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

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

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.

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?

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.

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:

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.

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.

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