Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lawmakers Eye Stricter Rules For Zip Lines

AP file photo/Silvia Izquierdo

A fatal accident at a High Country camp has prompted a legislative push to regulate zip lines.

A bill now before the North Carolina State Senate is named for 12-year-old Sanders Burney of Wilmington. She died in 2015 after a fall when her harness snapped during a zip line ride at a YMCA camp in Alleghany County.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover. If approved, the law would provide greater oversight of what's known as the “aerial adventure course” industry in North Carolina. It would add stricter guidelines on zip lines and high ropes courses.

Some camp owners say the law could increase expenses and paperwork and could lead to an operation closing altogether. Others questioned whether the law would improve safety.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate