Industry News
A freak chairlift accident has resulted in serious injuries to a 32-year-old cook at a resort in the Italian Dolomites on Christmas Eve.
Around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, December 24, Mattia Baronio was finishing his shift at the mountain restaurant at the Piancavallo Ski Resort in the north of Italy. He was taking the Tremol 1 chair lift down to the valley from his workplace, Baita Arneri, when a gust of wind lifted the safety net below the chair. The safety net became entangled on Baronio’s foot, dragging him from the chair. The chairlift stopped immediately, but the cook was dragged, and his windbreaker got tangled on the lift rope.
Baronio hung suspended from a lift cable held only by his jacket. He tried to hang on to the cable with his hands, but exhaustion, coupled with strong winds, caused him to lose grip and fall to the ground. Unfortunately, there was no snow below the desperate victim, and he hit the concrete base of the penultimate lift pylon. The man suffered multiple fractures and internal trauma.
Due to the wind, the helicopter could not fly to the site of the accident, and he had to be taken by ambulance to the heli-pad in Castaldia, from where he was flown to the hospital in Udine. The 32-year-old is currently hospitalized in intensive care and his condition is serious but not life-threatening. He suffered trauma to his chest, pelvis, and legs. He had surgeries that night and faces several more surgeries. According to Italian news outlets, he is currently sedated and intubated, but is not considered to be in critical condition, and he is expected to make a full recovery.
Promoturismo FVG, which manages the ski resort, describes the accident as a “tragic series of coincidences” and expresses its deepest concerns for its employee.
Investigators have seized the safety net and chair, and PM Andrea del Missier has opened an official investigation to ascertain the exact causes of the accident. The chair lift in question is a high-speed quad chair by Leitner from 2004.
Piancavallo is located in the Friuli region, and the resort was created in the 1960s. It was Italy’s first resort that was equipped with snowmaking facilities. The resort has hosted several women’s alpine skiing World Cup events and is also a stage on the Giro d’Italia cycling tour. In winter, the resort offers 24 kilometers (15 miles) of groomed runs and 26 kilometers (16 miles) of cross-country skiing trails.
