Who would have ever thought that keeping the bar down was a good way of staying on the ski lift? I understand that not everyone complies with this request to put the comfort bar down (I rarely do), but if you’re then to, say, lose your seating while attempting to throw a snowball at another chair… does that put the blame on the chair itself? That would be ridiculous, right?
Apparently not, at least according to ABC News. If these on-site reporters were to be believed, there is an epidemic of sorts sweeping the nation’s ski resorts. But a few accidents over the past couple weeks does not a “rash of accidents” make. And employing phrases and words like “sent to the hospital” and “plummeted” without any further contexualization or explanation is not only misleading but irresponsible. Are there dangers in riding a ski lift? Of course there are. There are also dangers in riding an elevator. In fact, as ever dramatically stated in the ABC segment: “You’re more likely to die riding an elevator.”
All that being said, the recent death of the Brooklyn mother was indeed tragic. The New York Times reported:
The woman, Olga Filkin of Midwood, was riding up the mountain alone on a chair built for three people around 2 p.m. on Sunday when she suddenly dropped to the slope below, the police said. The restraining bar that is required on all chair lifts in the state was “engaged in the downward position,” meaning she was secured, according to a statement issued by the police.
A police inspector said that investigators had not determined what caused Ms. Filkin’s fall, but that they thought one of her skis might have hooked onto a support pole holding up the lift cable, causing her to be yanked out of the chair.
However, with all due respect to Ms. Filkin and her family, that might be more appropriately identified as a freak accident, not a trend. These additional incidents that ABC cites involve passengers not complying with the request to put the comfort bar down.
As for actual statistics that would be better indicators of a trend, the National Ski Areas Association claims that there have been 15 ski lift-related deaths in the last four decades. Not zero, but not an epidemic either. You’d expect a statistic like that to be towards the beginning of this report. But that simply isn’t good TV. And these days the news is about being good TV.
