Zipline and Adventure Course Injury Claims in Georgia

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When someone is hurt on a zipline or adventure course, whether the course falls under Georgia’s ride-safety laws shapes the claim from the start. If it does, the owner needs a state permit backed by a licensed inspector’s certificate, an annual inspection, maintenance and breakdown records, an operator at least 16 years old, and liability insurance or other security, and each of those requirements points to something a claim can examine. Separately, someone has to answer for the injury: the operator that ran the course, the company that made the equipment, or both.

Does the Ride Safety Law Cover the Course?

Georgia’s Amusement Ride Safety Act (OCGA 25-15-50) defines an “amusement ride” as “any mechanical device, other than those regulated by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which carries or conveys passengers along, around, or over a fixed or restricted route or course or within a defined area for the purpose of giving its passengers amusement, pleasure, thrills, or excitement.” The term excludes “any such device which is not permanently fixed to a site” (OCGA 25-15-51(1)). A device that fits the same description but is not permanently fixed is a “carnival ride” under the Carnival Ride Safety Act (OCGA 25-15-81(2)). Neither act reaches a single-passenger coin-operated ride on a stationary foundation or playground equipment, a category the statutes illustrate with swings, slides, jungle gyms, and moonwalks (OCGA 25-15-64, 25-15-94).

The definition names no particular device. Whether a given zipline or ropes course is covered therefore turns on its elements: whether the course is a mechanical device, whether it carries passengers over a fixed or restricted course for amusement or thrills, and whether it is permanently fixed to a site.

What a Covered Ride Must Have

The office of the Safety Fire Commissioner is “designated to enforce the provisions of this article and to formulate and enforce standards and regulations” (OCGA 25-15-51(8)). For an amusement ride, the act requires:

  • A permit and a certificate. The office must issue a permit before the ride runs for anything other than testing and inspection, and the permit application carries a licensed inspector’s certificate (OCGA 25-15-55).
  • Inspection. A licensed inspector examines each ride every year, and may do so more often, at the owner’s or operator’s cost, and examines a new ride before the public uses it (OCGA 25-15-56(a)).
  • Records. The owner keeps current maintenance, inspection, and repair records covering the inspection reports since the last annual inspection, the maintenance done, and any failures or breakdowns together with what was done to correct them (OCGA 25-15-59).
  • An operator. The person running the ride is 16 or older, stays with it whenever it is running, and runs only that one ride (OCGA 25-15-60).
  • Insurance or security. The owner carries liability coverage in an amount the regulations set, or posts a bond of the same amount, or cash or other security the office accepts (OCGA 25-15-62(a)).

For a claim, these requirements mark the questions worth answering: whether a permit and a current certificate of inspection were in place on the day of the injury, what the records show about failures and breakdowns, who was operating the course, and what policy or security stands behind the owner.

Courses That Are Not Permanently Fixed

A course that fits the definition but is not permanently fixed to a site falls under the Carnival Ride Safety Act, which adds its own requirements. “No carnival ride shall be operated in any calendar year, except for purposes of testing and inspection, until a permit for its operation has been issued by the office” (OCGA 25-15-85(a)). When the owner first applies for a permit for the ride in Georgia on or after January 1, 2018, the office needs a licensed engineer’s evaluation of the ride’s safety mechanisms and critical components (OCGA 25-15-85(b)). Each carnival ride is inspected once a year (OCGA 25-15-86), and none may run below the higher of the manufacturer’s recommended standards and the standards or approved variants the office adopts (OCGA 25-15-90(b)). For liability coverage, the statute calls for a policy of not less than $1 million, with the parenthetical “if an independent contractor,” or a bond in a like amount, or cash or other security acceptable to the office (OCGA 25-15-92(a)).

The Operator and the Equipment Maker

The premises statute sets the duty of an owner or occupier of land toward invited customers: liability for injuries caused by a failure to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe (OCGA 51-3-1).

A claim that a harness, trolley, or brake was defective can run against the manufacturer. The maker of equipment sold as new answers in tort to a person who uses it, or is reasonably affected by it, and is hurt because the equipment was not merchantable and reasonably suited to its intended use when the maker sold it, if that condition at sale proximately caused the injury (OCGA 51-1-11(b)(1)). Such an action is barred once ten years have run from the first sale for use or consumption of the equipment that caused the injury (OCGA 51-1-11(b)(2)). The first claim asks whether the owner or occupier used ordinary care; the second asks about the equipment’s condition when it was sold.

A Georgia Challenge Course Case

Bailey v. Make A Difference Ministries, Inc., No. A24A0546 (Ga. Ct. App. June 28, 2024), arose on a camp’s elevated challenge course, where participants wore harnesses, lanyards, and safety lines and could leave the course by zip line, cargo net, or rappelling down a climbing wall. When heavy rain forced an evacuation, staff sent the plaintiff’s team to a cargo net where no staff member was waiting, and the plaintiff, an adult chaperone, slid down a cable and was seriously injured. The Court of Appeals held that the release the plaintiff signed barred the plaintiff’s ordinary negligence claims, but it reversed summary judgment on gross negligence, pointing to evidence that the camp’s own policy called for facilitator supervision, that the course had no formal evacuation plan, and that the storm was severe. Summary judgment on punitive damages and attorney fees stayed in place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Must the owner report an injury to the state?
Yes. For an amusement ride, an accident that causes a death or an injury needing immediate overnight hospital admission is reported in writing, by first-class mail sent by the close of the next business day, and a death is also reported right away in person or by phone (OCGA 25-15-61). For a carnival ride, the report covers a death or an injury that needs medical attention at a licensed medical facility (OCGA 25-15-91).

Does the state become liable because it permitted or inspected a ride?
No. The act provides that it is not to be read as making the State, the office, or the Commissioner liable on any claim relating to amusement rides or to injuries they cause (OCGA 25-15-68).

Must a temporary ride post its height and weight limits?
Yes. A carnival ride’s owner or operator must display any age, weight, or height limits the ride has to guard against injury on a sign that can be easily seen, both at the ride and where tickets are sold, and may not let a person ride who falls outside them (OCGA 25-15-98).

Does a signed release or the risk of the activity end the claim?
Not necessarily. As Bailey shows, a release can bar ordinary negligence claims and still leave a gross negligence claim for a jury. Assumption of the risk is a separate defense, and under Vaughn v. Pleasent, 266 Ga. 862 (1996), the defendant must show that the injured person actually knew of the danger, understood and appreciated its risks, and voluntarily took them on, with knowledge of the specific risk that caused the injury.

  • OCGA 25-15-50; OCGA 25-15-51(1), (8); OCGA 25-15-55; OCGA 25-15-56(a); OCGA 25-15-59; OCGA 25-15-60; OCGA 25-15-61; OCGA 25-15-62(a); OCGA 25-15-64; OCGA 25-15-68
  • OCGA 25-15-81(2); OCGA 25-15-85(a), (b); OCGA 25-15-86; OCGA 25-15-90(b); OCGA 25-15-91; OCGA 25-15-92(a); OCGA 25-15-94; OCGA 25-15-98
  • OCGA 51-3-1; OCGA 51-1-11(b)(1), (2)
  • Bailey v. Make A Difference Ministries, Inc., No. A24A0546 (Ga. Ct. App. June 28, 2024); Vaughn v. Pleasent, 266 Ga. 862, 471 S.E.2d 866 (1996)

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about zipline and adventure course injury claims under Georgia law. It is not legal or medical advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether a course is regulated and who is responsible depend on how the course is built and run, the operator, and the specific facts. A person hurt on a course should seek medical care and consult a licensed Georgia attorney promptly about the particular situation.

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