Thursday, 4:30 PM
Regulators eye climbing walls
By Mike Lipka, Globe Correspondent
EVERETT -- At heights of up to 45 feet, with ropes and rocks galore, the artificial climbing walls at MetroRock in Everett are a dream for people who want to climb a mountain, at least a small one indoors.
But, with as many as 1,000 climbing walls in community centers, schools, and private gyms around Massachusetts, state public safety officials are alarmed by the potential for accidents, and they have scheduled a hearing Friday on a proposal to regulate the walls by requiring owners to get annual licenses and pass regular inspections.
"This is an unregulated industry that in the interest of public safety needs to have some regulation and oversight," said Kelly Nantel, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety. "We feel that it’s an accident waiting to happen."
If the regulations are adopted, Massachusetts would become the only state to actively regulate indoor climbing walls as amusement devices. A similar regulatory system was adopted in New Jersey in 2004, but last month a judge ruled the New Jersey Rock Gym couldn’t be considered a "carnival-amusement ride."
The climbing wall rules were proposed as part of the department’s overall effort to increase inspections after three fatal accidents on amusement devices in the past three years. In 2004, two men died on high-speed rides in Agawam and Shrewsbury. In the case of the 2005 death at the Tweeter Center, the state settled with the Danvers amusement company, Just for Fun, which agreed to suspend the use of all inflatable devices 12 feet or taller for the remainder of its license, which was to expire at the beginning of 2006.
Last summer, when the state first held a hearing on the proposed regulations, about 100 people attended to object. After a June hearing, the state delayed the matter until this month, and Zimmermann planned to again be in attendance for Friday’s hearing, scheduled for 10 a.m. at One Ashburton Place in Boston.
Over the past few months, Nantel said the Department of Public Safety has made some changes in the proposal after hearing from the climbing industry, including Zimmermann and Pat Enright, the owner of two of Massachusetts’s biggest indoor rock walls. Enright’s first gym, called MetroRock, opened in Everett in 2004. He opened a second facility last year in Newburyport.
"They realized they had no idea what they were talking about," Enright said. "Right now they’ve got a proposed statute that we [climbers] wrote."
