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This post has been edited by Eric: 18 November 2003 - 11:21 AM
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Quicksilver Express Accident
Started by Eric, Nov 18 2003 11:20 AM
81 replies to this topic
#2
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 12:18 PM
People died. Thats what happened. :(
Actually a few chairs slid down the cable and collided with each other and people died. I have read the story number of times, but I can't recall what exactly caused the chairs to slide down the haul rope, except that it was faulty clips.
Actually a few chairs slid down the cable and collided with each other and people died. I have read the story number of times, but I can't recall what exactly caused the chairs to slide down the haul rope, except that it was faulty clips.
#3
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 03:21 PM
Well, it was a windy morning day and the lift operator his the stop button but the emergency brake kicked in supposedly and it sent shockwaves down the haul rope and one of the grips came loose and slid down the haul rope and banged into a chair and then that chair fell and then it hit another chair and it feel. So three chairs fell off the haul rope.
- Cameron
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 03:26 PM
OK, here's my fairly poor account of what happened:
The Quicksilver Express HSQ at Whistler (a 1991 Yan number 7 quad, now the Creekside Gondola) was riddled with problems from day one. The emergency brake was constantly misfiring 20 times a day, so paper was stuffed into it to keep the alarm quiet. One day in December 1995, a person fell at the unloading ramp. A routine thing, happens all the time. The operator pressed the Stop button, but instead of the regular brake, the emergency brake kicked in. This sent a big shockwave down the line. At the steepest part of the lift, one of the grips on the chairs started sliding back down the line.It hit the chair behind it, which hit the chair behind it, which hit the chair behind it too. 4 chairs fell off the line and took a bit of a plunge (50 feet?). In the end, two people died, 1 paralyzed, and 7 more injured seriously.
The Quicksilver Express HSQ at Whistler (a 1991 Yan number 7 quad, now the Creekside Gondola) was riddled with problems from day one. The emergency brake was constantly misfiring 20 times a day, so paper was stuffed into it to keep the alarm quiet. One day in December 1995, a person fell at the unloading ramp. A routine thing, happens all the time. The operator pressed the Stop button, but instead of the regular brake, the emergency brake kicked in. This sent a big shockwave down the line. At the steepest part of the lift, one of the grips on the chairs started sliding back down the line.It hit the chair behind it, which hit the chair behind it, which hit the chair behind it too. 4 chairs fell off the line and took a bit of a plunge (50 feet?). In the end, two people died, 1 paralyzed, and 7 more injured seriously.
- Tyler
West Palm Beach, FL - elev. 9 feet
West Palm Beach, FL - elev. 9 feet
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#9
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 03:59 PM
HERE IS THE ARTICLE:
Chair Lift Accident
Aired on Market Place:December 17, 1996
Summary:
On December 23, 1995 two people died and ten others were injured at Whistler Mountain ski resort in British Columbia when four of the chairs on a ski-lift crashed to the ground. The operators of the resort say there are very few accidents involving ski-lifts, and the industry's safety record is a good one. But a Market Place investigation discovered that the type of lift system used at Whistler was badly designed, and had a troubled track record. The program also raises questions about what's been done to correct the problems.
More Information
Whistler Mountain in British Columbia is a mecca for skiers and snow boarders all over. It is a world class resort that is proud of its international appeal. Three top ski magazines just voted Whistler the top ski hill on the continent. They talked about a virtuoso symphony of sheer size, vertical drops, and fast lifts plus half a line mentioning a fatal accident "caused by a manufacturer's faulty design."
On December 23, 1995, as skiers rode the Quicksilver lift down the mountain, the chairs began bouncing around and swinging wildly. Four chairs fell and ten people plunged 20 stories. Eight were injured, and two were killed. Every ski patroller on the mountain was summoned to this code three emergency. Terrified skiers were trapped for three hours on the Quicksilver chair lift. One hundred and seventy people were rescued.
It was the worst accident ever for an industry that prides itself on its safety record.
