Man dead because employer failed to replace safety gear

Summary: Because an employer didn’t replace a safety lanyard according to the schedule recommended by the device’s manufacturer, the equipment failed at a critical moment and sent an unsuspecting employee tumbling to his death.

The incident: When Scott Lewis accepted a job as a zip line instructor at Stowe Mountain Resort, Stowe, VT, he was overjoyed to be able to spend most of his time outdoors, which is where he loved to be.

Lewis was on the zip line one day speeding along at 82 miles per hour toward the bottom of the run, where he was supposed to meet some guests. Without warning, his lanyard failed, and Lewis was thrown from the zip line. He hit the decking of a cable bollard located at the bottom of the run.

The response: Coworkers raced over to help Lewis. They found him underneath the zip line’s platform with his helmet off and his harness ripped. Someone administered CPR, but Lewis was badly hurt and was soon declared dead.

The aftermath: Lewis, 53, left behind his wife and three boys. His wife, Molly Lewis, has filed a lawsuit against Vail Resorts, the owner of Stowe Mountain Resort. The lawsuit alleges that the company’s negligence caused her husband’s death.

The lawsuit cites a report from the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found that Vail didn’t replace the lanyard every year, as recommended by the lanyard’s manufacturer. In fact, the equipment that failed and caused Lewis’s death had been in service for more than three years.

“Unlike most of us,” reads Lewis’s obituary, “Scott had become the person he wanted to be. He was doing what he loved, raising the kids he loved in the mountains he loved. He was happy.”

(From the Jan. 29, 2024, issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)