Canadian tourist dies after falling from zipline in Chiang Mai

[rooster59]

Canadian tourist dies after falling from zipline in Chiang Mai

 

Image: Manager

 

A Canadian fell to his death while on zip line in Chiang Mai on Saturday.

 

Officials said the 25 year old was riding a zipline at Flight of the Gibbon in Mae Kampong when his safety harness broke causing him to plummet 50 metres to the ground below. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

The weight limit for anyone using the zipline is 125 kilograms.

 

Manager and Thai PBS reported the man weighed between 180 and 200 kilograms, while other outlets said the deceased man weighed 125 kilograms.  

 

It was reported the zipline operators have been charged with gross negligence resulting in death.

 

A full investigation is underway into the man’s death, who was visiting Thailand on holiday with his wife.

 

Flight of the Gibbon was investigated in 2017 over claims it had encroached protected forests.

 

Depending on the results of the investigation, Flight of the Gibbon faces being shut down indefinitely, officials said.

 

In its report Thai PBS highlighted other accidents and fatalities involving foreign tourists at zipline attractions in Chiang Mai.

 

In 2015, two Chinese tourists were killed in separate incidents at two other ziplines in the area.

 

In 2016, a Chinese tourists suffered serious injuries while riding the Flying Squirrel zipline.

 

Also in 2016, three Israeli tourists were injured after fall at the Flight of the Gibbon.

 

In 2015, remarkable footage shared by the Daily Mail went viral after showing an American tourist who was left hanging onto a friend after an employee forget to connect a carabiner on a 400m zipline in Chiang Mai.

 

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-04-14

[sammieuk1]

The safety features installed after killing two Chinese in 2015 seam to have been kill and injure some more????RIP

[Pilotman]

Zip wires, tethered parachute rides, parachuting,  private aircraft  flying, micro lighting, motor glider;  any of these are dangerous in a country that treats safety standards as a  western joke. 

[neeray]

Close it down. The owners don't seem to be responsible enough to operate such a facility fraught with contingent liabilities.

 

Just do a "44" on them on Monday morning. Problem solved.

[sweatalot]

31 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

tourist dies after falling from zipline in Chiang Mai

 

Oh really - I was believing   that they hade learned from the previous similar accidents.

Stupid me

[toenail]

Probably the workers were too anxious to return to their phones to pay attention to safety detail for their clients. 

 Have you ever seen how the staff at these local water parks behave while on duty? 

Edited April 14, 2019 by toenail
spelling

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, sweatalot said:

Oh really - I was believing   that they hade learned from the previous similar accidents.

Stupid me

Nobody in authority really monitors these set ups.  The kit is not maintained properly, even if they know how to use it, which often they don't. When I first arrived here, I went down to my local air strip to check out the private flying world.  the aircraft were a mess and the people flying them clearly irresponsible and ignorant and many of them were long time expats, who have clearly caught the Thai 'don't give a monkeys' bug.    I haven't been back since. I notice that they do 'pleasure trips' for naive tourists?? 

[ezzra]

When it comes to safety, this whole country is one big joke and there are plenty of examples of dead and injured people to attest to it on a weekly bases, it comes from the fact that Thai people themselves do not consider life as precious and sacred, judging by the wholesale numbers of dead and injured on Thai roads everyday...

[Classic Ray]

Design load for a harness like this should probably be about four times maximum load to be carried, ie 600kg. 

 

So IF PROPERLY MAINTAINED, even someone of 200kg would be safe. But having lived here some years, I know maintenance and design specifications are not at the forefront.

[geoffbezoz]

14 minutes ago, ezzra said:

When it comes to safety, this whole country is one big joke and there are plenty of examples of dead and injured people to attest to it on a weekly bases, it comes from the fact that Thai people themselves do not consider life as precious and sacred, judging by the wholesale numbers of dead and injured on Thai roads everyday...

Firstly RIP to the innocent tourist who died. When you believe in  such mumbo jumbo, in Thais case, Budhism, to protect  you from all ills, then it is no joke. It is just not Thailand, its many countries. They don't realise it is all hocu pocus and don't work the resultant being the loss of many lives, most being the innocent ones.

 

That reminds me, got to put another pin in the doll that looks like Teresa May.

Edited April 14, 2019 by geoffbezoz

[Prairieboy]

55 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

180 and 200 kilograms,

So between 395 and 440 pounds - perhaps they have confused the units of measurement!

[KC 71]

Life is on the line here already
You dont need to gamble any more than that
R.I.P fella


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[Pilotman]

2 minutes ago, Prairieboy said:

So between 395 and 440 pounds - perhaps they have confused the units of measurement!

perhaps they can't read or count, that is more likely knowing the dire education system here. 

[LomSak27]

Just now, hyku1147 said:

As much as I find Western over-regulation to be pain in the butt, I believe that we need some of it in L0S.

TV is known for the bloviating pats, forever on about nanny states and how they feel so free here in LOS. Well this is an example of why nanny states developed regulations.

[Lacessit]

I constantly see  breaches in Thailand which would give any Western safety inspector apoplexy. The only viable strategy is to do one's own risk assessment, and walk away as necessary.

