7 Injured in Sugarloaf Mountain Chair Lift Accident
Seven people were injured Saturday in a ski-lift accident on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, according to a Sugarloaf statement.
The accident took place around 11:30 a.m. at the Carrabassett Valley resort, about 200 miles north of Boston, when the lift started going backward, according to the statement. The King Pine lift, which was carrying about 230 riders, was fully evacuated after rolling back a distance of nine chairs.
Three injured people were taken by ambulance to local hospitals without life-threatening injuries, according to the statement.
Hank Margolis of Marlborough told Boston.com his experience on the malfunctioning ski lift was “terrifying.’’
’’The experience was like being in a zip line but going backwards,’’ he said. “We’re in a lift chair, and all of a sudden we’re accelerating backwards.’’
Margolis wasn’t sure about the speed of their fall, but said they covered the length of their three-to-four minute ascent in only 20 to 30 seconds.
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According to state regulators, the lift was last inspected on Oct. 14, 2014. The inspector did not respond to a request for comment.
Sugarloaf spokeswoman Noelle Tuttle told Boston.com the lift is also inspected daily.
In another accident, a derailed cable in 2010 caused five chairs at Sugarloaf to fall 25 to 30 feet, sending eight people to the hospital.
Tuttle called the 2010 case “an unrelated incident.’’
“That was a cable derailment. In this case, chairs on the lift rolled back.’’
After that accident, the Portland Press-Herald cited a ski safety expert who reviewed two years of state inspection reports on the resort’s chairlifts and said they highlighted a surprising number of problems. There were issues with “nearly every lift,’’ the paper quoted the expert, Richard Penniman, as saying.
Resort representatives said at the time that all of the problems had been addressed, and were routine maintenance issues.
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