Have you seen or heard of these in the US?
Posted: April 17, 2013 Filed under: National Ski Patrol (NSP), NSAA (National Ski Area Association), Skiing / Snow Boarding | Tags: Federation International de Ski, FIS, FIS Rules, International Ski Federation, National Ski Area Association, National Ski Patrol, NSAA, NSP, Piste, Ski, Ski Resort, Snowboard, SnowSports Industries America, Winter sport, Your Responsibility Code Leave a comment »10 FIS Rules for skiing and snowboarding
Here in the US we know Your Responsibility Code (or one of the million variations.) The FIS Rules are similar but different. FIS or International Ski Federation, Federation International de Ski is mostly own for making the rules for ski races. However, outside of the US FIS is the ski association.
1. Respect for others
A skier or snowboarder must behave in such a way that he does not endanger or prejudice others.
2. Control of speed and skiing or snowboarding
A skier or snowboarder must move in control. He must adapt his speed and manner of skiing or snowboarding to his personal ability and to the prevailing conditions of terrain, snow and weather as well as to the density of traffic.
3. Choice of route
A skier or snowboarder coming from behind must choose his route in such a way that he does not endanger skiers or snowboarders ahead.
4. Overtaking
A skier or snowboarder may overtake another skier or snowboarder above or below and to the right or to the left provided that he leaves enough space for the overtaken skier or snowboarder to make any voluntary or involuntary movement.
5. Entering, starting and moving upwards
A skier or snowboarder entering a marked run, starting again after stopping or moving upwards on the slopes must look up and down the slopes that he can do so without endangering himself or others.
6. Stopping on the piste
Unless absolutely necessary, a skier or snowboarder must avoid stopping on the piste in narrow places or where visibility is restricted. After a fall in such a place, a skier or snowboarder must move clear of the piste as soon as possible.
7. Climbing and descending on foot
A skier or snowboarder either climbing or descending on foot must keep to the side of the piste.
8. Respect for signs and markings
A skier or snowboarder must respect all signs and markings.
9. Assistance
At accidents, every skier or snowboarder is duty bound to assist.
10. Identification
Every skier or snowboarder and witness, whether a responsible party or not, must exchange names and addresses following an accident.
However, the rules are a lot clearer and forceful in several areas.
First, there are more FIS Rules. Ten rather than the average of seven. (Remember Your Responsibility Code is not adopted by anyone but supported by NSAA and NSP. Resorts, or anyone, can alter, add or change the code.)
Second the FIS Rules cover additional things such as stopping at accidents and ascending up hill.
Finally, the FIS Rules are more specific on several areas. The Your Responsibility Code is interpreted daily in courts about what has more significance or importance. Mostly, which is more important, where you stop, how you start or whether the overtaking skier has issues. Any collision on the slopes is a battle between these issues with the injured party arguing that no matter the uphill skier is at fault. The FIS Rules eliminate a lot of that argument.
10-fis-rules-for-conduct-1.pdf
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Misleading article from the Denver Post about CO Ski areas; but also just plain wrong
Posted: March 19, 2013 Filed under: Colorado, Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA), National Ski Patrol (NSP), NSAA (National Ski Area Association), Ski Area, Skiing / Snow Boarding | Tags: Alpine skiing, Colorado, Colorado Ski Country, Colorado Ski Country USA, Denver Post, Law, Law Enforcement, National Ski Area Association, National Ski Patrol, NSAA, NSP, Organizations, Resort, ski area, Ski Patrol, Ski Resort 1 Comment »I lost a lot of respect for the Denver Post today.
This is my review of an article titled Colorado system for investigating ski accidents raises concerns in the Denver Post Sunday March 17, 2013.
First of all, let’s correct the article from a legal and factual standpoint!
When someone dies or is seriously injured on a Colorado ski slope, it is ski patrollers — not trained police officers, sheriff’s deputies or forest rangers — who document and determine what happened.
This statement is false if you believe it says no one else can investigate. The statement is misleading in that it makes you think no one else investigates major accidents.