In nearby Squamish, the local coroner was called in to investigate what went wrong. When he arrived, he didn't see a lot of broken pieces of chair lift on the ground or towers toppled over. So they had to search for other causes.
High speed chair lifts whisk skiers up the mountain at 15 feet a second, 3,000 skiers an hour. The key to a safe ride is overhead. The metal grip holds the moving chair to the cable. It works like a spring loaded clothes pin, opening to release the chair so it can slow down to let skiers on and off. It is called a detachable grip. As it rounds the bend, the grip reattaches for the ride down the mountain.
The day of the accident, the operator had stopped the lift to let someone who had fallen in front of the chair get out of the way - usually a normal stop but this time it wasn't. Instead the emergency brake kicked in. The rope was suddenly pulled to a stop causing a waving action. The emergency stop jolted the chairs with such force that a grip peeled off the cable. That chair slid down colliding with the next chair and fell. Then the fatal chain reaction occurred, three chairs hit the tower and fell.
The coroner confirmed what some lift operators at the Quicksilver suspected. It was riddled with problems from day one. Problems that came together the night of the accident starting with the faulty break system.
Market Place obtained documents under the freedom of information act that proved Whistler knew about the faulty brake system from the day it was installed. A British Columbian government memo quotes the Whistler maintenance manager - he categorized it as a non-issue. But the BC coroner called it a violation of the national safety code contributing to the accident.
Nicks and scars on the upper part of the towers tipped Whistler off to another serious problem with the lift. The upper parts of the chairs were colliding with the overhead wheels. By law the chairs must not hit anything within a 15 degree swing radius. Whistler's president says that they believed they were complying with the code. They got permission from the BC Inspection Branch to operate and the manufacturer's engineer had given documents to the government stating that they were meeting code. But on January 4, 1992, Whistler faxed a BC government inspector about the swinging chairs stating the 15 degree criteria wouldn't be met. Almost four years later that became a key cause of the fatal accident. A problem that the coroner reports was never fixed.
By the end of the first ski season, the growing number of problems with the ski lift prompted the manager of Whistler maintenance to write the manufacturer, Lift Engineering, stating that they had become the "unwitting recipients of a research and development project."
The BC government gave Whistler the green light to operate Quicksilver on the condition that they provide important metal fatigue test results on the grips. A year later there was still nothing from the manufacturer and the lift continued to operate. When the test for grip force appeared, the grips were slipping. Whistler management wrote the manufacturer again wondering why they were not informed that the grips failed to meet code. Then there was a ten day government shut down for the first major retrofit of the grips. More problems with slipping lead to a second unsuccessful retrofit. Three weeks before the fatal accident Whistler rebuilt all of the grips. After the accident, the coroner tested 29 grips in the lab, all failed.
There are alarms to detect safety problems. If there is something wrong with the chair as it leaves the station, the grip force alarm goes off. It is standard equipment. At Quicksilver, one was constantly misfiring going off twenty times a day, so loud that skiers could hear. Paper was stuffed in it to quiet it down.
The president of Whistler believes that the BC government would not have allowed them to operate if it wasn't safe. But the government relied on Whistler to fix the lift. Whistler relied on the engineer who certified the lift who was on the payroll of the US manufacturers.
As for code violations, they were no secret according to the coroner. He has stated in his report that Whistler Mountain, the Government of British Columbia Inspection Bureau, and the lift manufacturer were aware that there were sections of the code to which this lift did not comply. There were two incidents which he feels should have prompted a more thorough investigation.
Three weeks earlier, two empty chairs fell from the cable near tower 21, the same spot as the fatal accident. Nine months earlier another empty chair plunged 75 feet from the same cable at the same point. Much to the surprise of skiers on the lift. Although wind may have been a factor in the first incident, the second time grips simply could not hold at the steepest angle - steeper than the lift was designed for.
