weekend from Ohio, White said. His mother has been by his side since the accident.

White said Experiential is keeping the Callaway family in Washington state abreast of any developments of the investigation.

"The family also wants to know what happened and why," he said.