Law Enforcement Investigates Possible Crimes.
It is patrollers that investigate on behalf of the ski area. No patroller investigates on behalf of anyone else, nor can they. They have not been licensed, trained nor are they allowed to. If someone else wants to investigate, they can use the powers given to them by contract (US Forest Service) or jurisdiction (Sheriff) and investigate.
Ski Patrollers don’t determine who is at fault; they try to determine what happened. That is all they are trained to do and that is all you want them to do. Volunteers and poorly-paid hard-working men and women are ski patrollers. The have been trained to get injured people off the mountain as best they can.
Any law enforcement agency with jurisdiction could investigate if they wanted to. They do not need permission; they just access the land and go investigate.
The reason why most law enforcement agencies do not investigate was set out in the article, just not recognized as the answer to their own question the article asked.
Many times, those agencies — responsible for investigating potential criminal activity, not skiing accidents — aren’t called at all.
Unless there has been a crime, law enforcement has no duty to investigate. If they investigated every crash, they would still be working on my mountain-bike crashes from last summer on US Forest Service and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land.
Information
As a result, family members may have to accept the word of a resort employee about the circumstances that led to their relative’s death or serious injury — and typically; they need a subpoena to get even that, attorneys say.
Getting information from the resorts is difficult. Normally, the resort requires that you prove a legal need; you must be a relative or the injured person. Resorts have reasons for this. You do not want this information to go to anyone but the family because of privacy issues.
What if your relative died or was hurt at a resort? Would you be interested in having any of the following in the public domain?
· The injured skier smelled like alcohol. His blood-alcohol level was 2.8.
· The witness, girlfriend of the injured said…… (Spouse was home with the kids.)
· The injured commented that’s the last time he calls in sick to work and goes skiing.
I’ve read reports with 2 of the above on the reports, and I’ve heard about the third. Is that information you want to be public about someone you love?
What about hearing about the fatality of a family member from the authorities before you read about it online? This article ignores those issues, but ski resorts try to respect the wishes of family members.
Is your need to know greater than their right to a little kindness and privacy?
What information can you get from AT&T, Exxon, or GE about their latest accidents? Unless a business is required to report certain kinds of accidents, No Business gives out its accident reports.
If you ask an attorney to get you a report, the ski area is going to respond as if the ski area is going to be sued. Consequently, when facing a lawsuit, you shut the doors. If you want a copy of the report from your or a close family member’s accident, send a letter. You won’t get names or contact information of the patrollers. It is not their job to deal with you.
Of the state’s 25 ski areas, only one — Wolf Creek Ski Area — would discuss ski-patrol training and accident investigations.
Most resorts, nationwide follow the procedures of the National Ski Patrol (NSP). Every resort differs from other ski areas, but in general, you can research how something is investigated by reviewing the NSP website and several other websites. How do you know how law enforcement investigates accidents?
The other 24 resorts either refused to answer questions regarding ski patrol or did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails from The Post.
If someone from the press, including me, is calling to ask questions, you get a little nervous. You should be nervous when I call, and I get nervous when the press calls.
While working at a resort, I received a phone call from a member of the press who said they were writing a follow-up article to one I had written for a magazine several years before. That person lied to me. They were writing an article about ski resorts and quoted me as an employee of the resort. Lesson learned.
Police jurisdiction rare
That is a very misleading heading, sorry, this is a lie. Not rare, it exists at every resort. It is just not exercised. The sole power to exercise the jurisdiction is the law enforcement agency or the district attorney. Just because they do not, does not mean jurisdiction does not exist. There is no place in the US where at least one law enforcement agency has jurisdiction. The hard thing is finding places in the US were only one law enforcement agency has jurisdiction.
The nice thing about the above heading is just the start of an entire misleading paragraph.
Jennifer Rudolph, spokeswoman for Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade group representing all of the ski areas except the four owned by Vail Resorts, said in an e-mail….
