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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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At least I’m getting my exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, tilting at windmills, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
just kidding, have a great weekend!
How bout I shoot you down my homemade snow tube hill – Just sign the waiver, thats all I ask :)
PS: Bring your children
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.
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