Regulation of Climbing Walls in Massachusetts

FRIDAY, 19 JANUARY 2007

A hearing is scheduled on Friday by the Department of Public Safety to regulate climbing walls for public safety. There are around 1,000 climbing walls around Massachusetts and state public safety officials are alarmed by the potential for accidents and want to regulate the walls by requiring owners to get annual license and pass regular inspections.

If the regulations are adopted, Massachusetts would become the only state to actively regulate indoor climbing walls as amusement devices. It was proposed to increase inspections after three fatal accidents listed in the past three years. More than 100 people attended to object when the proposal had a hearing last year.

According to Kelly Nantel, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, their Department 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. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. at One Ashburton Place in Boston.

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