The Quicksilver accident was not the first time died on a chairlift made by Lift Engineering. In Keystone, Colorado in 1985 a well failed in the pulley system sending 48 people flying, one person died. In Sierra, Colorado, 1993, an overhead cable wheel broke off and a chair fell. Then Lift Engineering filed for bankruptcy protection leaving a legacy of manufacturing and design problems for Canadian and American ski resorts. Last winter fatigue cracks were found in another model of detachable lifts. When engineers took the grips apart they found even deeper, more serious cracks.
The California Ski Association decided that type of ski lift grips had to go. Some Californian ski resorts took out the lifts entirely. But the three Canadian ski resorts using these grips are giving them another chance. Hundreds of grips have been redesigned and built from scratch at a price tag of $1 million. So far the prototypes have passed rigorous inspection according to the ski resorts and the government. They say the grips exceed the existing code requirements.
In the year since the accident at Whistler there has been a police investigation, a mountain of engineering studies and a damning coroner's report. This season, Whistler replaced the Quicksilver with a gondola made by a different manufacturer. Still the BC government and Whistler continue to insist that there was nothing they could have done to prevent the accident. The only person to concede fault is the inventor of the lift.
Chair Lift Accident
Aired on Market Place:December 17, 1996
Summary:
On December 23, 1995 two people died and ten others were injured at Whistler Mountain ski resort in British Columbia when four of the chairs on a ski-lift crashed to the ground. The operators of the resort say there are very few accidents involving ski-lifts, and the industry's safety record is a good one. But a Market Place investigation discovered that the type of lift system used at Whistler was badly designed, and had a troubled track record. The program also raises questions about what's been done to correct the problems.
More Information
Whistler Mountain in British Columbia is a mecca for skiers and snow boarders all over. It is a world class resort that is proud of its international appeal. Three top ski magazines just voted Whistler the top ski hill on the continent. They talked about a virtuoso symphony of sheer size, vertical drops, and fast lifts plus half a line mentioning a fatal accident "caused by a manufacturer's faulty design."
On December 23, 1995, as skiers rode the Quicksilver lift down the mountain, the chairs began bouncing around and swinging wildly. Four chairs fell and ten people plunged 20 stories. Eight were injured, and two were killed. Every ski patroller on the mountain was summoned to this code three emergency. Terrified skiers were trapped for three hours on the Quicksilver chair lift. One hundred and seventy people were rescued.
It was the worst accident ever for an industry that prides itself on its safety record.
In nearby Squamish, the local coroner was called in to investigate what went wrong. When he arrived, he didn't see a lot of broken pieces of chair lift on the ground or towers toppled over. So they had to search for other causes.
High speed chair lifts whisk skiers up the mountain at 15 feet a second, 3,000 skiers an hour. The key to a safe ride is overhead. The metal grip holds the moving chair to the cable. It works like a spring loaded clothes pin, opening to release the chair so it can slow down to let skiers on and off. It is called a detachable grip. As it rounds the bend, the grip reattaches for the ride down the mountain.
The day of the accident, the operator had stopped the lift to let someone who had fallen in front of the chair get out of the way - usually a normal stop but this time it wasn't. Instead the emergency brake kicked in. The rope was suddenly pulled to a stop causing a waving action. The emergency stop jolted the chairs with such force that a grip peeled off the cable. That chair slid down colliding with the next chair and fell. Then the fatal chain reaction occurred, three chairs hit the tower and fell.
The coroner confirmed what some lift operators at the Quicksilver suspected. It was riddled with problems from day one. Problems that came together the night of the accident starting with the faulty break system.
Market Place obtained documents under the freedom of information act that proved Whistler knew about the faulty brake system from the day it was installed. A British Columbian government memo quotes the Whistler maintenance manager - he categorized it as a non-issue. But the BC coroner called it a violation of the national safety code contributing to the accident.
