A 65-year-old skier filed a $3.6 million complaint against the Willamette Pass ski resort on Friday, claiming he sustained a fractured spine and has had a difficult recovery after falling from a chairlift into the ground below during windy conditions.
Paul Richmond, a resident of Lincoln County, filed the case, claiming that he and his 10-year-old grandson sat down on the three-person chair on January 15, 2023, and that the Peak 2 chairlift lacked a lap bar or safety restraint bar that he could have dropped in front of them right away. According to the lawsuit, Richmond and his grandson were clinging to the armrests on either side of the chair as it swung erratically from side to side. Once it passed the second supporting tower of the lift, the chair threw Richmond off.
The lawsuit portrays the horrifying picture of a guy dangling high in the air, clinging to the bottom of the Lift chair, and claims that he desperately grasped on of the chair’s bottom, hanging in mid-air to escape plunging some twenty-five to forty feet.
After a few seconds, Richmond collapsed to the ground, suffering various soft-tissue injuries in addition to compression and burst fractures to four of his vertebrae.
The action blames Willamette Pass Ski Patrol, Oregon Skyway, Willamette Pass Holdings, and Colorado’s Mountain Capital Partners as resort owners and operators. Because of the ongoing legal proceedings, Mountain Capital Partners chose not to comment. For this story, no one else could be contacted for comment at this time.
The intensity of the winds at the time Richmond fell from the lift is unknown. However, strong winds provide a continual threat, and ski areas all over the world have had difficulty determining whether to turn off their lifts. According to terrifying footage, an Italian ski resort received harsh criticism last year for permitting skiers to board a lift amid winds of 60 to 70 mph.
All new chairlifts must feature restraining bars, according to a new standard set by the American National Standards Institute within the last ten years.
Older lifts were among the several that already did. With the exception of the Heather and Blue lifts, which serve as Mt. Hood Express’s backups, all of the lifts at Mt. Hood Meadows, one of the closest to Portland, have bars. According to general manager Greg Pack, the resort purchased bars to be installed on the Blue lift, but they were unable to be deployed because they did not allow enough space as they passed the towers.
According to spokesperson Mike Quinn, the lifts at Mount Hood Skibowl lack restraint bars, which are not required by law.
According to the lawsuit against Willamette Pass, Richmond was an experienced skier.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Richmond led an active lifestyle and was an accomplished skier, with a special concentration on swimming and skiing, despite only having one leg because of an amputation he had as a youngster. However, the lawsuit claims that his life and day-to-day activities have suffered since his fall.
According to the report, Richmond was taken by ski patrol to a first aid station, where he stayed for a while before being admitted to the hospital in Bend for four days. According to the lawsuit, he spent two weeks in the hospital the next month in Corvallis for emergency back surgery, and months later, he went back to the hospital for hernia repair surgery.
According to the lawsuit, Richmond’s medical expenditures have topped $330,000, and he expects to pay an additional $250,000.
Lawyers Paul Conable, Sadie Concepci, and Darian Stanford filed the lawsuit in the Lane County Circuit Court.
Willamette Pass is roughly 70 miles southeast of Eugene and has 555 acres and five ski lifts. With weekend adult lift tickets this month as cheap as $37, it is regarded as one of Oregon’s most reasonably priced ski resorts.
CORRECTION: The number of lifts at Mount Hood Meadows without safety restraining bars was misreported in an earlier version of this story because The Oregonian/OregonLive was given inaccurate information. They are absent from the Blue and Heather lifts.
Aimee Green reports on the legal system and breaking news. You can contact her at [email protected] or @o_aimee, or 503-294-5119.
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