Thursday, February 14, 2008

Skier sues skier

A woman who says she needed knee surgery after another skier collided with her has filed a lawsuit against the skier, reports the Aspen Daily News.

Christine Wheeler claims Lindsay Osbon struck her from behind in February 2006 on a trail on Aspen Mountain. The lawsuit said Wheeler was stopped on the side of a trail in plain view in clear weather when Osbon skied recklessly into her, going too fast and not looking out for skiers downhill from him.

Wheeler’s lawsuit seeks costs of medical treatment, transportation, loss of earnings and earning capacity, risk of future arthritis, and pain and suffering.

In 5 days of snowboarding, I haven't had anyone smack me that hard, but I've been run into by 1 little kid snowboarder and 3 adult skiers (older than me). All were people losing control (one would presume) near lift lines.

Am I right to believe this type of collision - with injury - is rare?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fear living in a society where accidents are no longer allowed to happen, and forgiveness no longer granted without fee. We're too damn dependent on money.

Hunter said...

The sad fact I is there are a lot of major injuries from collisions. However, who knows how many people find the same spot of snow at the same time and nothing ever happens.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Rosenberry, you might want to stay out of of the lift line for a while. I've been hit once in my life when I was poling over to the lift and some jeans skiier in a West Virginia Mountaineers Starter jacket blindsided me. I've probably logged 250-300 days of skiing in my life and I've been hit once. You got hit four times in a week? Just on raw statistics alone you might want to steer clear of snowboarding for a while.

To answer your question it is probably not rare. The one sure way to get hit is stop somewhere and not be paying attention (enough to move when danger gets near you). There are plenty of jackholes out there...it is a bit like defensive driving. Pay attention to what you are doing AND what everybody else is doing around you. That or go faster than the trouble chasing you.

Anonymous said...

sad story but now the rate is 10% of all ski resort accidents are collisions -- people are skiing faster and snowboard jumping farther -- and this number will only rise. The industry just says it is "inherent risk "

Well no wonder the sport is not growing -- until they start to control speed -- Swiss have some speed limits - then more people will get hurt --