Colorado Ski County USA is a marketing group. Its job and why it is paid by the Colorado Ski resorts is to get skiers to ski in Colorado. If you don’t believe me, go to the website and read why it exists: http://rec-law.us/ZoYVRs
Only a few local police departments have any jurisdiction over ski areas, and sheriff’s offices in Summit, San Miguel, Pitkin, Garfield, Routt and Eagle counties said their role is primarily to determine whether an incident involves a crime — such as theft, public intoxication or disruption — or a collision between slope users.
See the above statement about jurisdiction. The statement in the article is absolutely wrong and very misleading. It implies that the ski resorts operate without any law enforcement agency watching what they do. That is not true. If you could find a place where no law enforcement had jurisdiction in the US it would be crowded, full of pot plants and a lot of illegal guns. There would also be hundreds of cops waiting for someone to leave.
Summit County sheriff’s deputies don’t “respond to the majority of skier accidents. If it’s a death, the coroner would respond,” said spokeswoman Tracy LeClair. “Ski patrol usually handles the majority of noncriminalaccidents.”
Let’s look at this article this way. Who investigates accidents in your house? At least at ski areas, someone does. If there is a fatality at your house, then the same person investigates the fatality in your house as at the slopes: A coroner, unless the accident or fatality is a criminal act.
A coroner’s job is to declare people dead (C.R.S. § 30-10-601) and to determine the cause of death if it is not known or suspicious or from specific causes. (C.R.S. § 30-10-606)
“Ski patrol is there before us. Sometimes, the injured person has been evacuated before we arrive,” he said. “We have to rely on ski patrol and their analysis quite often.”
Thank Heavens! Seriously do you want to wait on the slope with a broken leg or a torn ligament until law enforcement drives from the sheriff’s office puts on skis or unloads a snow machine and comes up the slopes to you?
That is why we have the ski patrol; to get injured people to medical care. Can you see the lawsuit if this occurred? “Sorry mam, I can’t move you with that broken leg until the sheriff investigates.”
If you fall down in your house, do you call the police or the ambulance? If you fall down on the ski slopes do you call the sheriff or the ski patrol?
Sometimes, ski areas don’t give law enforcement information needed for an investigation. In 2004, a Colorado State Patrol sergeant was called to Vail to look into a fatal collision between a 13-year-old skier and an employee-driven snowmobile. He had never investigated a ski injury or fatality.
Sgt. S.J. Olmstead was assigned to the case because county law enforcement “didn’t want to deal with it,” he said in a 2006 deposition. “So somebody had to go take care of it.”
First: The story itself says there have been 47 deaths within five years (from my count of the red dots on the map.) How many police officers would have experience in investigating fatalities that occur on ski resorts?
Second: Vail is the largest employer in Eagle County. Probably, the Eagle County Sheriff’s department saw the fatality the article speaks to as a conflict of interest. Maybe the sheriff’s department knew the snowmobile driver’ or the snowmobile driver’s family. Or members of the sheriff’s department witnessed the accident. There could be dozens of things that triggered a conflict of interest issue in the mind of the Eagle county Sheriff’s department.
And thank heavens it did. Would you buy 100% any report when the Eagle County Sheriff’s department investigates a crime in the ski area of the county’s largest employer who had obvious conflicts of interest?
If you want ski accidents investigated by trained personnel, then contact your representative and have them create a law that says the sheriff’s office shall investigate all ski accidents. (Have fun paying for that one also.)
Third: If you have ever watched TV and watched a cop show, when an arrest is made the bad guy is given their Miranda Warnings, their legal rights. They have the right to remain silent. Vail, could have been held liable for the death, criminally; consequently, during a criminal investigation, the possible criminal should keep their mouth shut!
Ski areas consider ski-patrol and employee reports to be proprietary information. Therefore, victims or their families or law enforcement agencies cannot obtain them without the resorts’ permission — or a court order.
That information is not considered proprietary information, that information is proprietary information. My notes are proprietary information. The recipe you wrote down on a 3 x 5 card is proprietary or confidential information. Work you produce for work is proprietary information.
And again, do you really want your great Aunt Sally learning that her niece died in a ski accident because she was drunk?
I won’t give up my documents to anyone.
