Paralyzed Man Sues Virginia Ski Resort for $25M

April 29, 2010

  • April 29, 2010 at 12:51 pm
    PSIA Instructor says:
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    So, I guess the waiver on the back of his lift ticket which said the sport is dangerous and limits the area’s liability didn’t stick in the court, or hasn’t yet.

    As an employee at another area, I see folks – including other instructors – getting run into every day especially on the bunny slopes where newbies don’t have control. Sucks this fellow got hurt, and hopefully the area will only have to cover defense costs.

  • April 29, 2010 at 1:15 am
    Earlybird says:
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    It is a tragic accident. We often forget that we can get hurt when we engage in sporting activities and put ourselves “in
    harm’s way.” Waivers are not worthless if properly drawn and the insurer has the desire to defend, rather than settle. With a catastrophic injury such as this, they may well try to negotiate a settlement rather than face a jury of Charlottesville liberals!

  • April 29, 2010 at 1:49 am
    Jaded Jane says:
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    One more step to limiting the fun for other risk taking adventursome folk who understand there is risk involved in said activities. What do we expect when we’re raising our kids to look for someone else for their inequities and short comings- “it’s not my fault I have ADD,” “It’s not my fault my mom works,” “It’s not my fault, the test wasn’t fair, the teacher isn’t fair, the room was too hot, the sun was in my eyes…yadda yadda yadda, take up some responsibility. I’m sorry you can’t walk now but it’s NOT the resort or the Insurance company’s fault.

  • April 29, 2010 at 1:59 am
    Suing!! Collecting?? says:
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    You know just exactly who is going to collect the major portion of any settlement. I sure hope the carrier digs in it’s heels & pays only medical bills. I didn’t see anything here about negligence!

  • April 29, 2010 at 2:58 am
    Doug says:
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    So what if the wall was set up too close to the end of the run? Waivers should be worthless if you are setting up people to get hurt.

  • April 29, 2010 at 3:05 am
    Baxtor says:
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    You’re correct Doug. The waiver more than likely will not protect the resort due to their negligence. That’s like making people sign a waiver that are going sky diving, taking their money, putting them on the plane, having them jump, but forgetting to put a chute in their bag. I don’t think a waiver would protect them either as well as it shouldn’t by putting a wall right at the end of a run. Put some bushes their or some old mattresses, but not a wall. Poor risk management. Sadly a man is paralyzed. There is no money in world I’d take for not being able to walk again. Therefore, now the resort should be paralyzed as well!!

  • April 29, 2010 at 4:01 am
    Jaded Jane says:
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    Seeing as I’m not the adjuster on this risk and don’t know the facts it’s not fair for me to assume there was no negligence on the part of the resort. In the same spirit, it’s not fair for anyone else to assume there was. Nor should we assume the injured party did or didn’t do anything to contribute to this loss, even if the mistake was simply being out of control. From the Resort’s website: “WARNING: Under Virginia law, there is no liability for an injury to or death of a participant in a project activity conducted at this location if such injury or death results from the inherent risks of the project activity. Inherent risks of project activities include, among others, risks of injury inherent to land, equipment and animals, as well as the potential for you to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to the injury or death. You are assuming the risk of participating in this project activity.” It is what it is. Peace out-

  • April 29, 2010 at 6:07 am
    Cynical Cyd says:
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    My bad, too, Jane. I assumed the resort wasn’t negligent & this was just another of those deep pockets claims because someone got hurt. Opps. Wonder if the warning is also posted at the venue.

  • April 30, 2010 at 9:21 am
    nobody important says:
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    It would help us jump to better conclusions if any kind of actual information was given in the article.

  • April 30, 2010 at 9:32 am
    jr says:
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    Nice going. Suing anyone and everyone is the new “American Way”

  • April 30, 2010 at 11:59 am
    Getting exercise says:
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    At least I’m getting my exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, tilting at windmills, etc.

  • April 30, 2010 at 1:24 am
    Positive Pete says:
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    If the resort was negligent, then don’t you think there would have been more injuries. It is a horrible accident and just that and accident, a freak occurence. I feel bad for the guy, but when doing an activity such as this, you know the risks.

  • April 30, 2010 at 1:27 am
    Jane says:
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    I went snowtubing with family a couple of years back. My sister’s husband ended up going all the way to the end of the track and hitting the hay bales. Someone else broke their arm running into the end of the track during the same session.

    Once you were on the run it was obvious, that day at least, after your first run that the track was too fast for anyone of significant size or who pushed off too fast.

    Yes, there is some responsibility on the part of the individual. For example, my sister’s husband didn’t go back down the second time.

    However, on your first run down there was no way for an average person to gauge where they were going to end up.

    And based on just the two hours I was there, the resort would have had numerous examples of where this was a potential problem and should have adjusted the course.

  • April 30, 2010 at 1:41 am
    Sam says:
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    It makes you wonder how much this guy weighed to being going that fast. It also makes you wonder why he didn’t just roll off the tube before he hit the wall. It also makes you wonder what a 55 year old was doing on the freaking tube to begin with. It also makes you wonder why he was the only person who had a problem. According to local reports, the wall was padded. It’s unfortunate he’s not a para, but it makes you wonder why he didn’t learn anything about personal safety after 55 years of walking the earth.

