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How accidents happen on a slope- video

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I found this video on a Polish news website. The girl ended up in a hospital with a broken leg.


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 6-02-11 9:36; edited 1 time in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
They mentioned broken leg. Looks bad.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Thank you Smile I've changed the original post Smile
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What a complete knob
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knobs like that should be taken to one side and have their board or ski inserted in the appropriate orrifice......that'll slow them down!! Evil or Very Mad
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Sleipnir, guy was totally oblivious and out of control.

Hope she heals well and that she makes it back to the slopes.
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kevindonkleywood wrote:
the guy was totally oblivious and out of control.


Oh come on !!

The girl skier was obviously crossing back across the piste awkwardly and slowing down under that little riser was her mistake. She should've looked uphill and anticipated that much better and faster skiers and boarders would be about on that expert slope and that they wouldn't expect to see noobs like her in the middle of the piste. The poor fella had absolutely nowhere to go and it also probably ruined the chance for getting his best GPS top speed of the day.
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moffatross, You are an evil wicked person Toofy Grin Toofy Grin
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Quote:

The girl skier was obviously crossing back across the piste awkwardly and slowing down under that little riser was her mistake. She should've looked uphill and anticipated that much better and faster skiers and boarders would be about on that expert slope and that they wouldn't expect to see noobs like her in the middle of the piste. The poor fella had absolutely nowhere to go and it also probably ruined the chance for getting his best GPS top speed of the day

moffatross, I realy hope that U jokes with us, if not Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad
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That video would make good evidence in court - I hope her insurance company used it. (I hope she was insured! and if not he was)
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kevindonkleywood wrote:
moffatross, You are an evil wicked person Toofy Grin Toofy Grin
Yeah, sorry. Laughing

snowball, yes, it's a scenario in which blood-sucking, ambulance-chasing lawyers such as those in http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=73380 could help to change attitudes on the slopes by financially ruining a few miscreants.

freeheelskier, my attempt at interthread irony http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=73256 probably didn't translate too well, not helped I guess by English not being your first language. wink
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freeheelskier, I'm pretty sure he's joking and perhaps even making a sarcastic reference to this thread Twisted Evil

Clearly the fault of the boarder but I'm not sure he was totally out of control, he actually looks reasonably in control to me but is riding in an exceedingly dangerous fashion with no care for other slope users and at a speed that meant he had no time to take evasive action when the skier was in front of him - complete nob and deserves to have his ass sued off and I damned well hope he does (I presume it's a he rather than a she)!

Can you imagine if that was a small child he smashed into! Shocked

However the subject of speed brings to mind my post on another thread here with regards to skiers:
Quote:
All I'd say is that anyone, and I mean anyone, who hasn't the skill to safely stop at speed or take safe evasive action to avoid say a child that's swerved in front of them a couple of metres ahead is not skillful enough to be going at the sorts of speeds that are often seen on slopes. I don't care if people have skied fast for years without incident that just probably means they're overdue an accident! Speed often masks inadequate technique and ability, if someone regularly skis fast they should try slowing it all right down and if they can't do it (maybe ending up on their backside) then their speed is masking inadequacies in technique and if anyone like that feels the need to go fast they should get some lessons and learn how to do it safely and if they don't want to do lessons they shouldn't speed, seemples!

