Not sure if this is a rerun but holy crap. RIP.
"A horrific accident involving a 'magic carpet' type ski lift has caused the death of a 7 year old girl in the ski resort of Val Cenis in the Maurienne valley in France. The accident occured on Saturday afternoon at 15h45. The horizontal lift known as “le Renardeau“ consists of a 120 metre rolling band and is used to assist skiers getting to the main lift area. Brand new, it was only installed on December 15th and had been checked by a technician on the morning of the accident.
The cause of the accident is yet to be established. The young girl was dragged into the small space between the moving band and the end of the lift. Her 14 year old brother tried to free the girl but was unable to help and injured his hand. Another person managed to stop the moving carpet.
Rescue workers were rapidly on the scene. There was just an arm and the upper body visible when they arrived. One of the rescuers tried to give heart massage and mouth to mouth while the band was cut. Designed to withstand the passage of thousands of skiers this was a long and difficult operation.
Three doctors, brought to the scene by helicopter, tried for over an hour to save the girl. The parents were also on the scene but were powerless to help. The mayor of the resort was visibly shocked by the tragedy “to see a 7 year old child die in such conditions is terrible and is something that should never have happened” he commented. The ski lifts were stopped at 11 o’clock on Sunday for a few minutes as a mark of respect for the girl.
Moving carpets are increasing popular in the Alps. The lift was built and installed by an Italian company based in Turin. Daniel Touffait, head of piste security couldn’t understand how the accident occurred. “There are two security mechanisms, a micro-switch and two photoelectric cells that can detect the presence of a foreign body and should stop the lift instantly”. Yesterday the other lifts of the same type were in operation but under the control of a member of the piste patrol.
Jean Charles Simiand, head of the ski lift operator’s body the SNTF said “there are around 100 of this type of lift in France, they are usually very good for children, they are not considered as ski lifts proper so are not under the same legal control.”
There has already been a fatal accident in 2003 in Austria on a similar lift. M. Simiand commented, “Maybe there needs to be stricter legislation governing these lifts”.
