Vermont's chairlift safety bar law

[Geoff]

I've been an every-weekender in Vermont since I was a little kid. It's been Vermont state law forever. I just pull the bar down every time. What's the big deal?

I'm also the 6'2" guy who gets nailed when some moron slams the bar down without saying anything first. Many times, the moron happens to be a good friend of mine.

 

[Geoff]

I like the ones that only wear tank tops,shorts, and sandals while riding their MC ...

At the hospital, they call them "organ donors".

 

[frozencorn]

Up, down, whatever.

 

[deadheadskier]

I personally love the law here in Connecticut where you have the option of wearing a helmet on a motorcycle after reaching the age of 18, but where you still have to wear a seatbelt while in a car surrounded by 4,000 lbs of steel.

Makes sense to me:dunce:

There are numerous states that have seat belt laws, but don't require helmets on motorcycles. Makes absolutely no sense to me as well. Perhaps they're just trying to thin the herd a bit.

 

[Marc]

i see no reason for the law. I never put my bar down but don't begrudge fellow riders when they do so (as long as they tell me they are going to do so before bonking me off the helmet due to my height). There are many chairlifts in the country that don't even have safety bars on chair lifts. So with that in mind, i would reverse the question and ask why the safety bar law is even needed?

Personally, i have never felt unsafe on a lift without the safety bar lowered. On many chairlifts, i have felt down right uncomfortable with the bar lowered. Black chair at magic, any one? Most uncomfortable chair lift ever with the bar down. I have large thighs so some bars are uncomfortably low on my legs. Jet at jay comes to mind as well as so many poma chair lifts (man, i hate poma chair lifts with a passion!). I also don't use foot rests, partially because of comfort (i prefer to dangle my legs) but also because i have long legs and can't fit my legs on many, so safety bars with foot rests are annoying.

We aren't talking about a proven safety item like a seat belt. How many people (actual statistics please) have avoided injury due to the safety bar versus how many people have been injured because of it? I would have to guess that the reaching back to put the safety bar down has probably caused more mishaps on lifts than might have resulted from the bar not being down later in the ride. Just my opinion, though i would love to see some actual data to either prove or disprove that theory. Then again, if data actually backed up the supposed idea that safety bars reduce injury risk, then why do so few states have safety bar laws? Why do many chairlifts without safety bars still turn?

qft

 

[ssusca]

Don't you know that it's not cool to be safe? It's the same reason that many people still refuse to wear helmets while skiing or riding. Me personally, I always have the bar down. There is absolutely no inconvenience to it and if it can make me even a little less likely to plummet to my death, I'm all for it. Should it be a law? I don't think so. It's called natural selection. I hate laws that protect people from their own stupidity. I

 

[billski]

I've been an every-weekender in Vermont since I was a little kid. It's been Vermont state law forever. I just pull the bar down every time. What's the big deal?

I'm also the 6'2" guy who gets nailed when some moron slams the bar down without saying anything first. Many times, the moron happens to be a good friend of mine.

I have found the best remedy to this is to immediately take control of the bar when you get on. Solves most of my bonking probs.

 

[billski]

Don't you know that it's not cool to be safe? It's the same reason that many people still refuse to wear helmets while skiing or riding. Me personally, I always have the bar down. There is absolutely no inconvenience to it and if it can make me even a little less likely to plummet to my death, I'm all for it. Should it be a law? I don't think so. It's called natural selection. I hate laws that protect people from their own stupidity. I

We carry safety to extremes here in the northeast. First they kid proof the playgrounds. An article in the Sunday Globe reports on a mayor who is seriously thinking of restricting sledding on the town's hills for safety's sake. while I support certain measures, If we get too safe, we are gonna have one damn boring life.....

p.s., when Matt delivered my chairlift chair to my backyard last summer, I insisted it have an operable safety bar. You never can bee too safe!

 

[tcharron]

Safety bars actually have been proven to cause more injuries than they prevent. However, the injuries they prevent are much more catastrophic (potentially death) than the ones they cause (bumps and bruises.) Good communication with other riders is key.

Proven is a strong word. Where is this proof positive report which documents this conclusion?

 

[RootDKJ]

Some lifts I'll skip the bar...NRT @ K & Main St @ Blue come to mind but...I always use it after a safety meeting...ya know for safety.

I always announce I'm going to lower/raise the bar, because I've gotten one too many helmet smacks also.

 

[ctenidae]

If I remember to lower it, I do. If not, I don't.
I usually remember if my wife or I are going to be screwing around with gear. Or if it's windy, or if it's a chair with a tendency to stop and swing (Sun Bowl at Sunapee comes to mind).

The main quad at BW has a really, really low bar- I'd never noticed it before Saturday because we never ski off it, but it's annoyingly low. To the point that you can't hold your poles inside the bar, and your arm won't fit under neath, so you've either got to sit on your poles or switch hands around.

 

[campgottagopee]

Do I think it should be a law??? Nah, but I always put mine down regardless.

 

[4aprice]

Correct me if I'm wrong but is it not law in Vermont and New Hampshire to lower the bar? I do lower it there because I'm not a scoff law, but in places where it is not law (PA for example) I do not.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[ERJ-145CA]

I think it's also a law in NY. At Belleayre and Mt. Peter the lifties are always yelling at people to put the bar down.