I think I now need to qualify the above by clearly stating that people need to go at an appropriate speed for the slope they are on and the number of people on said slope - the speed that a skillful rider might go at on a quiet red slope is most certainly not appropriate for a very busy blue or green slope.
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moffatross, you beat me to it - nice "interthread irony" I have to say and glad I got it! Toofy Grin
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I just don't think he way paying attention - she was in control, in essence, until he hit her, so was he, but he was just not paying attention IMV. There for the grace of god go many I think. Inc. the nutter with the board that hit me from behind in a very similar situation in Les Arcs. Again I think just not paying attention. I was with an obviously dressed instructor at the time (me in a bright red jacket), practising one legged skiing on a very quiet blue run and was taken out in the same way by a boarder from behind on a perfectly OK bit of piste with no rise or anything in the way. As the instructor pointed out to the chap I had 15 metres of clear piste to one side of me and 25+ to the other and he still couldn't miss me. I was in a very similar situation to the lass in the video, but luckier than her in that I got away with just a bruise for my trouble, but I was hit with a fair degree of force directly from behind - easily enough to spring my bindings. I didn't quite clout him in front of the instructor, but even though he didn't speak any English I think he is now scared of English women!! Esp. when I didn't back down after his first retort and gave him another earful. OK, I can laugh about it now, but if you are going to ski or board or whatever on a slope surely the first rule is to pay attention to your surroundings vs. the manner in which you are progressing down the slope?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Quote:

I'm pretty sure he's joking

Nice to hear, so I can chill down a little Very Happy but I have seen this in Spain once, when a 4 years old girl was hited of a 90kg spanish man, and he was saying to the parents to take better care about their kids, beacause they was not in the beginner area,, but he was taken of police, and that was lucky for him, beacause their was a mob waiting for him, the girl was away with a helicopter to hospital in Sevilla, she was very bad hurt, and this was happens in Sierra Nevada,
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
If you nick your dad's 750cc motorbike and ride it at 30mph through your school playground to impress your mates and run a kid over, is that an accident?

This looks like a beginner snowboarder who's still familiar with the nursery slopes, but has failed to realise their 'need for speed' has disqualified them and represents a lethal danger to others. You do not ski at speed through nursery slopes - however much a beginner you are, however skilful you think you are.

It is one of the first rules skiers & boarders should be taught: do not ski at speed through nursery slopes - reduce speed according to the conditions and down-slope skiers.

Every down slope skier must be treated as if they are using every trick in the book to lull you into complacency while they prepare for their 'insurance scam' manoeuvre to suddenly whiz into your path in such a way that you cannot stop or avoid them.
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crosbie, You are right, but I am always amazed at how beginners slopes are ignored by those using them as a through route to get elsewhere. There were a couple of areas in Les Arcs that were def. begineers areas - Chantel in paritcular is clearly marked as such and requires a dodge through bright orange signs warning folks to access it. We used it every day to get to our appt. We always made a point of stopping and reminding the Minimum's of the fact it was a beginners area and that they should pass novices very wide, be prepared for unexpected manoeuvres from them, look out for people stopped in the middle of the piste and ski at pace suitable for those around them.
However, that did not stop other folks whizzing past us who had clearly not thought the same things and it was evident from the chair lift above, that many folks treated the piste no differently to any other. It's like horses and water troughs, you can put up all the signs and warnings you like, but without buy-in from users and/or enforcement there are still a significant number who couldn't care two hoots about such things. I have my doubts that this will ever change.
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Megamum, maybe they can create a rule that says "Any non-beginner who is involved in a significant collision with a beginner (beginner-pass holders or under tuition) in a beginner/debutante area is automatically at fault for the collision (whether upslope or not) and will have lift pass immediately confiscated - return subject to appeal"? Then non-beginners might treat beginner areas with a little more caution.

Trouble is, collisions are also as in this case likely between beginners getting the knack of speed and other beginners moving from snow plough to parallel turn. It's a bit like young teenagers riding bicycles at speed on pavements having been encouraged to do so as a much younger/slower beginner.

For weeding reckless learner skiers/boarders out of nursery slopes it may be necessary for wardens to patrol the areas and give the likes of such a good bollocking (and a 3 hour pass confiscation - if in possession of such - they can walk up).
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crosbie wrote:
Megamum, maybe they can create a rule that says "Any non-beginner who is involved in a significant collision with a beginner (beginner-pass holders or under tuition) in a beginner/debutante area is automatically at fault for the collision (whether upslope or not) and will have lift pass immediately confiscated - return subject to appeal"? Then non-beginners might treat beginner areas with a little more caution.

