Tragic news out of Utah where an 18-year-old woman from Oregon died after colliding with a chairlift tower at Deer Valley’s Silver Strike Express while tubing with her friends. KSL reports her friends called 911 and brought her to the base of the chairlift where they were met by Park City Fire Department responded.
“We initially got dispatched to the site of the accident, we later learned they (friends) did bring her down in a sled lower down on the slope.” -Sean Briley, Battalion Chief for Park City Fire Department.
The woman suffered blunt force trauma but was still alive when medical crews reached her:
“We made the decision to fly her, we ordered Air-Med and determined based on their ETA to do a hot load protocol. So that’s when we put them in an ambulance and meet them (Air-Med) in predesignated areas.”
The woman was flown to the University of Utah trauma center. She succumbed to her injuries at the hospital. Tubing on groomed ski runs is extremely dangerous and is not permitted at Deer Valley:
“They don’t really realize they’re very fast surfaces, it’s hard to break, and I think with the groomed surface, it lulls them into a false sense of security, and we have had fatalities over the years. These ski runs are made to run into the bottom of the ski lifts. They’re really not designed to accommodate sledders, they’re made for skiing, snowboarding.”
The teen’s identity was not released, and no other details are currently available. Our condolences go out tot he victims family and friends.