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

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

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.

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:

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!

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:

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.

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.

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.