One man was killed and another seriously injured as they tested a zip line on Hawaii's Big Island on Wednesday.
The man who was killed, a 36-year-old from Maui, was about halfway across the 2,300-foot line above a stream bed when a tower holding up one end of line collapsed. He plunged 200 feet into the rocky stream bed and died at the scene. The injured worker, a 35-year-old from Ohio, fell about 30 feet from the collapsing tower and was in critical condition at Hilo Medical Center, according to a statement from the Hawaii Police Department.
The two men were working on a new course at the zip line facility just outside Hilo when the accident occurred, their employer, Experiential Resources Inc. of Maui, said in a statement distributed by Hawaii247.com. On its website, the company bills itself as "the global leader in the designing and building of adventure courses, canopy tours and zip line courses."
The company that owns the zip line, Lava Hotline, told CNN affiliate KHON-TV that all lines at the facility would be closed pending an investigation.
“The course is being shut down for the next two weeks while we do an inspection and make sure that everything is totally safe,” company owner Gary Marrow was quoted as saying. “It’s been a really difficult day.”
“We will conduct a careful, thorough review to determine all of the facts in this case. We need to know exactly what happened and why," Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi said in a statement on Hawaii247.com.
Audrey Hidano, deputy director of the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, told CNN affiliate HawaiiNewsNow that zip line operators face little state regulation.
"It's not like a construction contractor. There's no licensing. If anything they register it as a business, pay your general excise taxes, pay your unemployment insurance and all that, but I don't believe there is a license involved in this," she said.
Any government regulation of zip lines would require legislative approval, she said.
i really hate it that a person passed on and a person got injured due to a tajic accident i really do and i shall pray over there spirits as the pass on to the lord almighty and we shall baury there bodys.
pray that you learn the difference in there & their.
hey cheese mo are you from ohio
no I'm not, I was not born there. I visited friends there, and they introduced me to their friends who live there. see it's not so difficult.
Serious? SERIOUS IS A CLOSE PROXIMITY ORBITING MONUMENTAL CHUNK OF ROCK THAT CAN POSSIBLY WIPE YOU OUT.Any questions.(inteligent inquiries only)
...and low and behold,the very few, true righteous fighting men and women for the proper cause,eye adwire and honour and salute and die for.
I AM WHOM I AM...FOREVER.
And you need to take your own life before someone with minimal intelligence takes it for you. Stop wasting our earth's oxygen.
Too bad Antonio, you have misrepresented your ethnicity by proving you are a dolt. Look it up, fool.
"JACOB I LOVE"
The guys were working,not just fooling around like some of you who have nothing better to do than show the world the kind of worthless baggage you are for having no sense of humanity or any sensitivity. Your time will come one day and we will see how brave you feel then. God have mercy on your sorry asses! Not that you deserve it!
suehjam TN
@ Lance: you have no clue about darwinism, or his theories. Its called natural selection, not who has the most offspring or "fittest". Lol. Shaking my head.
I,ANTONIO VELASQUEZ JUNIOR;have a personal life policy and a personal death policy. The fine print in my personal life and death policy reads: "BLESSED ARE ALL THOSE WHO BLESS ME"
I,ANTONIO VELASQUEZ JUNIOR;have a personal life policy,and; a personal death policy. The fine print in my personal life and death policies reads: "BLESSED ARE ALL THOSE WHO BLESS ME,CURSED ARE ALL THOSE WHO ATTEMPT TO HARM ME AND/OR ANY OF MY DEARLY BELOVED IN ANY WAY,FORM,AND/OR FASHION.AND IF THEY MANAGE TO HURT AND/OR TAKE ANY OF OUR LIVES; THEIR OWN LIVES AND THE LIVES OF THEIR OWN DEARLY BELOVED WILL SUFFER IN AGONY UNTIL THEY CEASE TO EXIST."In the name of CELLESTIAL LAW eye proclaim.
"All my friends live joyful ,healthy lives,never lacking anything that is beneficial to them and all their dearly beloved; including me."
Antonio, please spend some time with spellcheck and a dictionary. The rest of these hateful comments I can only assume are coming from equally idiotic youngsters with little to achieve in life. Stupid accident or not, I am sorry for these guys and their families. The article doesn't present details like if they sent sandbags first or not. Step off b/c none of you really know what happened and why. Also, none of you can tell me you have not narrowly survived some stupid actions taken in your own lives.
The internet is full of such LOSERS. But who to hate more? The "he deserved it for not sitting in his mom's basement like I do pretending to be all post-modern and cynical" or the "in my opinion as an expert engineer, these zip lines require a double 19 reserve washer system" or maybe the "LOLZ. I'm a eyelitrate iddiot who caant spellbutt posts thangs on Commeent boords. I'm sstoopid." Oh, I just decided: I wish all of you were dead. Losers.
FO.
Of all the imbacillick tendancies commentator 132 takes first prize.And for second and third prize winner No.131 ,i say this;i am not one who check spells,i was born,to live and to die breaking them.
lol is all i can really say,this isnt really worthy of news coverage,and look at the depth of stupidity from both sides it has incited,thank you toothless,overweight masses for entertaining me for five minutes,its a terrible shame that this happened,but now ask if i care,i dont know any of those people,sorry