The builder of a zip line course in Paukaa near Hilo, where one worker was killed and a co-worker critically injured when a tower collapsed Sept. 21, failed to ensure ground anchors and a guy cable system could support the weight of a tower, zip lines and human riders, the state said Tuesday.
The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division issued three citations totaling $13,500 in penalties against GoZip LLC of Maui, the agency announced.
A platform tower’s ground anchors were pulled out of the ground while worker Ted Callaway, 36, was test-riding the zip line last year, causing the zip line cable to slacken and plunging Callaway 200 feet into a stream below, a HIOSH report said. Curtis Wright, 43, fell 30 feet from the tower, suffering critical injuries.
"I’m glad that OSHA found them responsible," said Callaway’s mother, Ilene Callaway of Kennewick, Wash. "I’m just surprised that human life is just worth $4,500 (per citation). It’s a pretty big human mistake."
Ilene Callaway noted, as does a 217-page police report, that zip line workers’ families, including children, rode the very same zip line a week before the tower collapsed.
"It’s very lucky it wasn’t a tourist who had fallen because of a tower collapsing, especially because of anchors not being secure enough," she said. "It would have been national news, but he was an employee."
HIOSH cited GoZip for failing to use objective methods to verify that the anchors could support the loads of the towers, cables and riders or that the guy system could meet the requirements of the Association for Challenge Course Technology, of which GoZip is a member.
The agency also cited the company for failing to ensure that side rails of an extension ladder used to provide access to the landing tower extended at least three feet above the edge of the landing surface, and for failing to ensure that employees wore helmets.
Experiential Resources Inc. (ERi) and GoZip, its operating arm, issued a statement Tuesday that they dispute the findings and "will continue to work with the state to resolve differences of opinion."
The professional engineer hired by GoZip after the accident concluded the subsoil in which the anchors were installed is Pahala ash, a fine particulate mineral that loses 90 percent of its strength when disturbed, HIOSH said.
"This raises serious concerns about the stability of structures that rely on ground anchors for support, including zip line towers at other locations on the island," the HIOSH statement said.
ERi says it has built seven other zip lines in Hawaii with perfect safety records, and hundreds of zip lines working in 40 states and 12 countries. Since the accident it has reviewed existing zip lines and is satisfied they meet national and state safety standards.
Ilene Callaway has been lobbying the state Legislature for regulation of the industry.
"I kept thinking that it was the soil," she said. "There wasn’t any cement. It didn’t seem like a very stable environment. If the regulations were in place, would that have been caught? Would they have caught that if the regulations were in place?"
Co-worker David Wells told police he had his family on the same zip line a week earlier and that it could have been him killed because he was going to go on the zip line, the Hawaii County police report shows.
"For zip line installers, this tragic accident demonstrates the importance of basing design and construction decisions on measurable objective information, for the safety of workers as well as the general public," Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Dwight Takamine said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this is another workplace fatality that was preventable."
Tony DeLellis of KapohoKine Adventures, which booked the zip line tours, said in a written statement, "It troubles us that more rigid standards weren’t applied to these lines by the builder."
DeLellis said zip line course owner Lava Hotline, owned by his business partner Gary Marrow, hired independent engineers to evaluate the course and that it is being redesigned and rebuilt by an accredited builder.
