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A man died and his wife was badly injured after a tourist zip line system they were riding on failed because it wasn’t anchored tightly enough, a coronial inquest has heard.
Coroner Wayne Pennell held a pre-inquest hearing on Thursday into the death of Dean Sanderson at Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours at Cape Tribulation, in north Queensland on 22 October 2019.
Counsel assisting April Freeman cited two expert reports into the incident. Both of them blamed a technique used to anchor the wire, which she called a “wire rope grip” or “bulldog clip”. The wire passes through a thimble which clamps it in place.
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The wire unspooled from the anchor point, dropping both Sanderson and his wife, Shannon, about 20 to 25 metres to the ground. She suffered broken ribs and a fractured scapula, he died with head and chest injuries at the scene.
Freeman said a person could not determine how tight the grips were visually and their torque – how tightly it was binding the wire in place – could decline over time as a rope settled. They also needed regular retightening and other maintenance.
The coroner heard the torque was as little as one-seventh as tight as federal standards required, at the time of the incident, according to a report by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland expert Stuart Davies.
“Calculations by Mr Davies carried out indicated that, at the time of the incident, there was at least two tons of force being applied to the main termination as the Sandersons were travelling along the zip line,” she said.
The coroner heard federal standards were somewhat contradictory about their use. Some banned them entirely; others regulated how they were to be operated, effectively permitting them.
Freeman said there appears to have been “uncertainty within the industry about the appropriateness of the use of wire rope groups as terminations”.
The zip line was designed to take tourists in tandem about 86 metres between two towers over the rainforest, part of a larger route. The Sandersons were part of a tourist tour of 10 people using it at the time.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland launched two prosecutions as a result of the incident, but without securing a conviction. The company which operated it has been deregistered by Asic.
The coroner will hold a five-day inquest into the incident in March next year.
He will consider 11 issues including the standards required for the safe use of zip line amusement rides, and the appropriateness of the qualifications of the people who operated it before its failure.