What about the rights of the deceased or the deceased family. Information in that report could be embarrassing. Deceased had a blood alcohol level of XX.X. Deceased was skiing with his girlfriend, while his wife was working. Deceased was supposed to be at work. Do you want that information floating around to members of the media or just nosey people?
The press has this idea that they should be entitled to anything they want to report a story. They don’t. There are laws that say what the media, the police and/or any other group can get from a private party or a business.
Then the article starts to complain because the ski patrol investigates an accident, and the cops don’t. The cops plead that they have a hard time getting reports from the ski patrol.
Have you tried getting a police report about an accident from a law enforcement agency? If the police want a report, they should go do it. It takes them a while to get to the far ends of the county, and it takes them a while to hike into the back country or get up the hill at a ski resort. It is a fact of life of a state with lots of wilderness and open space.
Despite the power that ski patrols have,…
What power? The power of the ski patrol is solely the power to transport an injured person down the hill and yank lift tickets of reckless skiers. They are not vested with power or given power by anyone to do anything.
The ski patrol does not have the power to detain someone who is involved in a skier v. skier collision, let alone any other power.
Accident Investigations?
This big issue with accident investigations is confusing. I’ve never had anyone investigate my mountain-bike crashes on US Forest Service land. I’ve never had someone investigate my back-country ski injuries. I’ve never had someone investigate my injuries from rock climbing. Yet there seems to be a big push in the article that 1) accident investigations are not being done and 2) if they are being done they are not being done right.
Automobile accidents are investigated because state statutes require law enforcement to investigate accidents, the damage done and the accidents occur on state land.
Automobile accidents have skid marks, car crumple zones, little black boxes, and tests that show when you hit a guard rail this way at this speed it looks like this. It snows; the wind blows and ski tracks look like every other ski track and are usually wiped out by snowboard tracks. Unless you hit a tree AND leave a mark on the tree or your body it is difficult to determine what happens.
One time in the past, I reviewed an investigation, and then did my own investigation into an accident. I talked to the injured skier and his spouse about what happened. The injured skier did not remember, and we never did figure out how the skier got hurt.
If there is a statute for someone, law enforcement to investigate accidents, then I’m sure their investigations will be better and professionally done. Right now, Ski Patrol accident investigations are done to help the ski area protect itself. The ski patrol is not tasked with any other duty by anyone.
A ski patroller’s job is to determine facts, not guess at what happened.
There is no law, no duty, and no requirement that any accident be investigated.
Accident Investigation Training
The article hits the accident investigation hard by comparing the training to that of National Park Rangers. Rangers are the law enforcement arm of the National Park Service. The job of a Ranger is basically to write tickets and arrest people for major crimes. They are law enforcement. There are statutes and regulations that empower them, command them and require them to investigation accidents and make arrests.
The article also tackles the contractual relationship between the US Forest Service and Vail, quoting from the contract. I would like to see the Denver Post contract with its writers and suppliers. I suspect that if you slam the Denver Post in an article, your career at the post is short lived.
The Bad
The ski industry is paranoid. I’ve been saying it for years. Too paranoid. However, I understand how that paranoia develops. When articles like misstate the facts and make things up, it would make you paranoid also.
As much as ski areas are paranoid the attorneys representing ski areas and the companies insuring ski areas are even more paranoid. They believe it is better not to say anything.
After this article, I understand why.
The Really Bad
The really bad is how misleading this article is. It is a veiled attempt to accomplish some goals, which are unknown at this time.
This article wasted a lot of paper and electrons attempting to make ski areas in Colorado look bad. Ski Areas in Colorado are the finest in the US. Ski Areas in Colorado are no different from any other business. The business has a duty to make a profit, and protect itself from bad publicity and lawsuits. Nothing in this article proved ski resorts did anything wrong or that any other corporation in the US does.
Read the article, the scary part is people out there believe the writer knows what they are talking about.
