05/18/2010 // West Palm Beach, Florida, USA // Nicole Howley // Nicole Howley
Lake Tahoe, CA—A Lake Tahoe ski resort is facing a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who was killed when he fell from a chairlift on August 31. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday, May 13, 2010, in the El Dorado County Superior Court, which also names the groups associated with the zip lines adventure, which the family asserts caused the fatal accident, as reported by the Reno Journal-Gazette.
The lawsuit named Heavenly Mountain Resort, Terra-Nova LLC, Sampson Rope Technologies, the Lamoreaux Group, BCS Motion, Inc. and This Side Up and Productions Inc.
The plaintiffs, Rebecca, Patrick, and Bryan Dickinson filed the lawsuit after Mark Alan Dickson, 51, fell from the Heavenly’s Tamarack Express chairlift. The chairlift reportedly became entailed with a rope retrieval line from the resort’s new ZipRider zip line ride.
Dickson’s wife of only a month, Rebecca, 47, was also injured in the accident.
The lawsuit contends that the zip line rope retrieval line, which transports empty harnesses uphill, snapped, causing it to become entangled with the chairlift the Dickson’s were riding in. The suit also stated that strong winds likely played a role in the failure of the zip line system.
The lawsuit asserted that the rope was subject to “excessive wear, heat, stretching, elongation, fraying and/or fatigue’ which could result in its failure.
The operators are also accused to failing to adequately inspect the rope and to replace it with “an appropriate steel cable.”
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