 Poster: A snowHead
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You wouldn't normally read this sort of stuff but - interestingly - ropeways.net has posted up this report from a lift safety expert who went to the (appropriately named) Devil's Head ski resort in Wisconsin. He'd been sent there because of an accident three weeks ago (17 Dec 2009) where the lift rolled backwards, injuring 14 people:
http://www.ropeways.net/rnn/bericht.php?wert=2113&wert1=0&zurueck=0
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| I observed three chairs had come off of the wire rope and debris was scattered around the loading area. I also observed one chair that had come off the rope near the first tower. |
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| On the day of the incident, we noted that the initial operator, who checked the lift off and tested the safety brakes on the lift, had not done a safety check or stop at the beginning of the shift. |
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| On 12/20/09, I received an email from Geise who was performing the investigation as to what malfunctioned with Lift #3. Geise states, "Yesterday we discovered the gear box had failed on lift 3 at Devils Head causing the roll back. The failure of the gear box removed the service brake from the system (one of two working brakes). Because the emergency brake can now not be tested we don't know its condition. |
In the current economic climate, I wonder if ski lift safety is being compromised? In a free market, enterprises responsible for public safety tend to operate according to whether they expect an unannounced visit from an inspector. People take the mick out of 'elf and safety', but skiers can benefit from it!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That report makes intresting reading, I wouldn't want to be the lift opperating company, opperator, or the company that fitted the anti roll back devices. So far as I can tell the anti roll back device failled completely either due to poor installation or lack of maintenance or a combination of both, the opperator had failed to do a full start up test when he arrived and inadaquate testing and maintenance appears to have been carried out by the opperating company not to mention a lack of safety training and inadaquate record keeping.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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It's certainly serious. Judging from the consequences to the lift, I'm amazed no one was killed. After the accident, officials at the resort were reported to have said that the accident couldn't have been predicted:
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11732629
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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It also sounds like training for emergencies was giving the operator a video to watch... 
The bit about "observed three chairs had come off of the wire rope and debris was scattered around the loading area. I also observed one chair that had come off the rope near the first tower" is after the accident of course.
more like this please Ernie
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Ernst Goldsmith, whilst the accident could not have been predicted the fact that teh safety systems seem to have been incorrectly installed, maintenance seems at best to be poor and safety training was exceptionally poor would suggest to teh bystander that any accidents that did occur where likely to be more serious than they might have been if the above had been better
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