Photo courtesy of shymbulak.com
Shymbulak’s management is not planning to tighten the safety rules after the accident that claimed the life of a 57-y.o. skier who smashed into another skier, Vesti.kz reports citing the press-service of Chimbulak Development JSC. The incident happened at 01:00 p.m. on March 18 at one of the broad slopes. One of the skiers who collided died from injuries and the second one was hospitalized with a concussion. According to representatives of the resort, failure to follow safety rules - neither of the skiers was wearing a hardhat - played a crucial role in the outcome of the incident. The company says that neither the family of the victim nor the the family of the survivor have any claims against the resort. According to the Operations Manager Igor Gayanov, Shymbulak does not bear any liability for the accident. The company reminded the resort’s rules: “Administration and employees of the resort do not bear any liability in case of injuries and traumas to self or other people. Every guest undertakes to prudently evaluate his own capacities and skills and behave correspondingly.” According to Gayanov, there were no such cases at Shymbulak over the past year. According to the employees of the resort, there were not many skiers at the slope on the day of the accident, as it was Monday. The two skiers smashed into each other at one of the broadest slopes. Almaty law-enforcement authorities are currently holding the investigation and a criminal case may be initiated on charges of negligence causing death. According to comments at Tengrinews.kz Russian website, the name of the 57-y.o. skier who died of skull fracture was Andrey Kireev. He was a very experienced skier. He had a wife and a 3-y.o. son. He would have had a birthday on March 22. “Neither of the skiers was wearing hardhats. There were wounds on his (Andrey's) face and head. His ski bindings were badly broken and collision must have been was very strong. The most frustrating is that the track was very broad and absolutely empty. They were laying along for around 30 seconds, as there was nobody on the track. The rescuers were very fast. In the first seconds the (deceased) skier tried to get up and got himself tumbling down the slope for another 50 meters. Then I was next to the elder skier and did not let him get up. I didn’t think his injury was that serious. He was conscious and tried to talk. It is so sad. Be careful and wear hardhats,” one of the witnesses wrote. “I would like to add that since the skull fracture of the victim was on the right side and after the crash he was laying 10m lower down the slope and to the left of the second skier and the collision happened in the place where the Tube and the Aziada routes connect, I suppose that the second skier was emerging from the Tube on a high speed, while the first one was going down the Aziada. There is a possibility that they could not see each other, because there is a small hill there. I think that dividers should be installed there after this accident,” another witness posted. The ski resort is working under the FIS (International Ski Federation) rules and strictly controls order on the slopes. A visitor not following the rules receives a warning first and if the violations continue he or she is deprived of the pass to the slopes. However, the resort’s representatives cannot ban people from skiing without hardhats, as this can be considered a discrimination of their rights.
Shymbulak’s management is not planning to tighten the safety rules after the accident that claimed the life of a 57-y.o. skier who smashed into another skier, Vesti.kz reports citing the press-service of Chimbulak Development JSC.
The incident happened at 01:00 p.m. on March 18 at one of the broad slopes. One of the skiers who collided died from injuries and the second one was hospitalized with a concussion. According to representatives of the resort, failure to follow safety rules - neither of the skiers was wearing a hardhat - played a crucial role in the outcome of the incident.
The company says that neither the family of the victim nor the the family of the survivor have any claims against the resort. According to the Operations Manager Igor Gayanov, Shymbulak does not bear any liability for the accident. The company reminded the resort’s rules: “Administration and employees of the resort do not bear any liability in case of injuries and traumas to self or other people. Every guest undertakes to prudently evaluate his own capacities and skills and behave correspondingly.” According to Gayanov, there were no such cases at Shymbulak over the past year.
According to the employees of the resort, there were not many skiers at the slope on the day of the accident, as it was Monday. The two skiers smashed into each other at one of the broadest slopes. Almaty law-enforcement authorities are currently holding the investigation and a criminal case may be initiated on charges of negligence causing death.
According to comments at Tengrinews.kz Russian website, the name of the 57-y.o. skier who died of skull fracture was Andrey Kireev. He was a very experienced skier. He had a wife and a 3-y.o. son. He would have had a birthday on March 22.
“Neither of the skiers was wearing hardhats. There were wounds on his (Andrey's) face and head. His ski bindings were badly broken and collision must have been was very strong. The most frustrating is that the track was very broad and absolutely empty. They were laying along for around 30 seconds, as there was nobody on the track. The rescuers were very fast. In the first seconds the (deceased) skier tried to get up and got himself tumbling down the slope for another 50 meters. Then I was next to the elder skier and did not let him get up. I didn’t think his injury was that serious. He was conscious and tried to talk. It is so sad. Be careful and wear hardhats,” one of the witnesses wrote.
“I would like to add that since the skull fracture of the victim was on the right side and after the crash he was laying 10m lower down the slope and to the left of the second skier and the collision happened in the place where the Tube and the Aziada routes connect, I suppose that the second skier was emerging from the Tube on a high speed, while the first one was going down the Aziada. There is a possibility that they could not see each other, because there is a small hill there. I think that dividers should be installed there after this accident,” another witness posted.
The ski resort is working under the FIS (International Ski Federation) rules and strictly controls order on the slopes. A visitor not following the rules receives a warning first and if the violations continue he or she is deprived of the pass to the slopes. However, the resort’s representatives cannot ban people from skiing without hardhats, as this can be considered a discrimination of their rights.