Latest posts for the topic "Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news."

Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:48:47 GMT

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/12/19/boy-critical-after-falling-60-feet-from-sugarbowl-ski-lift/

This sends chills down my spine.
Last year in La Plagne my wife, daughter (10) and myself were shuffling forward for a chair when my wife got a little tangled up in her own skis. She hesitated and missed the gap so i stayed with her to help. My daughter continued to board the chair (that we were now behind) and took off alone. She was too small to reach the safety bar and rode the whole journey without it.
We were in the next chair back shouting at her to keep still and sit back.
I still have nightmares of her falling, us having to watch it and worse still having to ride the full trip before being able to get off the help her.

This is the reason ALL children should be accompanied and i firmly believe the operator in La Plagne in our case should have stopped that lift when he saw my little one board alone.

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:58:39 GMT

Scary stuff. It sounds like this kid was on a ski team, and I know with local kids here that it's easy for them to become complacent about lift safety when they are on lifts all winter.

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:05:02 GMT

Yep not good .... :cry:

Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:55:54 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/12/19/boy-critical-after-falling-60-feet-from-sugarbowl-ski-lift/

This is the reason ALL children should be accompanied and i firmly believe the operator in La Plagne in our case should have stopped that lift when he saw my little one board alone.

Totally agree..... I know we can joke about on here but that's pretty scary stuff.... I've sat many a time on chairs in Switzerland with the young ones, the instructors put them on lifts with other adults. The lift didn't have any safety stop bar as in to stop them falling through the gap and the main bar was too far for them to reach.... You have to just hold onto them.

Hope the little lad is ok... :(

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:06:50 GMT

Trencher will have a better take on this and I'd be interested to here his views but:

When we skiied in Vermont a few years ago the Americans we shared lifts with were not keen on putting the bar down - they reckoned that getting stuck in there was far more of a hazard than falling off :shock:

is this an indictment on Killington's lift system or true of the skiing population in the US in general?

tragic news about the child though - I pray his family gets some good news for Christmas

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:30:34 GMT

there are 3 12 yr olds in our party will b keeping a firm grip on them ,i agree with other posts lift should have been stopped thought the states were really keen on stuff like that!

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:41:15 GMT

andyoneil wrote:
When we skiied in Vermont a few years ago the Americans we shared lifts with were not keen on putting the bar down - they reckoned that getting stuck in there was far more of a hazard than falling off :shock:

Yes, it's pretty common in the US for people ride up with the bar up (sorta like not wearing a helmet in Europe) :wink: At the hundreds of small ski areas where the lifts seldom get more than twenty feet from the deck, it is common for there to be no safety bar on the chairs. Never heard of people worrying about getting stuck with the bar down.

Snapzzz wrote:[
Last year in La Plagne my wife, daughter (10) and myself were shuffling forward for a chair when my wife got a little tangled up in her own skis. She hesitated and missed the gap so i stayed with her to help. My daughter continued to board the chair (that we were now behind) and took off alone. She was too small to reach the safety bar and rode the whole journey without it.
We were in the next chair back shouting at her to keep still and sit back.
I still have nightmares of her falling, us having to watch it and worse still having to ride the full trip before being able to get off the help her.

This is the reason ALL children should be accompanied and i firmly believe the operator in La Plagne in our case should have stopped that lift when he saw my little one board alone.

I don't think the liftie wouldn't normally worry about a ten year old riding the lift on their own. You might have tried asking for the lift to be stopped, Most lift operators will normally hit the switch when they hear someone shouting stop stop stop (in appropriate language of course). what good it might have done depends on how steep was the take off. If your daughter was beyond reach from the ground, then it was too late. Not all lifties can read the circumstances. At ten for all he knew, she could have seven years skiing under her belt.

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:02:15 GMT

Trencher wrote:

Yes, it's pretty common in the US for people ride up with the bar up (sorta like not wearing a helmet in Europe) :wink: At the hundreds of small ski areas where the lifts seldom get more than twenty feet from the deck, it is common for there to be no safety bar on the chairs. Never heard of people worrying about getting stuck with the bar down.

dont mention the H word.....

but seriously - if its common for people not to put bars down then that may have been a factor in this incident?

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:26:39 GMT

andyoneil wrote:

Trencher wrote:

Yes, it's pretty common in the US for people ride up with the bar up (sorta like not wearing a helmet in Europe) :wink: At the hundreds of small ski areas where the lifts seldom get more than twenty feet from the deck, it is common for there to be no safety bar on the chairs. Never heard of people worrying about getting stuck with the bar down.

dont mention the H word.....

but seriously - if its common for people not to put bars down then that may have been a factor in this incident?

