Park City, Utah- Vail Resorts is dealing with yet another lawsuit due to a fall from a chairlift, with this one coming from Utah.
The Park Record reports that Leo Mak is suing Vail Resorts following a fall from a chairlift at Park City Mountain Resort. The Maks are looking for a jury trial, as they are seeking damage caused by the fall (i.e. medical expenses), along with their legal fees.
Back in 2020, the Mak family traveled to Park City Mountain Resort for Megan’s tenth birthday. While they were boarding the Iron Mountain Express chairlift, they were unable to get properly seated, as they were unable to pull the safety bar down into place. Megan fell and was left hanging onto the chairlift for a couple of minutes.
Leo Mak, who’s Megan’s father, described the frantic process that ensued to FOX 13:
“I tried to yell to the operator, and I remember that time, there was only one operator there and many customers…The chair kept going up … I think it was almost like 2-3 minutes, and my daughter just kept slipping more and slipping more”.
After falling around thirty feet to the ground, Megan suffered injuries to her abdomen and left hip. Leo’s daughter wasn’t the only one who was physically hurt. After Megan fell, Leo decided to jump, as he was worried about his daughter. According to Leo, he suffered a large amount of injuries from the situation:
“I think I crushed my right wrist … I also crushed my hip. I had maybe 4-6 broken ribs, I cracked my helmet, punctured lung…When the doctors fixed my hips, he told me he had to cut one of my main nerves on my left thigh … so my left thigh, the whole area, I can feel the constant numbness … that’s something I have to deal with.”
While the fact that he jumped from the chairlift to save his daughter is subject to scrutiny, there’s also an argument to be made that he did the right thing. Michael Hansen, who’s the attorney representing Leo Mak in the case, gave his opinion to The Park Record on whether Leo was at fault in this instance:
“The guy’s a hero in my estimation. He put his own, personal safety aside to save his daughter. Then the other position is ‘This wouldn’t have happened if you just stayed on the lift and rode to the top.’ Well, that’s easy to say after the fact. … But he was concerned for his daughter.”
Overall, the medical damage to the Mak family from this situation has been more than $250,000. There’s been a large amount of psychological damage caused by the fall too, as Leo said that Megan remains traumatized from the incident:
“She lost the interest in skiing, she doesn’t really like it for now. I think something changed her and she doesn’t really like to go to the mountain and ski anymore.”
The other chairlift lawsuit that Vail Resorts is currently dealing with regards a teenager falling off the chairlift at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. That family alleges that the lift attendants didn’t step in to help or stop the chairlift despite other people’s pleas. That trial is currently underway.
Click here to read the family’s lawsuit against Vail Resorts.
Image Credits: Park City Mountain Resort
