Positional asphyxiation by chairlift???

BST_PoliceSo can you explain? I'm trying to visualize what the chair looked like. So was the seat cushion flapped up against the backrest and the person sat on metal bars and fell through?

BST_PoliceSo can you explain? I'm trying to visualize what the chair looked like. So was the seat cushion flapped up against the backrest and the person sat on metal bars and fell through?

animatorI’m also struggling with the visualization aspect, is the chair not just a static bench that has a bar that comes down? Why does this sound extremely over complicated?

animatorI’m also struggling with the visualization aspect, is the chair not just a static bench that has a bar that comes down? Why does this sound extremely over complicated?

theabortionatorThe seat cushion was up against the back, and you can fall through if you tried to sit on it like that. Some lifts have bars all the way across, a lot don't. The cushions are rigid they kind of have their own support. There might be a center bar I can't remember but def enough room to slip through if you try to ride it with the seat up.

MinggThe seats/black cushion part do flip up. The metal frame does not.

Typically the cushions will be flipped up at closing so that snow and ice doesn't accumulate overnight, making for an easy opening. Also, when I was a lifty, we would flip them and once all of them were flipped we knew for certain no one else was on the chair.

animatorI’m also struggling with the visualization aspect, is the chair not just a static bench that has a bar that comes down? Why does this sound extremely over complicated?

50KalThree ways I see loading a lift with a seat not put down.

1. Early morning miss. Between top and bottom someone did not put the chair down. Probably when a operator was trying to shovel and flip chairs at the same time. Or answering the phone. Or smoking a dart.

2. Wind flipped it. Depending on the model of lift and if the conditions of weather, the chair could of gotten flipped and stayed up. Some lifts will have locks on the the seats that keep it down or up.

3. End of day early flip. Sometimes a lifty will start flipping chairs early so to close down faster for whatever reason (slow day, storm coming in, Superbowl, pool party). Its critical that the person at the top and bottom communicate so they don't accidentally load a person. I actually saw a European couple get off a lift at the top with the chair flipped up. It was a newer lift and had a thick support bar but if they were not super chill it would of turned into a serious lawsuit.

All three reason though are not enough to hid a fact that a semi decent lifty should of prevented it.

I've heard Vail has been driving the lead struggle bus when it come retaining anyone for a full season in the lower paid employees tier.
Maybe that was contributing factor. A lack of personal at lift stations. A single lifty running a multiple passenger load station is bound to have an accident if the whole season goes that way.

BST_PoliceI'm gonna backpedal and say not the lifty's fault unless they were being negligent with distractions or drunk/high. Sure vail is gonna blame the employee and most people will but the processes that led to this accident are what matters. Hopefully vail will take a look at the root cause and change their processes because this is a thing that should never happen.

theabortionatorAlso the article mentioned the mother who died with her daughter being "thrown from the lift". If I remember the story I think she slipped and took her daughter down, or was trying to help her daughter and they both dropped. I don't remember anything about being thrown. People do fall of chairlifts but it's usually them slipping. Even when they stop hard chairs rock pretty smoothly. Unless it hit a tower, it's super unlikely anyone was "thrown" and it didn't hit a tower.

StaticWhat a disingenuous comment, victim blaming like you didn't read the next line from the article

" A state investigation revealed that fatal incident was caused due to recent changes to a control system and rapid speed changes made by an operator."

theabortionatorPeople who throw out victim blaming are the worst.

StaticNot as bad as ignorant assholes who talk shit about dead people.

theabortionatorI was never talking shit. Good old social justice. Fighting the good fight. You got me

StaticSure you did, you repeatedly blamed the woman for falling to her death, denouncing the idea that it was in fact it was the fault of the lift and it's operation.

theabortionatorLast season there were lifts not spinning simply because they didn't have the people. And some of the lifts that were spinning they had people from other delartments working a 6th day. Some of them making a decent amount mire than lifty wage and OT.

And Vail can suck a dick. Their employee retention is terrible. But if you're going to pay shitty and fuck up the hours constantly even when you do pay, fuck that. The corporate bullshit is okay if the pay is decent. Low pay is okay at a small mountain with chill vibes.

Idk the corporate bullshit cluster fuck of organisations. People that end up in management roles with no experience in departments but insitst on coming up with ideas to "fix" things. Even if said ideas are trash the fact that they came up with them = being good.

I'm never working for Vail again. Watching that company degrade and not get their shit together has been fucked. A lot if people that hate Vail have terrible reasons, but there are plenty of good reasons to hate them.

CaptainObvious.Here's what I'm trying to figure out. If the seat was flipped up, you would then, in theory, be sitting on a bar going horizontal across your butt, right? Much like sitting on a handrail. You're sort of balanced on it right under the cleft of your butt. Obviously, he slipped back, not forward. So his butt went through the gap between metal supports. That means his legs likely folded up so his knees were against his chest as he pulled through. Did his skis pop off? the gap may have been large enough for a person to slip through (thinking about like the gaps between monkeybars as a kid) but ski lifts aren't THAT deep, so how the hell did his skis not prevent him from slipping entirely through.

Obviously, something went wrong and the man died. Not through his own fault and it's a terrible situation for all involved. I'm just trying to think through how this actually happens.

oldmanskiI want to know what coat he was wearing, that is what killed him.

This is what I am gathering from this article.

On some chairs, the seat cushion flips up(similar to a movie theater seat) but has to be manually flipped up. Now that couldve got missed or the wind flipped it up as someone said in a previous comment. Chair comes around to scoop up skier, skier isnt paying attention, nor is the liftie. Skier sits down on the chairs frame(no cushion), just the frame of the chair and his ass falls through putting his knees to his chin basically while sliding his coat up around his neck and face. His arms must have got caught not allowing him to push or pull himself up out of it and he panicked. By the time they got the chair stopped and got him down it was already too late. Maybe there is more to the story and they uncover it. Thoughts going out to the family, employees and first response team. Always a tragic experience when someone dies on a ski hill or anywhere in that matter.

a_burgerThe bar is usually at the front of the chair, so it would be across your knees with nothing supporting your butt (hence immediately falling through)