Zipline
Expert Witness
Design Engineer at Momentum Engineering
zipline Braking System US patent holder
Say NO to:
injury-prone two-wheeled zipline trolleys
Accident-Free for 22-years
Michael Troy Richardson has investigated over 50 zipline accidents; 90% retained by Plaintiffs because they find him first.
A t the 2020 ACCT Expo an insurance report said that there were 6-7 zipline accidents per 100,000 over four years.
Mr. Richardson's cases are about 50/50 Plaintiff/Defendant Aerial Adventure Park matters not directly related to zipline braking.
He developed several new Zipline Auto-braking Trolleys shortly after his caseload rose to five; and received several new US patents designed to stop zipline braking accidents.
Safe Ziplining
The Richardson Safety Trolley (RST) history began in 2001 when we—AA Machining & Welding, Inc.—designed and manufactured a 60-mph RST-02 for the 2002 giant zipline at Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR); the 3,500-foot-long zipline broke records with a 600-foot drop between platforms. Since then, dozens of ski resort ziplines have utilized RSTs; our RSTs have an unblemished safety record.
In 2015, our company grew into Momentum Engineering and we designed our third-generation RST as a 3-lb. trolley for zipline tours. We're now selling the seventh generation RST-23; it performed flawlessly again and in May of 2023 on a 20-degree slope (see video)
The advantage of RSTs over free-wheeling trolleys (two wheels) is the RSTs' slope adjustment—via pin/slope settings—to equalize the slope for all zipliners and control their arrival speed.
The Petzl® two-wheel trolley is compared in this video to the RST.
In 2019, our telescoping spring arrays solved the emergency brake problems.
Our springs install in minutes.
Zipline Accidents Doubling Again
In 2016, he co-authored "Zipline Injuries on the Rise" with Rex Bush, Esq., published on hg.org and in Utah Trial Journal (2017). The article said that zipline injuries were increasing.
In 2023, Cameron Annas--CEO of Granite Insurance, said there were 4.23 zipline accidents per 100,000 and predicted a 3.5 times increase over four years. (That is nearly 15 zipline accidents per 100,000 (See Adventure Park Insider Magazine, Spring 2023 , pp. 42-45.))