Trouble is, collisions are also as in this case likely between beginners getting the knack of speed and other beginners moving from snow plough to parallel turn. It's a bit like young teenagers riding bicycles at speed on pavements having been encouraged to do so as a much younger/slower beginner.

For weeding reckless learner skiers/boarders out of nursery slopes it may be necessary for wardens to patrol the areas and give the likes of such a good bollocking (and a 3 hour pass confiscation - if in possession of such - they can walk up).


define beginner
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mugen, a 'beginner' is someone who holds a beginner lift-pass (reduced areas) or is booked into a lesson with an approved ski school, and is in a an area reserved for beginners or clearly identified as a beginner area, and has not just entered the area from an area only accessible via a lift not available on a beginner lift pass (except if accompanied by a ski school instructor).
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crosbie wrote:
mugen, a 'beginner' is someone who holds a beginner lift-pass (reduced areas) or is booked into a lesson with an approved ski school, and is in a an area reserved for beginners or clearly identified as a beginner area, and has not just entered the area from an area only accessible via a lift not available on a beginner lift pass (except if accompanied by a ski school instructor).


so someone that just buys a standard pass but has never skied before, what are they?
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Megamum wrote:
crosbie, You are right, but I am always amazed at how beginners slopes are ignored by those using them as a through route to get elsewhere. There were a couple of areas in Les Arcs that were def. begineers areas - Chantel in paritcular is clearly marked as such and requires a dodge through bright orange signs warning folks to access it.


Saw that problem myself last week - a couple of clearly marked 'beginners areas' or 'ski tranquile' on the LP side, and people hurtling through them like nutters. I wish the frenchies would have more active 'pass foreiture' that it would appear they have in the USA (not skiied there myself). Have a lookout or two on the beginner area and a couple of pisties at the bottom. Anyone spotted infringing the rules gets a 2 hour pass forfeiture, which could be enforced by scanning the card, and then de-activating it on the network for that 2 hour window. If that means you're stuck in LA when you should be in LP then tough...
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Megamum, anybody who crashes into someone who is on a slope with a clearly identified ski instructor has to be the biggest dick head in the business - it is actually one of my secret fears.

Well, not a secret any more, I guess. wink
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In terms of responsibility, it dosnt matter if its in a beginner area or in a black slope, the faster skier/snowboarder must always take care about slower skier/snowboarder, and you had never to go faster than you have full control whatever happens, I know, thats is fun to ski on the limit, I do Embarassed but I try to be sure that not other skier will be hurt because of me Very Happy
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This is recklessness. His view is unhindered and his liability is complete. This is not an accident and shouldn't be viewed as such.


Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads on Sun 6-02-11 20:37; edited 1 time in total
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Quote:

This is not an accident

Puzzled You think it was an assassination attempt?
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To call it an accident would be disingenuous to the term. As a 'rider ' he has reasonable foresight of consequences and this would include an inherent assessment of the nature of risk 'riding' down this sort of slope at those speeds in full knowledge of the other slope users and their ability. He is strictly liable, he has no defence and whilst there is no direct intent he is nonetheless culpable. Accidents are one thing, recklessness is criminal.
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 Damien
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Quote:

Every down slope skier must be treated as if they are using every trick in the book to lull you into complacency while they prepare for their 'insurance scam' manoeuvre to suddenly whiz into your path in such a way that you cannot stop or avoid them.

Very funny, made me smile Very Happy
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mugen wrote:
so someone that just buys a standard pass but has never skied before, what are they?


Reckless. Negligent. A danger to themselves and others. Like someone who can't drive that borrows a car and ventures onto the motorway.

Or, a pedestrian unaware they should have bought a pedestrian pass.

Basically, if you buy a standard pass and crash into a beginner (in a beginner area) then it doesn't matter whether you've skied before or not, you're culpable.
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Quote:

Basically, if you buy a standard pass and crash into a beginner (in a beginner area) then it doesn't matter whether you've skied before or not, you're culpable.


