A snow tuber that suffered “catastrophic injuries” at Loon Mountain Resort is suing.
Boston.com reports that Zoia Tsoleridis from Massachusetts sued the ski resort in federal court this month. The woman alleges that Loon engaged in “negligence and negligent misrepresentation.” She is seeking a trial by jury, along with “the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.”
The Massachusetts woman visited Loon with her family back in February. While there, they decided to go snow tubing. They were allegedly told that the adult tickets for snow tubing were sold out, but they allowed the adults to use tot tubes. According to the lawsuit, this was a big no-no:
“He did not explain that the tot tubes did not have brakes as the adult tubes do. The defedant’s own rules prohibit its employees from providing tot tubes to adults.”
The woman wasn’t able to stop herself before reaching the bottom of the hill, and crashed once she went into a bump. She wasn’t told that she According to the lawsuit, her injuries were allegedly extensive, which included a “Traumatic Brain Injury, an Aortic Aneurysm, two (2) broken arms, and a broken jaw.” She was airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and is still recovering.
The plaintiff alleges that the defendant “owed Ms. Tsoleridis a duty of reasonable care including, but not limited to, the duty to provide her with proper instruction, the duty to provide her with proper equipment, and the duty to provide her with complete and accurate information about the tubing hill and equipment.”
The tubing experience, which is captured below by the White Mountain Visitor Center, is located over at the Little Sister trail. Guests ride the Little Sister Double chairlift with their tubes and then ride back down to the base. There’s also a smaller hill for kids to tube on, which was where the tubing accident happened.
While the injuries she sustained are severe, this kind of activity tends to come with the signing of waivers. Because of the likely waivers, I doubt this case will go anywhere. We’ll see if the employee allegedly violating the ski resorts’ rules will change what typically happens when lawsuits are filed against ski resorts.
You can read the lawsuit in full here.
Image Credits: Loon Mountain Resort, Catilin Farar/White Mountains Visitors Center