That's likely

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:12:35 GMT

Trencher wrote: Not all lifties can read the circumstances. At ten for all he knew, she could have seven years skiing under her belt.

With respect i don't think that is the point.

The key point here is safety. He doesn't need to know how much skiing she has under her belt, that is irrelevant. The important thing here is that he could see she was too small to reach the safety bar.

Children are to young and often too fearless to make their own decisions.

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:27:28 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

With respect i don't think that is the point.

The key point here is safety. He doesn't need to know how much skiing she has under her belt, that is irrelevant. The important thing here is that he could see she was too small to reach the safety bar.

Children are to young and often too fearless to make their own decisions.

I agree there should be better safety for younger children, but I see a lot of kids younger than ten riding lifts on their own all the time. Junior race teams would not exist if young kids could not ride the lifts on their own. The problem is more about chair design. should the safety bar have had straps on it to allow kids to reach it?

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:31:53 GMT

Trencher wrote:The problem is more about chair design. should the safety bar have had straps on it to allow kids to reach it?

I think that would be solution......until someone gets a ski wrapped up in a strap and can't get off!

i think the best solution would be a design that closes the bar automatically on exiting the lift station.

Re:Child falls from chairlift.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:03:18 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:i think the best solution would be a design that closes the bar automatically on exiting the lift station.

I think I have seen that at some resorts - cant think where though :roll:

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:02:27 GMT

The child involved has sadly died.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077085/Lake-Tahoe-boy-7-dies-plummeting-60-feet-ski-lift-team-practice.html

It doesn't state if a safety bar was installed or being used.

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:29:33 GMT

The death of the young boy is a tragedy. I do not see how, under the current and past design of chairlifts, that this kind of accident can be totally avoided, although it should be possible for the incidence to be significantly reduced

I do see irony, that in the current H&S environment, that you may no longer play conkers, but you can sit on a chairlift, and elect, or not be able to, pull down the safety bar.

Trenchers point about a small child not being able to reach the safety bar highlights the lack of local, national and international commonality of safety standards. It seems evident to me, and in my resort it is practice, that when required, (young, old or infirm), the bottom lift man would slow the lift, in order to ensure that the person was safe.

In practise, where there is a predominently adult queue, the chair is way above ground before everyone has aligned their skis, pulled back their sticks, and the bar is lowered.

Further, the worldwide installed capacity is not, in the main, totally safe. Any approach towards maximum safety may imply automation, and that might require power to the chairlift, although mechanical systems do exist.

I have no doubt that technical solutions can be brought to the fore. As a guess, less than 1% of the WIC could be adapted.

Hence, that brings us back to standards,(local to international), of systems, management and training.

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:43:42 GMT

:( such a tragedy ...... Thoughts go out to the boys family.... R.I.P x

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:59:39 GMT

The ski lift manufacturers have developed restraining systems to prevent people falling from chair lifts, Doppelmayr has developed the Skippy system

and Leitner the Kidstop

http://en.leitner-lifts.com/Products/Detachable-chairlifts

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:45:53 GMT

Not good.

I am taking my little boy who is 6 skiing in January.
Its a good job that the resort I am taking him to only has drag lifts and Gondolas.

Really hits home when you have a child of around the same age.

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:35:02 GMT

nuttynutnut wrote:Not good.

I am taking my little boy who is 6 skiing in January.
Its a good job that the resort I am taking him to only has drag lifts and Gondolas.

Really hits home when you have a child of around the same age.

I think you have to keep this sad matter in proportion, most chairs I have come across in Europe have safety bars, ESf ski schools will never let a child on a chair on its own as they are always accompanied by an Adult and when your kid is not with the ski school he or she is with you being taught the necessary safety aspects of skiing.
I know it is hard but if we wrap our kids up in cotton wool they will never be able to take any responsibility, there is nothing better than skiing with your kids and I for one hopes that continues for a number of years to come.
I do see so many kids skiing all over the place with parents either way behind or way in front, even now Little W has been skiing since the age of three and pretty much can ski most terrain but I still insist she skis with one of us in front and behind for which she has to turn when the leader turns.
Advice...... get your child into ski school for a couple of hours a day and that will give you a couple of hours free ski time then work on what they have learnt that day in the afternoon, soon after two or three years you can ski anywhere as a family and that is very enjoyable. :thumbup:

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:22:42 GMT

Very sad news about the little boy. My thoughts are with his family.

