Watch the zip line!

[Denisern2]

March 18

Norwegian Spirit

Norwegian Cruise LineA 44 year old woman fell 65 feet to her death during a zip line ride through the jungle on the Caribbean island of Roatan. She was riding along a steel wire hung between trees in the jungle when a harness holding her apparently broke on Tuesday. She was taken to a private clinic on the island, then transferred to a hospital in the mainland city of San Pedro Sula, where she died on Wednesday. The excursion was reportedly Pirates of the Caribbean Zip Line EXTREME ZIP. Fatal accident on shore excursion

[deckguy]

We just returned from that cruise yesterday. It is very sad indeed. The details I got was that the woman (somewhat overweight) began to panic and stopped mid way through the line. A worker then rolled to that mid point and the line snapped, sending both to the ground. The worker survived but she did not.

[kebboli]

There is already several threads going on about this under the Ports section for Roatan. Very Very sad indeed. I am now nervous about my family and I going.........

[ChBoxers800]

If you have booked this tour through NCL, I think you'd better make other plans. The zipline tour is gone from the NCL website. I sincerely doubt if they are even operating after this tragedy and I double doubt even if they were that NCL or any other cruise ship would send any of their passengers there again.

 

This accident occured on Tuesday, March 18th on the zip line at Gumbalimba Park which is a zipline that is used solely by cruise ships. The information that the accident was at Pirates of the Caribbean is not correct.

 

Eyewitnesses say that she got stuck in the middle of the line and a guide came out to help her and for some reason, disconnected her from the 2nd safety line. Evidently the weight of both her and the guide broke the main line.

 

If you are still wanting to zip line, (it really is fantastic fun and normally very safe) go to the Roatan thread under Ports Of Call. There are 3 other zip lines on the island and knowledgeable people on that board can steer you in the right direction.

 

Btw, we were on that zip line the day before this horrible accident, March 17th, and it was wonderful. The guides seemed so careful. Such a tragedy for all involved, especially that poor woman and her family.

[silkhair1]

Very sad indeed.

[Cosmopolitan]

This is so very sad.

 

This is the second accident I read about recently on zip lines.

 

Is there a weight limit that they are not adhering to?

Like the height limit at theme parks?

[Ms belp]

This is so very sad.

 

This is the second accident I read about recently on zip lines.

 

Is there a weight limit that they are not adhering to?

Like the height limit at theme parks?

 

Good question!

 

Do they have OSHA standards (or equivalents) in other places? Just curious. We have to implement them at work.

Cruise safely!

[tidecruiser]

This is the first I have heard of this. We were zip lining that very day at the Palmetto Zip Line. That is sad, I didn't even hear anything about it on the ship.

[GMCOLT]

A poster asked about OSHA standards on these. I work in Safety For a Steel Erector.

OSHA would most likely require adherence to their fall protection rules. They are very strict. Fall systems must meet strict engineering requirements.

Many systems intended to stop falls in construction have to be removed from service once a fall occurs on a given system.

The Zip lines suspend people, not stop falls as such. However, based on my experience the zip lines must be subjected to alot of stress and no doubt have weight limitations and periodic inspection requirements.

[steveo2916]

I will say this. On the Antigua zip line, the weight limit is listed at 250 lbs. On the St. Lucia zip line, the weight limit is listed at 450 lbs. We chose the St. Lucia experience.

 

It is a tragedy under any circumstance!

[flashdog_1]

but I read a book years ago entitled, To Engineer is Human. An experiment done in a classroom setting was for each student to bend a paper clip (from the same box, supposedly the same weight) back and forth and count the number of times it was bent. I don't remember the numbers now all these years later, but say in a class of 50 people, the clips of 35 of them all broke simultaneous or thereabouts after 100 bends, whereas say 10 of them broke early at anywhere from 70 to 99 bends,, and 5 continued for a little while longer to say 110 or more bends. It's just an example, not a real study, you see, for us laymen to understand "standards for building."

 

Logically, if we know from experimentation that MOST are going to last through 100 bends, but some do break earlier, that for safety sake we should build according to the lower numbers (don't want those clipped pages falling apart).

 

BUT the idea of replacing a winch or screw, seatbelt or whatever, on a zipline or other entertainment ride, after only x number of hours/weight usage, means it will cost more than if they are replaced after x+ hours/weight.

 

And how many enterprises of this kind would actually calculate the weight? The sign just says, "up to 250 lbs." Naturally if a child of 70 lbs. consistently were put in one seat it would last longer than if a 250 pounder were put there every time.

 

That's only food for thought.

[fin]

When we were climbing all over the pyramid at Xuantanich in Belize, my fiance remarked how refreshing it was to see the LACK of handrails, warning signs and mandated hard hats to simply climb to the top of the pile and look out over the jungle.

 

Is it possible the weight limits were waived if the potential customer had special circumstances ... like American dollars?

[Denisern2]

Cosmo where was the other one?