GoZip LLC employee Ted Callaway of Lahaina, Maui, was killed and a co-worker was critically injured on Sept. 21 when the 30-foot zip line tower they were working on collapsed.
BY COLIN M. STEWART
STEPHENS MEDIA
HILO — The mother of the man killed in last summer’s collapse of a zip-line tower in Paukaa says she is “appalled” at Hawaii’s failure to regulate its zip-line industry.
In an attempt to call attention to that lack of oversight, Ted Callaway’s family, including the four mothers of his seven children, are currently working with Maui personal injury attorney Michael Tateishi to file a lawsuit against the parties responsible for the 36-year-old’s death, said Ilene Callaway.
“We don’t want money, and I’m not out to get anybody into trouble,” She said from Kennewick, Wash., where Ted Callaway was born and raised. “I want to make sure that Ted doesn’t just die and everybody says, ‘Oh well.'”
Callaway said that initially she was happy to see that legislators had taken up the issue of stricter regulation. But she was spurred to action when she saw that House Bill 2060 stalled.
The bill sought to require operators be licensed by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and their zip lines inspected annually.
Sen. Dwight Takamine, D-Hilo, Hamakua, Waimea, said the measure “includes recommendations that are too problematic to implement.”
State Rep. Mark Nakashima, D-Kohala, Hamakua, Hilo, one of the legislators to introduce the bill, said he is working on other options.
“There is another bill moving through the Senate, and we expect it to come over (to the House for approval),” he said.
On Friday, the Senate Ways and Means committee recommended passing that measure, Senate Bill 2433.
GoZip LLC employee Ted Callaway of Lahaina, Maui, was killed and a co-worker was critically injured on Sept. 21 when the 30-foot zip line tower they were working on collapsed.