State Didn't Inspect Ijams Course
By Jacobs, Don
The inspector who approved the Ijams Canopy Experience as ready
for paying customers three weeks before a Georgia man was fatally
injured there owns the company that built the attraction.
Records show that inspector, John Walker, holds a financial stake in the company operating the ropes and zip line challenge course, which opened July 17 in Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. Walker is an owner of Navitat Canopy Adventures, an Asheville, N.C.- based company that operates the challenge course at Ijams.
When state officials reviewed Walker's certification, they found he wasn't properly licensed to conduct the inspection, according to Jeff Hentschel, spokesman for the state Department of Labor's Division of Workplace Regulations and Compliance. The division issues permits to operate to amusement companies.
Walker performed an inspection July 1 of the work done at Navitat by the company he founded, Bonsai Designs of Grand Junction, Colo. The company is the largest designer and builder of challenge courses in the nation.
When state officials deemed Walker's inspection insufficient, another Bonsai Designs employee, John Turman, reviewed Walker's report, Hentschel said. Although Turman had not inspected the Ijams attraction, he approved Walker's review as a supervisory inspector, satisfying state requirements, Hentschel said.
Turman and Walker could not be reached Friday for comment.
Based on Turman's credentials, the state issued Navitat on July 15 an annual permit to operate. On July 22, five days after the attraction opened, Gregory Horan, 18, of
See ijams, 12A
Cumming, Ga., was found by his sister hanging with his safety lanyard wrapped around his neck on a section of the course where logs were suspended 15 feet off the ground.
Ijams Canopy Experience staffers lowered Horan to the ground. Horan had no pulse and was not breathing. Staffers performed CPR on the teen, who had graduated in May from high school.
Horan was pronounced dead eight days later at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Another inspection on July 27 ordered by the state deemed the course not "safe and operable" because of the design of the safety lanyard used by customers. That inspection was conducted by Katie Dickerson, a certified inspector employed by another challenge course design company not connected to Bonsai Designs or Navitat.
The Ijams Canopy Experience remains closed by order of the state until safety issues raised by Dickerson are addressed.
W. Ken Stamps, CEO and managing partner of Navitat Canopy Adventures, said there is no conflict of interest to have the designer and builder approve an adventure park ready for use.
Stamps said "it is very common in our industry for the building company to perform these 'readiness' inspections prior to opening since they most intimately know the inner-workings and operational structure of the course."
Hentschel said the Division of Workplace Regulations and Compliance has two inspectors for the entire state, so field examinations of amusement park rides or challenge courses are conducted by the operators.
Stamps said it also is common within the adventure park industry that designers and builders "also own or are investors in the courses they have designed and constructed. …
Records show that inspector, John Walker, holds a financial stake in the company operating the ropes and zip line challenge course, which opened July 17 in Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. Walker is an owner of Navitat Canopy Adventures, an Asheville, N.C.- based company that operates the challenge course at Ijams.
When state officials reviewed Walker's certification, they found he wasn't properly licensed to conduct the inspection, according to Jeff Hentschel, spokesman for the state Department of Labor's Division of Workplace Regulations and Compliance. The division issues permits to operate to amusement companies.
Walker performed an inspection July 1 of the work done at Navitat by the company he founded, Bonsai Designs of Grand Junction, Colo. The company is the largest designer and builder of challenge courses in the nation.
When state officials deemed Walker's inspection insufficient, another Bonsai Designs employee, John Turman, reviewed Walker's report, Hentschel said. Although Turman had not inspected the Ijams attraction, he approved Walker's review as a supervisory inspector, satisfying state requirements, Hentschel said.
Turman and Walker could not be reached Friday for comment.
Based on Turman's credentials, the state issued Navitat on July 15 an annual permit to operate. On July 22, five days after the attraction opened, Gregory Horan, 18, of
See ijams, 12A
Cumming, Ga., was found by his sister hanging with his safety lanyard wrapped around his neck on a section of the course where logs were suspended 15 feet off the ground.
Ijams Canopy Experience staffers lowered Horan to the ground. Horan had no pulse and was not breathing. Staffers performed CPR on the teen, who had graduated in May from high school.
Horan was pronounced dead eight days later at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Another inspection on July 27 ordered by the state deemed the course not "safe and operable" because of the design of the safety lanyard used by customers. That inspection was conducted by Katie Dickerson, a certified inspector employed by another challenge course design company not connected to Bonsai Designs or Navitat.
The Ijams Canopy Experience remains closed by order of the state until safety issues raised by Dickerson are addressed.
W. Ken Stamps, CEO and managing partner of Navitat Canopy Adventures, said there is no conflict of interest to have the designer and builder approve an adventure park ready for use.
Stamps said "it is very common in our industry for the building company to perform these 'readiness' inspections prior to opening since they most intimately know the inner-workings and operational structure of the course."
Hentschel said the Division of Workplace Regulations and Compliance has two inspectors for the entire state, so field examinations of amusement park rides or challenge courses are conducted by the operators.
Stamps said it also is common within the adventure park industry that designers and builders "also own or are investors in the courses they have designed and constructed. …
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