The new chair in Plaine Dranse has more more security. Once the skier sits on the chair the bar goes down automatically. When you press on the bar or on the foot plate it locks. It opens automatically at the top.

Eventually all chair lifts will be replaced with new, safer systems but I should imagine it will be many, many years before we see them all replaced.

We need to remember that millions of children use chairlifts and it is a very, very small percentage of children that have actually had accidents. I would imagine that a far bigger percentage of children die in road traffic accidents and we wouldn't stop them from using the roads...We accompany them at all times until a certain age and teach them how to use the roads safely on their own. We do the same when teaching children to use a chairlift and most children get to the top safely.

I firmly believe that we should not wrap our kids in cotton wool and we need to balance risk with challenge when helping our kids develop into well balanced safety concious adults.

Snapzzz, that must have been the worst journey of your life!

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:55:03 GMT

snowb4ndit wrote:Very sad news about the little boy. My thoughts are with his family.

The new chair in Plaine Dranse has more more security. Once the skier sits on the chair the bar goes down automatically. When you press on the bar or on the foot plate it locks. It opens automatically at the top.

Eventually all chair lifts will be replaced with new, safer systems but I should imagine it will be many, many years before we see them all replaced.

We need to remember that millions of children use chairlifts and it is a very, very small percentage of children that have actually had accidents. I would imagine that a far bigger percentage of children die in road traffic accidents and we wouldn't stop them from using the roads...We accompany them at all times until a certain age and teach them how to use the roads safely on their own. We do the same when teaching children to use a chairlift and most children get to the top safely.

I firmly believe that we should not wrap our kids in cotton wool and we need to balance risk with challenge when helping our kids develop into well balanced safety concious adults.

Snapzzz, that must have been the worst journey of your life!

:thumbup:

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:43:50 GMT

snowb4ndit wrote:

Snapzzz, that must have been the worst journey of your life!

Yes it was. And to make it worse it was a bloody slow lift with narrow seats and dawdled agonizingly over roads, car parks and other sharp terrain.....I still have chills thinking about it now.

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:18:52 GMT

I remember about 3 years ago when I was at Schladming in Austria when me and a friend were about to get onto a 6 man chair. We had 3 local 5-6 year olds from a school class put on with us. Boys being boys they were wrestling and mucking about the the whole ride. Neither of us spoke very good German to tell them off as we were convinced we were going to loose one of them. When we got off we both of needed a drink, it scared us so much and these were complete strangers to us.
My thoughts are with the family.

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:51:50 GMT

Scarlet Fez wrote:I remember about 3 years ago when I was at Schladming in Austria when me and a friend were about to get onto a 6 man chair. We had 3 local 5-6 year olds from a school class put on with us. Boys being boys they were wrestling and mucking about the the whole ride. Neither of us spoke very good German to tell them off as we were convinced we were going to loose one of them. When we got off we both of needed a drink, it scared us so much and these were complete strangers to us.
My thoughts are with the family.

I think raising your voice with a stern look will work in most situations despite language barriers.

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:49:55 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

Scarlet Fez wrote:I remember about 3 years ago when I was at Schladming in Austria when me and a friend were about to get onto a 6 man chair. We had 3 local 5-6 year olds from a school class put on with us. Boys being boys they were wrestling and mucking about the the whole ride. Neither of us spoke very good German to tell them off as we were convinced we were going to loose one of them. When we got off we both of needed a drink, it scared us so much and these were complete strangers to us.
My thoughts are with the family.

I think raising your voice with a stern look will work in most situations despite language barriers.

A prod with a ski pole normally gets there attention :twisted:

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:51:34 GMT

Or hit them on the head with the bar. They would have been wearing H anyway :)

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:54:25 GMT

Iceman wrote:Or hit them on the head with the bar. They would have been wearing H anyway :)

I thought you injected that :wink:

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:58:19 GMT

Could do that as well just as they reach the top! :thumbup:

;)

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:05:34 GMT

Tried all the things suggested apart from hitting them with our poles. Even tried 'Achtung achtung'!! If you can imagine me and my mate either end of a 6 man lift and these 3 little sods in between us. At one point 2 of them were lying on the chair like it was a couch completely under the bar. Gives me goosebumps now thinking about it!

Re:Child falls from chairlift. - Child now reported dead....sad news.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:29:33 GMT

We always used to put a pole across the front of our kids bodies to wedge them in a bit and do the same if we have to take any with us even though they don't really like it it does give me peace of mind.