25 April 2008

Tragedy hits Roatan's zip-line tour

A passenger sailing onboard NCL's Norwegian Spirit died due to a fatal fall when a faulty cable snapped on the 18th of March 2008. Barbara Sue Fojtasek, aged 44 fell along with her tour guide more than 30 feet below to the forest ground. Fojtasek was rushed to a private clinic where she succumbed to her injuries. The Gumbalimba Park tour guide was treated for serious injuries but he survived the fall and was relesased from the hospital on March 22.
Zip-line excursions have become increasingly popular of late among adventure cruisers who seek more than just a day on the beach. The tours provide breathtaking views with amusement park fun. Initial detail about the Roatan accident that was reported by various media outlets expressed that Fojtasek's harness broke and she fell from a height of 65 feet. However officials at the Honduras Institute of Tourism refuted the statement by terming it false. According to the officials, the zip-line tour consists of 13 platforms located at the beginning and end of each of the ride's 11 separate legs arriving at which the rider must disconnect from one stretch of cable and hook up to the next. A tourism spokesman stated that Fojtasek and the guide were travelling down the zip-lines in tandem that was joined together so that the guide was in control of the brakes etc. At the time of the accident, the duo stopped at one of the platforms when the guide mistakenly did not attact them both to a security line when connecting to the next cable. When they resumed their ride, the primary cable snapped for reasons unknown and with no safety line to protect them from falling, Fojtasek and the guide plunged 35 feet to the ground – not from 65 feet that initially reported but still a fatal height to fall from. Caitlizzle, a cruise critic claims to have been on the excursion with Fojtasek, had a slightly different version of what took place on that fateful day. ”We heard that she got stuck in the middle, and a guide came along to help her. He undid her safety clip so that he could get in front of her to direct her along to the next platform. While this was happening, the line fell.” The Institute of Tourism claims that the cable that failed was brand new and was only installed in February and could hold a maximum capacity of 3 tonnes. Fojtasek's tragic death is the first serious incident in the Gumbalimba Park zip-line's six years of operation and the first fatality ever to occur on any Roatan canopy tour.