Six year old skier sued in Austria

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/11828586/Six-year-old-girl-sued-over-Austria-skiing-accident.html

A six year old skier who 'allegedly made a sudden turn into the path of' another skier is being sued in Austria.

Crazy :( Perhaps the child should sue the adult for skiing into them from behind. I always held the belief that the responsibility is on the person who is uphill, and to pass with great care and distance where possible, especially people who are obviously learning.

I know. That was my first thought too. According to the article, the injured adult had tried unsuccessfully to sue the adult supervisors. I guess the Telegraph doesn't have all of the facts but the phrase 'allegedly made a sudden turn into the path of' strongly implies that the child was downhill.

I always slow down when there are kids about. Because there is always the likelihood that they will make a sudden turn into your path.
It's difficult to imagine how there is fault on the kids part.

Frankly I think this woman is bonkers - in this particular incident. But it will be interesting to see what any legal review comes up with. I think I heard recently that there are resorts in the USA where the blame automatically being assigned to the up-hill skier no longer applies, they take a view on exactly how the collision occurs

A downhill skier can be at fault if starting off without looking. I've seen a few near misses and the odd accident which would have been avoided with a quick glance up the slope.

I think both lie at fault here, although you can partly excuse the apparent downhill skier because of their age. In any situation, I believe that the uphill skier has the larger share of responsibility as they can avoid a collision, however downhill skiers are foolish if they do not continue as normal, as that can take away a certain amount of predictability in regards to their movements.

Interesting point of note here. This story has appeared in many places and has attracted quite a few comments. If you read the story, it makes it quite clear that the adult has suffered injuries sufficient to bring her skiing ability to an end (although that would have to be seen after any settlement).

Now what I find interesting, is that so far I have not seen a single comment of sympathy to the injured adult.

I guess it is very easy for us to jump to conclusions, so I for one would like to hope that a recovery is possible to the injured party, whoever was/is responsible for the accident. Nobody deserves to have the ability to do something they like taken away from them, even if they are the party at fault.