Zip-lining

Is zip-lining safe?

On a well-run commercial course, yes. Our rough estimate is 0.05 to 0.5 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per tour, below a day of skiing. But that estimate rests on thin data. Nobody counts how many people ride zip lines, and nobody keeps a register of deaths. What the records do show is that injuries are common enough to fill emergency rooms, that many of them happen to children on homemade or playground lines, and that when riders die it is usually because something in the system failed, not because they made a mistake.

What the injury data show

The best numbers come from the US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a sample of emergency departments run by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio estimated that 16,850 people were treated for zip-line injuries from 1997 to 2012. The rate rose 52% in four years, from 7.6 per million people in 2009 to 11.6 per million in 2012, as commercial courses spread.

• Falls caused 77% of injuries.
• Fractures made up 47%, and the arms were the most common site.
• 11.7% of patients were admitted to hospital.
• 45% were children aged 0 to 9.

A second study of children's injuries from 2009 to 2015 found that 46% happened on homemade ziplines and 54% on playground track rides, with head injuries in 13%. Falls from more than about five feet and hitting another structure were linked to the head injuries.

These figures mix backyard lines, playgrounds and commercial tours, and the commercial share is unknown. Since about 69% of injuries with a known location happened in public places rather than homes, commercial courses account for some of them, but the per-ride risk on a professional course is almost certainly far lower than on a line strung between two backyard trees.

How zip-line deaths happen

Deaths are rare enough that each one makes the news. A 2017 Outside magazine investigation counted more than a dozen US deaths in news reports since 2006. They included a 12-year-old at a summer camp in North Carolina whose tether broke over a 40-foot drop in 2015, and a woman who fell after becoming disconnected from the safety system at a tree-top adventure park in Delaware in 2016.

The pattern repeats abroad. In October 2019 a tourist died and his wife was seriously injured at a rainforest canopy tour at Cape Tribulation in Queensland, Australia, after falling 20 to 25 metres. Counsel assisting the coroner told a hearing that the wire rope grips securing the end of the cable failed completely and had not been tightened with a torque wrench. A former company director was found not guilty of workplace safety charges in 2024, and the coroner's inquest was still under way in August 2026.

The causes are usually anchors, cable terminations, tethers, carabiners or a guide's mistake, things the rider cannot check. That is why controllability is our weakest factor for zip-lining.

Standards and regulation

In the US, two sets of standards cover zip lines: ASTM F2959, the standard practice for aerial adventure courses, and the standards of the Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT). They set rules for design, inspection, operation and staff training. Whether they are enforced depends on the state, and Outside found that state rules vary widely and have not kept pace with the industry. Abroad, rules and inspections vary even more, so the questions you ask the operator matter.

How to zip-line more safely

1. Choose a commercial operator and ask which standard the course follows (ASTM F2959 or ACCT) and when it was last independently inspected.
2. Watch the guides. They should check every harness, helmet and connection before each launch and keep you clipped in on platforms.
3. Wear the helmet, tie back long hair and remove loose items that can catch in the trolley.
4. Follow the braking and body position instructions exactly, and keep your hands off the cable unless told to brake with a glove.
5. Respect the weight and age limits. They exist so you neither stall mid-line nor hit the platform too fast.
6. Do not build or use a homemade zip line for children, or at least keep it low, short and over soft ground, with a helmet.
7. Skip operators abroad that cut corners: no helmets, frayed straps, a single connection to the cable, or no visible braking system at the end.

How we scored it

Fatality risk (88) uses our rough estimate of 0.05 to 0.5 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per tour, with low confidence because there are no participation figures. Injury risk (75) reflects frequent falls and fractures, largely outside commercial courses. Controllability (55) is the weakest factor, since riders depend on the operator's equipment and staff. Compare bungee jumping, another operator-dependent thrill, and via ferrata, where the climber controls the safety system.