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:01 am
    Doug says:
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    You know the risks? No, you dont assume that going down a hill on a tube at a ski resort will break your neck!

    That is not normal or expected…

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:02 am
    PSIA Instructor says:
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    We have a tube run at our facility, but thankfully the only folks who get hurt are the ones who slip and fall, which is somewhat hard to engineer out of the experience. Riders are NOT allowed to ‘run and jump’, and we use a tow rope to get them back up for another ride.

    Each day before operations begin, our onsite RM does a walk-through, preceded every year by mandatory slopeside training for ALL staffers on safety and rescue. The folks in charge of layouts, barriers etc are charged with handling same in a loss-aware mindset.

    That having been said, there is always room for improvement. It sounds to me like the tubby tuber might have been moving too fast, got thrown from the tube and wiped badly at a bad angle into the barrier. It would be really unthinkable to believe that there wasn’t enough of a slow-down zone at the end of the ride.

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:16 am
    just kidding says:
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    just kidding, have a great weekend!

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:29 am
    Doug says:
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    How bout I shoot you down my homemade snow tube hill – Just sign the waiver, thats all I ask :)

    PS: Bring your children

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:31 am
    Positive Pete says:
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    Doug, You do know the risk. A risk is not something that is inevitable, it is something that could happen. Just as the risk of driving a car is the fact that you could die. Not that it WILL happen, but it could. That is why it is called a risk.

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:37 am
    Doug says:
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    I dont think you do know the risks. I bet if you asked that guy at the top of the mountain if he thought there was a chance he would never walk again he would say “no, its just a little tube ride” Its not like a big ski place would be stupid enough to put up a hard wall right at the end of the run…” DUH

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:39 am
    mark says:
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    When you go to homedepot there are heavy objects stacked 30 feet high. One could fall and kill you – You know the risk, if you get crushed, sucks for you!

    Are you folks stupid?

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:47 am
    just kidding says:
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    too much risk…michael kennedy, sonny bono, natasha richardson…we heard about them because they were famous…so many others…too many variables…

  • April 30, 2010 at 2:52 am
    Doug says:
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    too many variables, or too many vegetables?

  • April 30, 2010 at 3:12 am
    Positive Pete says:
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    Doug, it is people like you who make these risks even more inevitable. There are risks everywhere you go. As Mark put it, you could get crushed at Home Depot. You could get into a car accident, you could slip and fall, or you could fall out of your chair reading this. All risks, that could happen. I hope you don’t work in the insurance industry. Because if you can’t see risks, you are in the wrong profession.

  • April 30, 2010 at 3:17 am
    Mark says:
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    The crushing at home depot was sarcasm – That would be a huge lawsuit – You dont expect to get killed by falling objects at HD.

    Just like you dont expect that big wall at the bottem of the run to be close enough to break your neck

  • April 30, 2010 at 3:18 am
    Sheila says:
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    What if they set up a wall at the bottom of the run and 100 people got hurt from hitting it??

    Would that be make any difference to you fools?

  • April 30, 2010 at 3:31 am
    Positive Pete says:
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    Read the news Mark. It happens. It is a risk.

    Sheila, the matter here is not about setting a wall up at the bottom of the slope, it is the fact that some Einstein’s here think that there are no risks associated with sliding down a hill on ice, on an inflated tube, at high speeds, with no braking mechanism. Come on think people.

  • April 30, 2010 at 3:34 am
    PSIA Instructor says:
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    Go back a bunch of months and you will find an IJ article about a Chinese lady who DID get squished at her local HD.

    (would this be yellow journalism?)

    No operator would be stupid enough to design a flaw like a wall within a short distance of a ride into their system. But ski areas do represent one of the highest concentrations of participant danger imagineable.

    Where else do you take clients without physicals and in different shapes and sizes, subject them to freezing temperatures, strap long boards onto their cement-block boots, take them to the top of even a slightly-tilted hill, and expect them to overcome adult fears AND have fun?

    And then, when they get some practice, hand them by a wire, send them to a higher hill with a steeper tilt, and expect them to remember what they learned earlier in the day while STILL HAVING FUN?

    And for the kids who want to ride snowboards – after they get some lessons in, we force them to jump off tall ramps, bash into tree stumps, hop along handrails etc and THEY do have FUN.

    And these clients PAY for the privilege of being taught what to do and how to do it. And the only good clients are the ones who keep coming back for MORE FUN.

    Tubing was designed to give the other family members something safe to do for a couple of hours, or for skiers/boarders to spend some time with the rest of the family while at the hill. I have a hunch if you looked at Messobrokenbones, VA, you’d find the area was laid out OK but that the conditions might have mitigated some changes.

  • April 30, 2010 at 4:01 am
    Doug says:
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    Our legal system in thsi country apparently says that Im right and you guys are wrong – Nuff Said



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