That's a bit rich. Assumes, for a start, that there is always such a thing as a "beginner pass" and a "beginners area".
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 Poster: A snowHead
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pam w, this is in the context of the aforementioned definition of 'beginner'. It's a hypothetical, not an assumption.
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pam w, true. Many ski schools tell beginners to buy a normal pass because halfway through the week they will need it and it's cheaper and more convenient to buy it at the start.
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And another one, this time a child was injured:

Another child injured by hit and run skier
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Megamum, What happened to the idiot who hit you. If you were with an instructor hopefully they got the idiots pass taken off them. If not I doubt they will have changed their method of boarding without care. At least in Canada they do kick idiots off. I was in Morzine and a snowboarder flew out of the trees at head height a few feet in front of me when I was progressing slowly down a green track.

I spend a lot of time on the green slopes above my wife acting as a block to try and keep others who are going much faster away from her as she wants at least a 5m bubble around her. Not easy as there is so many "experts" that seem to love blitzing down a marked slow zone as close to beginners (which they seem to view a moving trees or slalom gates) as they can get.

Skiers are predictable and it is easy to see a beginner starting a turn and you always expect them to fall over or stop. Boarders on the other hand can change direction so fast and randomly that they are very hard to predict. Wide berth to all.
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I'd not agree that boarders can change direction any more rapidly, or randomly, than skiers. The kids who leap out of the trees onto slow tracks are indeed a menace - but just as likely to be on skis as on boards, IME.

The existing slope "rules" should be adequate - it won't always be easy to decide who is as fault and a beginner might also mow down an experienced skier, when going too fast to control their line.

the problem seems to me to be the lack of sanctions - it's exceedingly unlikely that the guy who knocked megamum over had his pass confiscated, despite the presence of an instructor. More ski patrols, warning people skiing out of control or too fast for the environment, would be a good start.
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I'm certain that in Les Arcs the ski instructor who was teaching Megamum would not have had the legal authority to confiscate temporarily deactivate the lift pass, and I've never heard of this sanction being applied in Europe other than when season passes are shared or sold.
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If instructors in North America are allowed to confiscate lift passes (and I've seen no evidence they can but am accepting comments here that seem to suggest they can, at least in some places) I guess it may be because over there they directly work for whichever mountain they are at whereas in Europe the ski schools are independent, at least on paper, and instructors don't work dierctly for the company that operates the lifts. When I instruct on dry I work directly for the slope and do actually have the power, if I see the need, to throw people brreaking the rules off the slope whereas on snow (at Cairngorm) I don't have that power despite the fact the ski school I work for is semi-official, as in only one given an office on the mountain and the only one mentioned in the mountain's literature and website. All I can do in those circumstances if I see someone behaving dangerously is tell any miscreants off and hopefully, because I'm in a uniform, they'll take some notice - most times though they ski/board dangerously and if it's a near miss but nothing further they then dissapear down the slope befpre anything can be said. My only other option, in say a more serious incident which involved a collision, would be to phone ski patrol directly and ask them to send someone out to deal with the incident ASAP and stay on the spot and try to ensure the person at fault did so too - I guess I could help ensure that by hanging on to a ski or board if it was off and refusing to give it back but frankly even that is way beyond my remit and if someone got nasty I'd have to give it back to them. Also in those circumstances I might well be too busy dealing with any injuries to be arguing about who stays where - something in NA instructors don't do I should add.
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this was a close one!!! no excuses... the fast skier was out of control and should have been more aware of what was happening in front.


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shoogly, the fast skier hoping for predictable behaviour in front is why I use hand signals if I'm going to make any extended manouvres. Sure the uphill skier has the responsibility, but I also have to worry about fast skiers assuming that no-one's going to venture into 'their section' of the piste. There's being hit and it not being my fault. And then there's being defensive and not being hit (as much).

NB Not saying anything about the downhill skier here, just making a tangential point.
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