 

[eatskisleep]

False sense of security... seen kids playing leaning forward because there is a bar and almost falling off of the chair or slip under the bar. If the bar is up, you sit back. Only case I could think of where it may be dangerous not to have the bar down would be with a big backpack, slippery seats, and a lift that stops suddenly.

 

[faceplant]

False sense of security... seen kids playing leaning forward because there is a bar and almost falling off of the chair or slip under the bar. If the bar is up, you sit back. Only case I could think of where it may be dangerous not to have the bar down would be with a big backpack, slippery seats, and a lift that stops suddenly.

bet this youngun wisht he did


http://seacoastauction.com/news/02272006/communit/89920.htm


Lessons learned from boy’s chairlift fall

LYME (AP) - A youngster who fell 30 feet from a chairlift after raising the safety bar too soon is recovering from his injuries.

But many skiers and parents say the accident is making them more aware of safety.

Harry Voelkel, 12, of Norwich, Vermont, broke both wrists, a thigh and collapsed a lung after falling from a lift at the Dartmouth Skiway earlier this month.

A preliminary report by safety officials says Voelkel had lifted the safety bar about 175 feet short of the off-ramp.

Voelkel spent six days in the hospital and is expected to recuperate at home for at least four to six weeks before resuming classes at Richmond Middle School in Hanover.

Safety bar use is required by law in Vermont, but not in New Hampshire.

Beau Marshall, an eighth-grader at Lyme Elementary School, says some of his friends used to lift the safety bars up early, but they’ve stopped doing that after hearing about Voelkel’s accident.

 

[Love to Ski]

I like to put the bar down. It just makes sense. It feels safer- even if it is a false sense of security. I like leaning on it sometimes and my feet. I am sometimes too nice to people when I want to put the bar down. I have tried before to put it down adn the people I rode with acted like they couldnt hear or see me trying. I think thats rude as hell. If you want it up, ride alone but not with someone who wants it down. Plus there are places that tell you to put them down, wether its a law or not I dont know but non the less its annoying hearing the people telling you to put it down.
About the seatbelt and helmet thing: I as well find it amusing that there are some states that enforce the seatbelt law but not the helmet law for motorcycles. I just came from FL and it was like that. Now I have riden a bike with out a helmet and its not always smart but a personal choice.Sometimes when its nice out and I wasnt going on higher speed roads I wouldnt wear it. I like the option but do agree its dumb to enforce one and not the other. Both equally fatal.

 

[ta&idaho]

I see no reason for the law. I never put my bar down but don't begrudge fellow riders when they do so (as long as they tell me they are going to do so before bonking me off the helmet due to my height). There are many chairlifts in the country that don't even have safety bars on chair lifts. So with that in mind, I would reverse the question and ask why the safety bar law is even needed?

Personally, I have never felt unsafe on a lift without the safety bar lowered. On many chairlifts, I have felt down right uncomfortable with the bar lowered. Black chair at Magic, any one? Most uncomfortable chair lift ever with the bar down. I have large thighs so some bars are uncomfortably low on my legs. Jet at Jay comes to mind as well as so many POMA chair lifts (man, I hate POMA chair lifts with a passion!). I also don't use foot rests, partially because of comfort (I prefer to dangle my legs) but also because I have long legs and can't fit my legs on many, so safety bars with foot rests are annoying.

We aren't talking about a proven safety item like a seat belt. How many people (actual statistics please) have avoided injury due to the safety bar versus how many people have been injured because of it? I would have to guess that the reaching back to put the safety bar down has probably caused more mishaps on lifts than might have resulted from the bar not being down later in the ride. Just my opinion, though I would love to see some actual data to either prove or disprove that theory. Then again, if data actually backed up the supposed idea that safety bars reduce injury risk, then why do so few states have safety bar laws? Why do many chairlifts without safety bars still turn?

I agree entirely.

I've become used to it, but when I first moved out here, I got bonked more than a few times. I'll never understand why the bar is so sacred in the East (and in Europe) but so rarely used out West.

 

[riverc0il]

Lot of hate directed towards the no safety bar crowd. Equating not using a safety bar with not wearing a helmet is a dubious correlation at best. Do a search for motorcycle deaths and do a search for deaths due to falling from a chair lift and then get back to me about natural selection. Puh-lease. You can pro- and con- all you want (and the best pro- for using the bar in VT is that it IS the law... and that is the only pro- I can say is factual for the adult population) but calling out people who don't use bars as being dumb is not a valid argument.

 

[Johnskiismore]

Usually I don't pull the safety bar down... no rhyme or reason I just don't. If I have to screw around with my camera, adjust equipment, wind really blowing the chair around I lower the bar.

If you want the bar down that's fine, just give a little announcement that you're pulling the bar down. I really really really really hate it when as soon as your butt touches the chair another rider is pulling the bar with now warning and get bonked in the head. We're not launching into hyperspace!

But as far as the law is concerned, has anyone been fined and/or arrested for failing to pull the bar down? Has law enforcement been called to deal with a repeat offender at an area?