By COLIN M. STEWART
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Legislators voted Thursday to continue work this session on a bill that would establish standards and insurance requirements for the state’s burgeoning zip line industry. However, legislation calling for direct oversight by the state won’t be happening this year.
A great deal of attention has been paid recently to regulating the zip line industry after the death this fall of a construction worker while working on a zip line just north of Hilo. A second worker was critically injured in the accident, caused by the collapse of a 30-foot tower.
Senate Bill 2433 passed its second reading in the House on Thursday, in a joint hearing by the House committees on Tourism, and Economic Revitalization & Business. It will next move on to the Consumer Protection & Commerce, Judiciary, and Finance committees, said state Rep. Mark Nakashima, D-Kohala, Hamakua, Hilo.
A similar bill that Nakashima helped introduce this session was deferred last month by the Legislature until next year, because state law requires a year-long study to be undertaken before any law may be enacted that would require licensure for an industry. However, he said, SB 2433 will hopefully serve to sidestep such requirements until more stringent legislation can be pursued down the road.
“This is a stop-gap type of interim regulation that would go into place, providing some assurance that zip line folks are receiving oversight,” he said.
“What we did today was we worked in some amendments that would go back to placing the burden of regulation on the insurance carrier. … There would be criteria for them (carriers) to issue a certificate of insurance and then that certificate would need to be posted and published by the operators.”
By placing the onus of performing safety inspections on insurance carriers, Nakashima said, the state won’t have to worry about “developing the expertise,” as well as the costs, associated with issuing licenses.
“Actually, the bill as we amended it today pretty much looks like what I had intended it to be,” Nakashima said. “But, at some point, there would have to be some agency in the state that would be responsible for this (rather than the insurance carriers).”
Kennewick, Wash., resident Ilene Callaway, the mother of 36-year-old Ted Callaway, the man killed in the zip line tower collapse, said Thursday she was enthused by the progress of the legislation.
“I’m elated, because that’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “But, I do feel that my job is not done. One part was to push the legislation to go through, and I feel really good that my involvement might have helped, being the squeaky wheel. But, my other mission is to make sure people are aware that maybe the zip lines might not be as safe as they think.”
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.