Family who lost child in zip-line accident ‘shocked’ by state report

RALEIGH, NC (StarNewsOnline) — The family of 12-year-old Wilmington resident Sanders Burney who died last June in a zip-line accident at YMCA’s Camp Cheerio in Alleghany County said their daughter would still be alive had the course been inspected and regulated properly.

The family is working with state Rep. Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover, to initiate safety regulations on zip-lines to prevent further injuries or death.

At the time of Sanders’ death, Davis’ bill to increase penalties five-fold on amusement ride operators for safety violations was working through a Senate committee. Davis said he realized his bill was the perfect vehicle to do something about the lack of overhead for the more than 100 commercial zip-lines in the state and so he changed the bill to allow the N.C. Department of Labor to determine if oversight was needed.

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