Arthur's Blog: Readers' Comments Highlight the Important Issue of Avoiding Risky Activities When Traveling

If you will search the Internet for reports of accidents that have either killed or injured tourists who have gone parasailing, bungee jumping, or zip lining, you will find an uncomfortable number of such incidents. But those reports have now been greatly increased in number by phone calls from listeners to our recent discussion of the subject on The Travel Show and in comments to the blog in which I discussed the matter. I am now convinced that the problem is much greater than I had imagined. 

Though numerous readers and listeners have defended theme park roller coasters as being acceptably safe (even though injuries and fatalities have resulted from their use), almost every other comment has agreed that parasailing, zip lining and bungee jumping are simply too fraught with danger to be regarded as acceptable recreations.

One reader of this blog referred to "a woman from our area [who] lost her life parasailing in the Bahamas while on her honeymoon last summer. You can easily search online for 'Bahamas Parasailing Accident' if you want more details."

Another reader referred to zip lining and bungee-jumping in language that will certainly remain seared in your memory (and therefore needs to be repeated). He wrote: 

"While hundreds of thousands of tourists participate in these extreme sports without incident, all it takes is an unfortunate equipment failure or employee mistake to turn a vacation into a tragedy. Before sliding down the zip line or jumping off a bridge attached to a bungee cord, consider the unthinkable. Would you want to be hospitalized in the country you are visiting?  Do you have medical or trip insurance that would cover you if you are injured? What if you need to be evacuated for treatment? What if the worse happens; does your insurance cover repatriation of your body back to your home?"

Still another reader has written: "I have not considered para-sailing since the 1970s, when a neighbor ended his adventure on the fifth floor of a Holiday Inn under construction in Mexico. Lots of broken bones and a long stay in an iffy foreign hospital."

So I'm using this opportunity to re-emphasize a subject that is considered only infrequently in travel writing. The dangers of "extreme sports," undertaken by tourists, need to be given more attention than they usually receive.