A 2019 skier death has resulted in a New Zealand Ski Resort being forced to pay NZ$600,000 ($362,385 USD)
The NZ Herald reports that a judge is ordering NZSki, which owns Coronet Peak, to pay up for the death of Anita Graf. The woman, who was a ski instructor at the ski resort, passed away after running into a fence located around the bottom of Sugar’s Run. This fence was meant to protect guests from a reservoir below it. The fence was made out of wires and wood, which was ruled to be much more dangerous than the ski industry standard b-netting. Coronet Peak was found guilty of violating the Health and Safety at Work Act, resulting in the severe injury and death of Graf.
One of the key reasons why the judge ruled this way was based on a 2014 document from a ski patroller that detailed their concerns with the fencing. This document found that twenty-eight guard posts, metal deer fencing, and strainers had a high likelihood of being skied into at a high velocity. At the time of the death, only nine of these posts were sufficiently protected.
Judge Geoff Rea, who described the document as a “WTF Moment” said the following about Coronet Peak’s poor safety practices prior to the death:
“It took the death for a proper risk assessment to be made, and for the proper mitigation to be implemented.”
Here were the total costs: They were fined NZ$440,000, an additional NZ$130,000 went towards the victim’s family to account for emotional harm, and they needed to pay NZ$28,000 to the prosecution for attorney fees. In addition, the ski resort followed the judge’s order to add safer fencing around the ski resort.
Paul Anderson, who’s the Chief Executive of NZSki, said the following about the case to the Otago Daily Times:
“We’ve not been found guilty of not doing something on the mountain. We’ve been found guilty of not documenting a risk assessment, and that’s an important point to distinguish.”
Image Credits: Coronet Peak