[Oww]

8 minutes ago, geoffbezoz said:

When you believe in  such mumbo jumbo, in Thais case, Budhism, to protect  you from all ills, then it is no joke

Ok, but....Where was the AMERICAN OWNER of Flight of Gibbons when this death on his equipment happened?! I'm sure he was right on site checking safety precautions...lol

[shady86]

Money first, safety last. Risk your life here. 

[stevenl]

37 minutes ago, toenail said:

Probably the workers were too anxious to return to their phones to pay attention to safety detail for their clients. 

 Have you ever seen how the staff at these local water parks behave while on duty? 

Yes, at Splash Jungle they behave excellent, no telephones at all on the job.

[geoffbezoz]

2 minutes ago, Oww said:

Ok, but....Where was the AMERICAN OWNER of Flight of Gibbons when this death on his equipment happened?! I'm sure he was right on site checking safety precautions...lol

Not sure if the owner is American or not but perhaps he was updating the webpage.

 

https://www.flightofthegibbon.com/

 

Perhaps there will be a revision soon to the "we care" section and if you check the "team" you will see the Manager of Operations is Thai so either the owner had not instilled the importance of a rigorous safety nature into the Thai team or else members of that team, namely the Manager and his reports  responsible for operations, acted negligently perhaps.

 

Just wondering what sort of spin TAT will put on this ?

[stevenl]

21 minutes ago, Prairieboy said:

So between 395 and 440 pounds - perhaps they have confused the units of measurement!

Why? Canada and Thailand use metric.

[marcusarelus]

20 minutes ago, Oww said:

Ok, but....Where was the AMERICAN OWNER of Flight of Gibbons when this death on his equipment happened?! I'm sure he was right on site checking safety precautions...lol

The company was the vision of New Zealand adventurer David Allardice.

 

In 2007, according to former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Allardice joined up with an American businessman named Steven McWhorter, whom he met through the expat network in southeast Asia, and Steve Saunders, a Brit who owns the Sanctuary spa resort in Koh Phangan, in southern Thailand.

Edited April 14, 2019 by marcusarelus

[toenail]

Idea!!! The zip-line tourist attractions should have a sign similar to the big construction sites saying how many days it has been with out an injury or death. ????

[geoffbezoz]

3 minutes ago, toenail said:

Idea!!! The zip-line tourist attractions should have a sign similar to the big construction sites saying how many days it has been with out an injury or death. ????

Possibly never would be a sign if it were to say how many days without an injury.  Perhaps it should  just say "xx injuries today, no deaths for xx days"

[Vacuum]

28 minutes ago, LomSak27 said:

TV is known for the bloviating pats, forever on about nanny states and how they feel so free here in LOS. Well this is an example of why nanny states developed regulations.

Thailand-non regulated, nanny states-over regulated, perhaps they should meet in the middle?

[Pilotman]

27 minutes ago, geoffbezoz said:

Not sure if the owner is American or not but perhaps he was updating the webpage.

 

https://www.flightofthegibbon.com/

 

Perhaps there will be a revision soon to the "we care" section and if you check the "team" you will see the Manager of Operations is Thai so either the owner had not instilled the importance of a rigorous safety nature into the Thai team or else members of that team, namely the Manager and his reports  responsible for operations, acted negligently perhaps.

 

Just wondering what sort of spin TAT will put on this ?

There will be a deathly ( I apologise for the pun) silence from TAT  and  from all the tour operators, tourist centres and travel agents who flog this kind of stuff to unsuspecting visitors. 

[Just Weird]

3 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

There will be a deathly ( I apologise for the pun) silence from TAT  and  from all the tour operators, tourist centres and travel agents who flog this kind of stuff to unsuspecting visitors. 

Of course, just as there would be from similar entities in any other country, including yours!

[Pilotman]

5 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

Of course, just as there would be from similar entities in any other country, including yours!

Absolute rubbish.  Maybe you ave no knowledge  of the deaths at the UK theme parks.  The investigations were open and thorough and  the people responsible ended up in court.  I don't know where you come from, maybe in your country it's the same as Thailand, but not in the UK. It's not the first time you have come up with this kind of uninformed comment, probably not the last either.   

Edited April 14, 2019 by Pilotman

[cardinalblue]

Nanny states? You mean like having air pollution regulatory standards with enforcement? 

 

I wonder if CM’s polluted air had any role in the tourist’s demise....

[Just Weird]

1 minute ago, Pilotman said:

Absolute rubbish.  Maybe you ave no knowledge  of the deaths at the UK theme parks.  The investigations were open and thorough and  the people responsible ended up in court.  I don't know where you come from, maybe in your country it's the same as Thailand, but not in the UK. It's not the first time you have come up with this kind of uninformed comment, probably not the last either.   

The absolute rubbish is coming from you.  Your comment that I responded to suggested that the tour operators, tourist centres and travel agents who flog this kind of stuff should be pointing out these fatal incidents to their potential customers before taking their money. 

 

Please tell me the name of just one of those enterprises with an interest in selling those events in the UK (or anywhere else) that did that after deaths.

 

[mok199]

The day I trust a teeny thai with my life ...