Maui’s Callaway Identified as Victim of Zipline Collapse

By Wendy Osher

Zipline file photo.

The Maui man who was fatally injured in a ziplining accident on Hawai’i Island has since been identified as Ted Callaway, 36 of Lahaina.

Callaway fell 200 feet to his death while testing a line at a course in Pauka’a.

“An autopsy has been scheduled for tomorrow (September 23) to determine the exact cause of Mr. Callaway’s death,” said Capt. Randall Medeiros, Hawai’i Police Department Criminal Investigations Division in a press release today.

Another worker fell 30 feet from a collapsed platform and suffered critical injuries.  He was identified as 43-year-old Curtis Wright, of Miamisburg, Ohio.

Capt. Medeiros said Wright remained in critical and “very unstable” condition today with multiple internal injuries.

Both men were employed by a Maui company that builds and maintains ziplines.  Experiential Resources Inc. (ERi) called the incident a “construction accident,” saying the company was working on a new course at the Lava Hotline just outside of Hilo, Hawai’i when the accident occurred.

The two men had just made an adjustment to the line and were in the process of testing it, according to police.

Callaway had traveled about halfway across the 2,300-foot span when a tower collapsed.

The incident remains under investigation.