Disclaimer
No one paid me to write this, no one told me how to write this, no one asked me to write this. However we all have to learn that when we see or smell crap we should clean it up.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
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Copyright 2012 Recreation Law (720) Edit Law
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By Recreation Law Rec-law@recreation-law.com James H. Moss Jim Moss
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Will the ski industry ignore itself into litigation nightmares or will it decided to make skiers assume the risk
Posted: January 16, 2012 Filed under: Case Analysis, National Ski Patrol (NSP), New Jersey, NSAA (National Ski Area Association), Skier v. Skier, US Forest Service (USFS) | Tags: Collision, Death, Mountain Creek, New Jersey, NSAA, NSP, Ski, Skier Responsibility Code, Skier v. Skier Collision, Snowboard, Sports Leave a comment »Angland v. Mountain Creek Resort, Inc., 2011 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2542
The issue as identified in this case is ongoing throughout the US, is the standard of care reckless skiing, the standard of care in most of life or just failing to ski perfectly.
This is another case that cannot be relied upon for any major legal principle because it is still facing months or years of litigation. However, it identifies an issue in the ski industry, and probably other industries in the future on the standard of care a skier owes another skier. (In this case I use the term skier to mean anyone on the mountain, skier, boarder, telemark skier, snow bike, etc.)
Is the standard of care that of someone acting recklessly or is the standard of care violating the “skier’s responsibility code?”
This case
The case is simple with drastic consequences. A snowboarder and a skier were on the same slope. Allegedly, another person cut the snowboarder off, and he quickly turned to his left colliding with Angland, the deceased. Angland fell and slid a distance into a wall where he died. Here is the court’s interpretation of what happened.
In order to avoid the unidentified skier, Brownlee turned quickly to his left. In doing so, Brownlee’s snowboard and the decedent’s skis became entangled. The two men collided, fell, and slid downhill. Decedent ultimately impacted a concrete bridge headfirst. He died as a result. Brownlee stopped sliding. He stood up and went to Angland’s assistance.
The family/estate of the deceased sued the ski area, Mountain Creek and the snowboarder. Mountain Creek and the snowboarder filed motions for summary judgment. Mountain Creek was dismissed from the suit based on the New Jersey Ski Statute. The court held that there was enough factual issue in the arguments of the parties that had to be decided by a jury so therefore the snowboarder was not dismissed from the case.
The main issue appears to be did the snowboarder violate the standard of care as set forth in the New Jersey Ski Statute. The relevant part of the statute is:
N.J.S.A. § 5:13-4. Duties of skiers
(4) Knowingly engage in any act or activity by his skiing or frolicking, which injures other skiers while such other skiers are either descending any trail, or standing or congregating in a reasonable manner, and due diligence shall be exercised in order to avoid hitting, colliding with or injuring any other skier or invitee.
The expert witness for the plaintiff testified that the snowboarder did violate the statute and consequently, the standard of care when he deviated “… from the statutory standard occurred when Brownlee failed to keep a proper lookout, made a panic stop, and turned to his left in front of decedent.”
If you are turning to avoid a collision, you are maintaining a proper lookout. If you are a goofy footed snowboarder you have limited vision to your left. Again, if you are avoiding a collision or a problem, you turn in skiing and boarding.
The court did not dismiss the complaint of the snowboarder because the court believed the snowboarder may have violated the statute. The statute is not aligned with the other states in how it describes the standard of care leaving a large whole in understanding what level of care is owed by one skier to another.
Do any of those issues rise to the level that they are reckless?
