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Skier Killed on Lift at Vail

KustyTheKlown

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saw that the other day. pretty wild. liftie is worse than fired for not flippin that seat down. but what a freak accident. how did they not stop the lift in the load station or right after? how long was this guy riding balancing on the frame of the seat before slipping thru? i'm picturing his butt falling thru but his body being kinda scrunched up with his knees in his face and his skis in the air. weird shit.
 

Zand

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I was under the impression that the seat flipped while he was riding and not before it came into the station, but it doesn't really specify. I feel like he would've noticed before he sat if it was flipped up coming into the station. The chairs seem to flip up kind of easily.
 

Zermatt

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If they forgot to flip a seat down they are going to lose a massive lawsuit.

I wouldn't blame one person (unless they were impaired), but more a system that allows a mistake like that to occur.
 

Cornhead

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I'm guilty of not checking the chair as it comes around. A couple weeks ago at Greek the chair I was going to load had orange tape around it. The liftie tolde to hop off the platform. I did, but started to fall and braced myself on the liftie's shoulder. My skis got crossed and I had him release one of my bindings. I got on a couple chairs later. As I approached the top I saw the taped chair come around towards me. The only thing wrong with it was it was missing a safety bar. If I had known that I would've just sat on it instead of almost falling down trying to get out of the way. Good idea to look at the chair you'll be riding instead of just skiing onto the platform.

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njdiver85

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Why would the seat not have been down in the first place? I thought those things were tied down pretty good to the frame, unless it was a broken strap and lift maintenance failed to notice it.
 

jaytrem

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Why would the seat not have been down in the first place? I thought those things were tied down pretty good to the frame, unless it was a broken strap and lift maintenance failed to notice it.

No, a lot of them flip up real easy. Many places flip them up at night if a storm is coming, some do it every night.
 

Edd

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So, the chair came around flipped up, the lifty didn’t notice or just went with it, and the skier decided not to say anything and ride the chair anyway? Just sounds weird.


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Cornhead

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So, the chair came around flipped up, the lifty didn’t notice or just went with it, and the skier decided not to say anything and ride the chair anyway? Just sounds weird.


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Easy mistake for the skier, less obvious than the orange tape I was oblivious to. Greek flips them up at night on their quad, flips them down in the morning. They probably just missed one.

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Edd

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Might be hard to day anything as you are falling through the opening being strangled by your jacket.

At what point in the lift ride did that happen, is the question. The link above doesn’t say. It’s difficult to imagine he fell through right away, without the lift stopping and getting assistance. Not enough facts being presented either way.
 

Bosco DaSkia

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This is how it happened last time.....


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FA3D15FC-9693-415B-B1F8-5E7D48300995.jpg


7D5D51A5-5295-4E79-9A9A-510AC9750F9E.jpeg


8C3D0F61-5888-4EE0-AA44-EE445B4AC204.jpeg


And seeing as they didn’t bother to find a permanent solution to an obviously hazardous problem after the last incident, they will be paying out the ass for this death in the coming lawsuit.

Expect a significant ticket rate increase to cover the losses.
 

deadheadskier

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I don't understand what engineering purpose the chair flipping up serves other than making it easier to clear snow in the morning. After this horrible accident, you'd have to imagine the lawsuits will not only go after compensating this family for a life cut short, but also regulation changes to keep the seats fixed in place. Why leave things to chance for an error with a lifty not lowering the seat?



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Cornhead

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I don't understand what engineering purpose the chair flipping up serves other than making it easier to clear snow in the morning. After this horrible accident, you'd have to imagine the lawsuits will not only go after compensating this family for a life cut short, but also regulation changes to keep the seats fixed in place. Why leave things to chance for an error with a lifty not lowering the seat?



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A wet ass sure beats being strangled to death.

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Bosco DaSkia

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The seats are designed to flip up when nobody is sitting in them to cut down on wind resistance during high wind events. Without this capability, it’s possible for the chairs to be blown hard enough to bang the chairs into the towers or pull the wire right off the sheaves.
 

deadheadskier

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I'd be curious to see the specific engineering study on that. Just how much less resistance they have in wind for seat up vs seat down. I mean for decades all chairlifts had wooden slats screwed in for seats.

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bdfreetuna

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I suppose it could be engineered so that it flips up given enough wind, but then falls back down by itself unless that strong gust of wind is sustained. In which case it's probably time to close the lift anyway.


The thing about the wooden slats is typically they allowed some wind to pass through (plenty of gaps). Something could be engineered with a honeycomb pattern using recycled plastic or similar materials... could also potentially be "self cleaning" in most situations... but this probably isn't the level of comfort Vail guests are expecting.
 

Not Sure

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I'd be curious to see the specific engineering study on that. Just how much less resistance they have in wind for seat up vs seat down. I mean for decades all chairlifts had wooden slats screwed in for seats.

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Seems like it would be less in the down position. The seats with cushions covered with a black non stick neoprene type material are much easier to clean off then the textured surface plastic. So to me having the black cushion type there would be no need to have a hinge where as they could be fixed seats. Haven't seen wooden slats in years ,lots of maintenance .
 
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