Zip Line accident on our cruise last week in St Kitts. Just a heads up.

[WouldBeCruiser]

Wow - what a terrible experience he had.

I'm sure glad I didn't see a post like this before I did my zip-line experience in Panama.

It looked pretty safe to me, and so I went for the thrill of it, but if there had been a problem I would probably have died! There's no way I could have held on and made my way "hand over hand" to get to safety.

What a relief to read that his injuries were relatively minor considering the danger.

[michaelaz]

Im just here waiting for the "Did he have cruise insurance ?" bashers...........:rolleyes:

[ib4cruzn]

Speak for yourself. I have had my share of incidents while on vacation. I banged my head open on a rock while white water rafting. I cut my foot BAD while in the water in Cozumel. I broke my leg while water skiing. I broke my arm while running from a cow and going over a cliff. I also had a serious car crash on my way to the cruise port in New Orleans. Still made the cruise but I could hardly stand up by the second day. Hasn't stopped me because if my time is up, I would far rather go doing something I like than laying in a nursing home day after day, week after week wishing I had enjoyed my life while I was able.

 

Zip line broke, guy got injured, Unfortunate, but if I decide to zip line, I will. I just happen to be afraid of heights so it is not for me. One time was enough.

 

Wow! Your nickname "Lucky"?

[Rockportgirl]

that's why a visit to carlos & charlie's should come first. After c&c's you crawl, thus eliminating that falling danger!:rolleyes:

 

lol! :D

[skylock]

Now THAT'S good stuff --- :D --- though I'm sure you had to be there!

 

Tom

 

OK, maybe it wasn't a cliff cliff, but there was a big opening in the ground with about a 12 ft drop. I tried to stop myself and heard my arm snap. The pain didn't come until I was having to come up out of it. There were people helping and a rope involved, but I pretty much had to pull myself out. I have never seen such an angry cow and she was BIG.

 

All I did was speak to her and her calf and maybe wave my stick I was carring in case of snakes around a bit and the next thing I knew, she was coming at me.

[jerseygirl79]

I see folks parasailing in Mexico and other countries and it sure looks unsafe. zip lining in jamaica and elsewhere seems like a bad idea.

 

I agree. I won't be doing any of these activities any time soon.

[Traveler353]

Been there, done that with the rotator cuff. Believe me that does smarts abit. The reason people do adventure excursions such as this if for the perception of danger. They forget that the danger is very real. Plus there is a very high fun factor.:cool:

[vacruizer]

A good reminder that people need to weigh the risks of what they are comfortable with and that nothing in life is risk free. I've always thought ziplining sounded fun but decided against it a few years ago - in part after meeting a lady on our 2007 cruise who was injured in Costa Rica while ziplining. She said it was very scary and she had a very hard time communicating with the medical personnel once they arrived to the language barrier. She spent the rest of the cruise with a broken leg. The other event that made me decide against was the woman who died on the zipline in Roatan a year or two ago. Your risk tolerance may vary. :p

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

...

All I did was speak to her and her calf and maybe wave my stick I was carring in case of snakes around a bit and the next thing I knew, she was coming at me.

 

Perhaps it's not what you said to them, but how you said it. ;)

 

:D

 

Tom

[jrgreiner]

We were on the cruise when the lady fell and died. The worker was trying to help her when she got hung up. some how the harness released and the both fell to the ground.

[Gatorz]

Folks,

Read the original post. The zipline itself did not break. The carriage or pulley system that allows him to roll down the line malfunctioned. Many of these excursions use a double line system that is very safe. They also have a safety cable that attaches the rider to the cable also. From what I read the carriage itself broke leaving the rider dangling form the safety cable. Anything like that can malfunction. There was an elevated cable car at six flags over Mid America that broke and fell a 100 or so feet and killed everyone in it back in the 80's. People have fallen out of roller coasters. I'm sure he wrenched his shoulder when the carriage broke because you trail a hand behind the carriage to act as a brake. I would assume the odds of someone falling to their death are very slim as their are safety measures in place. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, just that the odds are against it.

