Man Hurt In Fall From Ski Lift

[hiroto]

My daughter and I fell off a chairlift two years ago from a very good height in the same manner, though the cable did not de-rope. My wife was slammed into from behind and suffered a moderate concussion, requiring hospital treatment. In neither case did we have any interest in pursuing recourse or compensation.

Did you decline their compensation offer or the resort never contacted you at all?
Do people expect to get at least checked up by the resort management
how you are doing in the situation like this?

 

[billski]

Did you decline their compensation offer or the resort never contacted you at all?
Do people expect to get at least checked up by the resort management
how you are doing in the situation like this?

Your questioning suggests that you expect resort compensation regardless of who is at fault. I hope I'm mistaken. We don't expect such compensation.

In the former case, the lift was somewhat removed from the main area. Not a lot of people saw it happen, I wasn't approached by anyone, the liftie was all alone, we took care of ourselves.

In my wife's case, she was taking a private lesson. We were critical of how the instructor handled the matter (protocol) and took ourselves to the hospital, after some monitoring in the patrol shack. We were never contacted by the resort. We did send a letter to the resort criticizing the instructor's handling of the situation, but left it at that. I didn't see any liability on the part of the resort - it was an out-of-control beginner who hit my wife.

It would have been nice (and perhaps possible in an earlier time) to have had a followup call from the resort. I suspect their lawyers told them not to respond (anticipating court papers), which just seems to feed this adversarial relationship.

 

[tcharron]

Did you decline their compensation offer or the resort never contacted you at all?
Do people expect to get at least checked up by the resort management
how you are doing in the situation like this?

The only time I've been in a situation where there was potential for harm to have been done was at Crotched. This has happened twice in two years at Crotched, the first from a blatent head on collision, and the second, when Stephie had a VERY bad Asthma attack after a pretty bad wipeout. In both cases, Ski Patrol was involved, and in both cases, Crotched sent a postcard with a free pass and a 'Hope your ok, if you need us for anything or have any questions, call xxx-xxx-xxxx'.

If it's a fender bender accident, like someone plowing into another person, I wouldn't expect the ski area to really be involved. It's a 'nice touch' for sure, but do I expect to have an offer for a check? Not really.

Arbitration if you feel they're at fault. If that doesn't work out, THEN sue.

 

[hiroto]

Your questioning suggests that you expect resort compensation regardless of who is at fault. I hope I'm mistaken. We don't expect such compensation.

In the former case, the lift was somewhat removed from the main area. Not a lot of people saw it happen, I wasn't approached by anyone, the liftie was all alone, we took care of ourselves.

In my wife's case, she was taking a private lesson. We were critical of how the instructor handled the matter (protocol) and took ourselves to the hospital, after some monitoring in the patrol shack. We were never contacted by the resort. We did send a letter to the resort criticizing the instructor's handling of the situation, but left it at that. I didn't see any liability on the part of the resort - it was an out-of-control beginner who hit my wife.

It would have been nice (and perhaps possible in an earlier time) to have had a followup call from the resort. I suspect their lawyers told them not to respond (anticipating court papers), which just seems to feed this adversarial relationship.

No, I didn't mean that, and I did misunderstand your situation. You said you fell in similar situation so I thought you also encountered apparent mechanical failure of your lift which required rescues and I also mistook that your wife was hospitalized in the same incident.

Even in the situation of mechanical failure I can sympathize for the resort.
Even with the good maintenance and competent inspection, shit happens with
machines.

But if the incident is 100% out of my control such as violent failure
of lift system and no 3rd party involved (i.e. other skier hitting), I don't know
how I would feel if my daughter is seriously injured by that and not hearing a thing
from the resort at all.

If I hear from them, I would likely not pursue for any compensation. But
I would be pretty upset if they don't bother contacting me at all.

 

[hiroto]

The only time I've been in a situation where there was potential for harm to have been done was at Crotched. This has happened twice in two years at Crotched, the first from a blatent head on collision, and the second, when Stephie had a VERY bad Asthma attack after a pretty bad wipeout. In both cases, Ski Patrol was involved, and in both cases, Crotched sent a postcard with a free pass and a 'Hope your ok, if you need us for anything or have any questions, call xxx-xxx-xxxx'.

If it's a fender bender accident, like someone plowing into another person, I wouldn't expect the ski area to really be involved. It's a 'nice touch' for sure, but do I expect to have an offer for a check? Not really.

Arbitration if you feel they're at fault. If that doesn't work out, THEN sue.

That's very nice of Crotched. In both those situations, I wouldn't expect anything from
the mountain either.

 

[RISkier]

One thing we've found is that whenever we make any kind of health insurance claim that involves an injury we are always contected by our insurance regarding the incident. And it's always about the potential liability of others.

 

[Breeze]

Thanks polski for the Concord Monitor link. Thats the most comprehensive media release I've read.



Breeze

 

[thetrailboss]

Well folks I hate to say it, but I smell a major lawsuit here. Just read this article...very, very dumb move on Sunapee's part to run the lift knowing of the defect.

"Mountain, State, Knew About Faulty Lift"

When you've got bad news, best to dump it on a day when nobody reads the paper. This will make me think twice before riding their lifts again.

 

[Method9455]

WOW, they are screwed. My position has been that lawsuits against ski hills should be banned except in cases of extreme negligence. If you hit a tree and sue them for not putting up a fence, you should not be allowed to collect a dime. But if the mountain knows a lift is broken and it runs and you get hurt by it, that is negligence in my book. They are just lucky the drop wasn't high enough to kill him. We have to trust that they are running things safely, its not like I can check the lift before I ride for the day. We all know the risks when going down the hill and decide to do it anyway, no one should have to take one going up the hill as well.

 

[Warp Daddy]

If that report IS accurate this is Absolute negligence ------------- no question . Prudent mgmt would have CLOSED the lift IF THEY KNEW it was defective . A third rate ambulance chaser could win this one

 

[polski]

much more detail here (the brief TV report probably was picked up from the UL)

 

[Warp Daddy]

A good lawyer will shred that eqivocation - they KNEW about it Dec 23 and failed to shut it down

 

[thetrailboss]

I think that heads will roll if this was true....this does not sound like the typical smooth Peak's management to me...glad I am not a passholder I would be PISSED.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Heads should roll , Asses should be kicked , and $$ will be paid

 

[hiroto]

I hope Sunapee was as proactive as Crotched to reach out and
communicated with the guy. If it has been done, and if they make
further concession given this new information and communicate with him
(ok, it was a single trip coupon before but now we give you a season pass),
there maybe no hard feelings left.

They made mistakes, but I don't feel they need multi million dollar penalties to
learn the lesson (and I hope they DO learn the lesson) without lawyers getting
involved.