Breckenridge, Colorado — Vail Resorts has another lawsuit on their hands, with this one coming from the wife of a volunteer ski patroller who was killed from a fall on one of their chairlifts.
The Denver Post reports that the wife of John Perucco, Victoria Sanko-Perucco, is suing Vail Resorts for economic and non-economic damages and is seeking a jury trial. She is accusing Vail Resorts and the workers that operated the Zendo chairlift at Breckenridge Resort of negligence.
Back on March 17, 2023, John Perucco was skiing with a buddy at Breckenridge Resort. John was a 60-year-old man from Illinois. He was an Epic Pass holder who worked as a volunteer ski patroller for 18 years. When they boarded the Zendo chairlift, the chair was allegedly full of snow and ice. Never getting fully sat (which included not putting the bar down, John tried to clear off the snow but slipped. The attorneys for Perucco argue that Breckenridge workers were negligent in these critical moments and should have cleared the snow off the chair before boarding John. He fell 25 feet to the ground, which occurred before reaching the first lift tower. John Perucco died while being transported to the hospital because of the severe injuries he suffered from the fall.
After the fall, Breckenridge Resort shut down the lift to conduct an investigation. After determining that the fall wasn’t due to a lift malfunction, Zendo reopened. Two hours following the fall, the ski resort notified the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board. Due to the late timing, the Board couldn’t conduct a full investigation. However, Breckenridge Resort didn’t break any rules because this wasn’t a lift malfunction. The Zendo fixed-grip quad chairlift opened in 2013 as part of the Peak 6 expansion.
The two statutes relevant to this matter are the Colorado Ski Safety Act and the Passenger Tramway Safety Act. It’ll be interesting to see if this case weakens the Colorado Ski Safety Act, which was affected last year by a lawsuit by a skier whose life was changed forever following a fall at Crested Butte.
Vail Resorts doesn’t usually comment on active litigation, so it has not released a statement on this matter.
Image/Video Credits: Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board, Breckenridge Resort, Tucker Stanton
