Builder Profile
the system safe or are simply cutting corners to save cost or offer a more attractive proposal to beat competitors who come in at a higher price point. The cheaper, less safe sites are driving up the insurance costs of everyone in the industry. At the rate we’re going, [operators] who are doing everything right will be forced to shut down due to skyrocketing insurance costs. Noah: Safe Launch (the company’s electronic launching system) is not a cheap install. Depending on what the client wants, it can be anywhere from like $75,000 to $150,000 per segment. But insurance companies are looking at giving clients that use the system up to 25 percent off their insurance premiums, because it will eliminate operator error. Isiah: What Safe Launch does is elimi - nate the ability for guides to premature - ly launch guests, ensures they perform safety checks, and provides them with tools like gates and camera angles to help them perform their tasks safer and with more certainty. It is easy for under - writers to see the pros of this system. It can be compared to installing cameras or a security system in your house, both of which will get you discounts on your home insurance, so why should it be any different for zip lines? Noah: We’re also coming out with a product called EZ Launch that works with guides to eliminate the potential for a premature launch when another rider is still on the line. It’s the cause of the highest claims in the insurance industry* , because you don’t have one client but two involved, and both of them end up hurting each other. With this system you can’t launch someone until the guide has taken the previous guest off. It’s a simplified Safe Launch, but it also won’t need the use of a solar panel or direct power. * According to a 2023 report from Granite Insurance analyzing five years of incident data, collisions (inclu - sive of impacts with another person or object while on a zip line) comprised 15 percent of total claims in 2023, with an average claims cost of $283,000. Pas- senger transport incidents make up a smaller share of claims (10 percent) but have an average claims cost of $400,000, the highest average cost across five claims categories. For more on claims, see “Analyzing 2023 Incident Trends,” API, Spring/Summer 2024.
You can also take it one step further and apply this principle to guides as well. We push for braking systems that reset automatically and that cannot be bypassed so there is no possibility for a guest to impact a compressed or disen- gaged braking system. Noah: Our clients don’t touch anything or have to do anything other than get in the brake position. Isiah: As more people get into zip lines, the insurance costs continue to rise due to an increase in the rate of incidents. This may be due to vendors/operators who either lack the knowledge to make Top: Zip line takeoff from the top of the ski jump tower at Canada Olym- pic Park. Above: skyTECH Universal E-Launcher at Interzip, connecting Ottawa and Gatineau.
automated as we can to minimize the possibility for human error.
API: Are we getting to the point where zip lines are getting too big, long, high, and fast for the user to have an active role in the ride, particularly braking? Isiah: I feel strongly that human involvement should not be a factor in zip lines. Guests should not be involved in any kind of braking beyond bracing their bodies for a braking system or to step onto a platform at low speeds. I understand that human involvement can be done safely and that 99 percent of the time it is not an issue, but we try to design for the 1 percent, and it will always be there so long as there is human involvement.
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