[halos]

While in Costa Rica (Celebrity Infinity) back in 2006, my DH and I were the only two people doing the zip line (Everyone else on that cruise was ancient LOL!!) So, it was us and two tour guides.

The aparatus held up fine...BUT a tree had fallen onto the 3rd zip line.

Long story, short....the four of us had to climb hand over hand back up the two lines we had zipped down. Thank God it was only two lines. One of them was VERY long. My DH stopped to rest at one point on this line and his hand slid and back down the line he went.

 

I was petrfied watching him (I had already made it off at that point) because it was 100 degrees, he was red as a beet and exhausted. Unlike the fit person the Op spoke of, we are anything BUT.

 

Needless to say there will be no more attempts at zip lining for us.

 

When I look back and think about how blessed we were...there were all 4 of us on a line at one time. At the time, I didn't think about the stress on the line itself. All I could think of was, God please give me the strength to climb back up this thing!!

 

I don't want to disuade anyone from trying this by any means, BUT I do recommend that because something like this can happen, you NEED to be in decent shape to do a zip line. Stuff like this happens more than what you are aware of.

 

All of you with the snarky remarks have NO clue how scary this is. There are no escape ladders or emergency exits for these things and you are 100 feet or more in the air. I don't recall ho wlong it took to get back on to safe ground. It may have only been 90 minutes, it may have been 3 hours...it felt like 90 years.

[sunseeker09]

I can't believe people equate accidents with negligence.

Yes, accidents happen whether you do risky activities, drive a car, slip and fall... or get chased by a cow over a cliff? :confused: ...but when you pay to take a zip line and they use faulty equipment.. that's negligent.

I scuba dive. I use my own gear. If I paid to rent gear I would expect it to be checked and tested regularly and work. That said, I wouldn't trust gear in some countires and/or some dive shops. Now I wouldn't ever trust this negligent zip line company. Someone didn't do their job.

If I go skiing and I fall and break a leg, that's an accident. If the chair falls off the cable and injures or kills me, that's negligence.

If I take a flight and a bird flies in the engine and the plane crashes, that's an accident. If I take a flight on a plane that was faulty and needed repairs, that's negligence.

 

See where I'm going with this?

[picklebongo]

Speak for yourself. I have had my share of incidents while on vacation. I banged my head open on a rock while white water rafting. I cut my foot BAD while in the water in Cozumel. I broke my leg while water skiing. I broke my arm while running from a cow and going over a cliff. I also had a serious car crash on my way to the cruise port in New Orleans. Still made the cruise but I could hardly stand up by the second day. Hasn't stopped me because if my time is up, I would far rather go doing something I like than laying in a nursing home day after day, week after week wishing I had enjoyed my life while I was able.

 

Zip line broke, guy got injured, Unfortunate, but if I decide to zip line, I will. I just happen to be afraid of heights so it is not for me. One time was enough.

 

Being from Wisconsin, I'd love to hear the story of you running from a cow and going over a cliff and breaking your arm. Wow is all I can say about your mishaps.

[picklebongo]

Oops, I made the mistake of not reading the whole thread and see you shared how the cow incident happened.

[fig414]

To the poster who asked me to post on the St Kitts board, I did post there before I posted here on general principles. The response there was he/she didn't read it on Google and felt it was odd. Very few people on our cruise knew about it other than the people waiting on line for their turn and our table of 8 who got the first hand story. When John (the unfortunate zipped guy) went to the excursion desk to report the incident the Carnival rep told him they were waiting for him to show up because all of the pax had already been there to get a refund. We also had a girl overboard who broke her fall on deck 5 and broke her leg/pelvis and carted off in an ambulance when we reached St Maarten. The last night an elderly man passed away in his cabin. Both these incidents we were awaken in the middle of the night with a general announcement for crew to report to Deck ......