In the past, the standard to determine if a skier was skiing in a negligent manner was whether the skier was skiing recklessly. Reckless skiing is defined as:
….intentionally injure or engage in conduct that is so reckless as to be totally outside the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport. Mastro v. Petrick, 93 Cal. App. 4th 83; 112 Cal. Rptr. 2d 185; 2001 Cal. App. LEXIS 2725; 2001 Cal. Daily Op. Service 9124 (California)
Carelessness and recklessness,’ though more than ordinary negligence, is less than willfulness or wantonness.” Strawbridge vs. Sugar Mountain Resort, 320 F. Supp. 2d 425; 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14561 (North Carolina)
A defendant, however, may not be held liable for negligent, or even reckless or intentional injurious conduct that is not outside the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport. Fontaine v. Boyd, 2011 R.I. Super. LEXIS 27 (Rhode Island)
…done heedlessly and recklessly, without regard to consequences, or of the rights and safety of others, particularly the plaintiff. Stamp, v. The Vail Corporation, 172 P.3d 437; 2007 Colo. LEXIS 1082 (Colorado)
…recklessness is “a conscious choice of a course of action either with knowledge of the serious danger to others involved in it or with knowledge of facts which would disclose this danger to any reasonable man, and the actor must recognize that his conduct involves a risk substantially greater . . . than that which is necessary to make his conduct negligent, Hanks v. Powder Ridge Restaurant Corporation et al., 276 Conn. 314; 2005 Conn. LEXIS 500
Recklessness is not intentional acts; it is just short of that. The expert in this case looked at the issues and identified three things that the defendant snowboarder did that violated the New Jersey Ski Statute:
· failed to keep a proper lookout
· made a panic stop
· turned to his left in front of decedent
In my opinion, none of the actions of the defendant in this case violated the standard of care. Looking at this from the standard of care of all other states with ski areas the defendant snowboarder was not reckless. However, if the plaintiff’s bar has its way, the actions of the defendant snowboarder may have violated the skier responsibility code.
The heart of the argument is the plaintiffs are attempting to change the standard of care from reckless to a much lower level. Usually, that level is aligned with the public-safety program developed by the National Ski Patrol called the Skier Responsibility Code. A few caveats about the code.
1. It is not set in stone; in fact, an internet search for the code will identify dozens of different codes. The version on the National Ski Patrol website and the National Ski Area Association website are even different.
2. It was created as a guideline, not a standard of care.
3. Only Montana has incorporated the code in its statute.
So Now What?
My issue with the entire issue is no one seems to want to take a stand and say this is going to be a disaster if we don’t do something about it. Allowing the definition of a breach of the standard of care between skiers/boarders on the slope is going to cost ski areas a lot of money, more so if they are not named in the suit.
Every lawsuit based ski area land; the ski area is going to have to do things that cost money.
1. Copies of reports, maps, and ski patrol information must be identified and provided to opposing parties.
2. Employees will be deposed and attend trial; the resort is going to have to pay them to attend.
3. When employees are being deposed, and possibly attend trial, attorneys are going to have to be hired to represent the employees.
These are just three quick instances. This does not include such things as closing the slope for a site inspection. If only two employees are subpoenaed think of the cost of preparing for deposition, being deposed, preparing for trial and attending a trial to a ski area.
This is very expensive and if the ski area is not named in the suit, there is no insurance to cover these costs.
From the perspective of this case, there is a lot left to argue. We can only wait and see what the outcome is, if we ever learn.
From the perspective of the ski industry, the industry needs to realize that this is only going to get worse.
The industry needs to:
· Inform people that collisions, unless reckless or intentional are assumed and part of the risk of skiing. California has done this.
· Change statutes to say that collisions in skiing, like in football, basketball, soccer, baseball are part of the risk of skiing, and a participant assumes the risk.
· Define the Skier Responsibility Code as help, not the standard of care.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
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20 Year Veteran of Ski Patrol Dies performing avalanche control work
Posted: January 11, 2010 Filed under: National Ski Patrol (NSP), Ski Area Leave a comment »Jackson Hole and the Resort in mourning
A 20-year veteran of the Jackson Hole ski patrolled died Saturday. He was injured performing avalanche work January 6, 2010. A break in the pack occurred above him sweeping him and another patroller. The other patroller could grab a tree and arrest his slide.
See the following articles for more information on this tragedy.
Patroller buried in avalanche
Big Wally revived after avalanche
in memoriam: Big Wally
Another Inbounds Tragedy at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (Updated 1/8/2010 7:31 PM)
For a well written and thoughtful article about the risks of ski patrolling at Jackson Hole see Ski Patroller Death Highlights the Real Price of Powder Turns.
