Sad news and in need of advice

davidmpires wrote:

Any opinions please?

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! One bad experience and that's it? :cry: If she was injured on the slopes the resort/instructor has to take some kind of responsibility. Find a good lawyer that's my advice

Glad to hear that she's getting better!

Hi David,

Really sorry to hear about your OH but glad the recovery shouldn't be too long.

I used to be a sailing, kayaking and Power Boat instructor for 3 years and also taught instructors during the winter. Obviously not skiing but all instructors are in the same situations.

In this case I would disagree with Iceghost on finding a good lawyer, however I do agree that the centre should give you a full refund for your OH's sessions and any furure sessions pre booked out of good faith.

As an Instructor you are responsible for the safety of your students but the student also has a responsibility for their own safety. It all comes down to the term "Duty of Care" and whether the centre or instructor did not fullfill this duty. It sounds to me as if they did fullfill this duty to the best they could. Obviously all sports are dangerous at times, and accidents can always happen especially when you introduce items that are not natural to the human body such as ski's (ok they are very natural to many on here but not beginners and myself at times when I head plant!!!). In order to learn everyone has to be taught the basics and unfortunately this is not possible unless you are on a slope and that slope causes risks therefore the instructor has to put the student at slight risk but this does not mean they have not fullfilled their duty of care.

If the instructor had taken the student to the very top and told them to point downhill and hope then I would say "take them to the cleaners" but from what I gather that was not the case. If the slope was not in good order and that caused the accident then the centre would have not fullfilled their duty of care and as you havent mentioned any defects I presume that is not the case. Basically as I said accidents happen and unfortunatelly for your OH it resulted in a broken bone but could that have still happen had she fallen over on your garden path in the ice? Yes! Simply the instructor has to put the student at slight risk as it is impossible to teach without that but they are always assessing the risks and changing the situations to minimise those risks.

In my opinion as I said push for a Refund or at least a compromise but unless you feel that the centre or instructor didn't fullfill their "Duty of Care" then I wouldnt go down the solicitor / Lawyer route as this will probably end in the Centres favour as you as a student also have a Duty of Care and accidents do happen. Its just unlucky.

If you Do feel that they didn't fullfill their duty of care then try to discuss it with the centre first. If they push back and quote that you signed a disclaimer do not let that put you off. I now run events for a large multi national company and come across them the whole time and I can confirm that they are not legally binding. They do however work for the company as people are unaware that they can be challenged and therefore dont bother.

Sorry that was so long but I thought it may help.

Once again I'm sorry that this happened to your OH and hope she has a speedy recovery and also I hope for both of you that she does give it another go. Maybe this time at a centre with actual snow and not a dry slope. :wink:

IceGhost - Obviously this is just our opinions so I hope I havent caused any bad feelings.

She's recovering ok, but she's quite annoyed with the fact that she didn't got her money back. I'm hopping to talk to the instructor on Saturday when I have my next lesson. I are not going down the layer route, I'm more p'ed off at the centre owner than the actual instructor.

I'll have to see how it goes on saturday, so far she doesn't want to hear me talking about skiing and I have change my holiday already maybe next year she would like to give it a go on the Realli Ski, on that simulator it is impossible to fall.

David

Sorry to hear about your situation. I am very wary of dry slopes for this very reason. Even though I have skied for about 15 years and sometimes go to a dry slope, I am always somewhat apprehensive about falling there and injuring myself - something that rarely enters my head on the mountains. BTW, my local slope is in a place called Kiltiernan and the local hospitals refer to a condition known as "Kiltiernan Thumb" - the severe sprain of the thumb that you can get when your thumb gets caught in the brushes in a fall :evil:.

I know that you really want to get back to the skiing and would love it if you could convince your OH to give it another go. At this stage, I think I would be inclined to let a bit of time pass until she is fully recovered physically and mentally :!:. Then when you feel the time is right, I would focus on trying to get her to the mountains, rather than bothering with dry slopes, realli-ski, etc - it is so much more pleasant learning on snow, in beautiful bright sunshine, with spectacular views all round you and a bunch of friends all high on endorphins. If you can get her to that spot, I suspect your problems will be solved :lol:.

Yeah maybe you are right, I think I'll book a week for the end of next year in a lovely place maybe that way she will enjoy it a lot more.