To the posters who opined that "accidents happen" and should I not drive a car, or you can get killed crossing the street, and blah blah blah. In my heading I wrote "just a heads up". Relax yourselves.

[Kurbanfan]

I can't believe people equate accidents with negligence.

Yes, accidents happen whether you do risky activities, drive a car, slip and fall... or get chased by a cow over a cliff? :confused: ...but when you pay to take a zip line and they use faulty equipment.. that's negligent.

I scuba dive. I use my own gear. If I paid to rent gear I would expect it to be checked and tested regularly and work. That said, I wouldn't trust gear in some countires and/or some dive shops. Now I wouldn't ever trust this negligent zip line company. Someone didn't do their job.

If I go skiing and I fall and break a leg, that's an accident. If the chair falls off the cable and injures or kills me, that's negligence.

If I take a flight and a bird flies in the engine and the plane crashes, that's an accident. If I take a flight on a plane that was faulty and needed repairs, that's negligence.

 

See where I'm going with this?

 

Absolutely!

[fig414]

Oh crap. I forgot about about that 2 cars derailed on the St Kitts railroad excursion. They had to squish 2 cars of people into the original 5 cars on the ride back. I think this may be turning into a questionable St Kitts problem. Maybe it's just a coincidence. This great cruise could have been disastrous with all the stuff happening.

[bplazo]

I was reading a post a few days ago where someone was asking if their five year could to the zip-line. I do not think that I would chance this with a five year old.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I was reading a post a few days ago where someone was asking if their five year could to the zip-line. I do not think that I would chance this with a five year old.

 

 

I know some parents who let their kid (about 6) ride in motocross - he has for a couple of years, and already has a broken arm to show for it. :rolleyes: Leave it up to "good" parents... stupid is as stupid does!

 

Tom

[babies12]

Wow, the replies on this thread LOL! The op was just giving a heads up as to the dangers of zip lining on this particular excursion and I for one appreciate that. It seems that no matter what, any negative posting to anything associated with CCL will get you flamed.

[Kurbanfan]

Oh crap. I forgot about about that 2 cars derailed on the St Kitts railroad excursion. They had to squish 2 cars of people into the original 5 cars on the ride back. I think this may be turning into a questionable St Kitts problem. Maybe it's just a coincidence. This great cruise could have been disastrous with all the stuff happening.

 

Wow did anyone get hurt on that one:confused: And were both of these Carnival excursions:confused:

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Wow did anyone get hurt on that one:confused: And were both of these Carnival excursions:confused:

 

I recall the "Sugar Train" -- that baby swayed back and forth quite a bit. :eek:

As I recall it was a fairly narrow gauge track.

 

Tom

[sunseeker09]

In the St. Kitts section someone in an unrealted thread was discussing age restrictions for zip lining there and commented about their site saying that kids only had to be 6. So I checked it out...

"Our age limit is 6yrs of age incorporated with a weight minimum of 60 lbs to partake. Our maximum weight capacity is 275 lbs. "

I'm sorry, but that's insane to me. To allow a little 6 year old child to do something like this? Can you imagine if this had happened to a young child? ...and at those speeds?

"Guests can reach up to 80 km/hr. This speed will vary depending on the weight of the individual." That's fast!

And high.... but they tell people who are afaid of heights... "Not to worry!"...

"Highest point is 250 feet and the lowest is 10 feet. The lower cables give a greater sense of speed."

Still say "relax, accidents can happen" and trust your little darling children's lives to this? Honestly?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

...

"Our age limit is 6yrs of age incorporated with a weight minimum of 60 lbs to partake. Our maximum weight capacity is 275 lbs. "

 

...

 

"Guests can reach up to 80 km/hr. This speed will vary depending on the weight of the individual." That's fast!

 

...

 

One of the incidents which happened on a cruise we were on involved a child which had come to a stop prior to the end of the line (presumably due to her small size) and they already had a (LARGE) fellow coming in on the same line who had plenty of momentum. There was an impact - fortunately only minor injuries... but still!!

 

Tom