Overview
- Two teenagers, 17-year-old Zachary Steinke and 19-year-old employee Michael Nash, fell about 150 feet to their deaths at the Beach Bungee attraction in August 1993 when the lift-style cage plummeted.
- Operators had replaced a broken chain hoist with a commercial shrimping winch and a wire rope that were not fit for the ride and lacked required safety cutoffs.
- Attorney John Kassel described the mechanical failure as a known winch failure called two-blocking, in which unchecked tension causes the cable to fail; wet, rainy conditions that night added strain on the rope.
- In 1995 the families won a $12 million judgment against the individual owners for personal liability, and a separate $2 million verdict against the South Carolina Department of Labor was later affirmed on appeal.
- Witnesses, including Zachary’s parents, saw the fall and attempted CPR, and the cases highlighted gaps in regulatory oversight and the legal hurdles victims face when holding operators and agencies accountable.