Nicks and scars on the upper part of the towers tipped Whistler off to another serious problem with the lift. The upper parts of the chairs were colliding with the overhead wheels. By law the chairs must not hit anything within a 15 degree swing radius. Whistler's president says that they believed they were complying with the code. They got permission from the BC Inspection Branch to operate and the manufacturer's engineer had given documents to the government stating that they were meeting code. But on January 4, 1992, Whistler faxed a BC government inspector about the swinging chairs stating the 15 degree criteria wouldn't be met. Almost four years later that became a key cause of the fatal accident. A problem that the coroner reports was never fixed.
By the end of the first ski season, the growing number of problems with the ski lift prompted the manager of Whistler maintenance to write the manufacturer, Lift Engineering, stating that they had become the "unwitting recipients of a research and development project."
The BC government gave Whistler the green light to operate Quicksilver on the condition that they provide important metal fatigue test results on the grips. A year later there was still nothing from the manufacturer and the lift continued to operate. When the test for grip force appeared, the grips were slipping. Whistler management wrote the manufacturer again wondering why they were not informed that the grips failed to meet code. Then there was a ten day government shut down for the first major retrofit of the grips. More problems with slipping lead to a second unsuccessful retrofit. Three weeks before the fatal accident Whistler rebuilt all of the grips. After the accident, the coroner tested 29 grips in the lab, all failed.
There are alarms to detect safety problems. If there is something wrong with the chair as it leaves the station, the grip force alarm goes off. It is standard equipment. At Quicksilver, one was constantly misfiring going off twenty times a day, so loud that skiers could hear. Paper was stuffed in it to quiet it down.
The president of Whistler believes that the BC government would not have allowed them to operate if it wasn't safe. But the government relied on Whistler to fix the lift. Whistler relied on the engineer who certified the lift who was on the payroll of the US manufacturers.
As for code violations, they were no secret according to the coroner. He has stated in his report that Whistler Mountain, the Government of British Columbia Inspection Bureau, and the lift manufacturer were aware that there were sections of the code to which this lift did not comply. There were two incidents which he feels should have prompted a more thorough investigation.
Three weeks earlier, two empty chairs fell from the cable near tower 21, the same spot as the fatal accident. Nine months earlier another empty chair plunged 75 feet from the same cable at the same point. Much to the surprise of skiers on the lift. Although wind may have been a factor in the first incident, the second time grips simply could not hold at the steepest angle - steeper than the lift was designed for.
The Quicksilver accident was not the first time died on a chairlift made by Lift Engineering. In Keystone, Colorado in 1985 a well failed in the pulley system sending 48 people flying, one person died. In Sierra, Colorado, 1993, an overhead cable wheel broke off and a chair fell. Then Lift Engineering filed for bankruptcy protection leaving a legacy of manufacturing and design problems for Canadian and American ski resorts. Last winter fatigue cracks were found in another model of detachable lifts. When engineers took the grips apart they found even deeper, more serious cracks.
The California Ski Association decided that type of ski lift grips had to go. Some Californian ski resorts took out the lifts entirely. But the three Canadian ski resorts using these grips are giving them another chance. Hundreds of grips have been redesigned and built from scratch at a price tag of $1 million. So far the prototypes have passed rigorous inspection according to the ski resorts and the government. They say the grips exceed the existing code requirements.
In the year since the accident at Whistler there has been a police investigation, a mountain of engineering studies and a damning coroner's report. This season, Whistler replaced the Quicksilver with a gondola made by a different manufacturer. Still the BC government and Whistler continue to insist that there was nothing they could have done to prevent the accident. The only person to concede fault is the inventor of the lift.
#11
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 04:02 PM
And Another:
This image shows what happened...
This image shows what happened...
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#12
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 04:04 PM
And another:
A chair on the ground after the accident...
A chair on the ground after the accident...
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#13
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 04:15 PM
NWS, on Nov 18 2003, 04:02 PM, said:
Here is picture of Quicksilver:
I think this is the greenline or another YAN HSQ at another resort, because this lift doesn't have bubbles and the terrain is a lot steeper.
- Cameron
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 06:47 PM
Another accident involving a yan hsq happend at sierra at tahoe in 1993. Apparently the sheaves fell off or something and a nine year old boy fell to his death.
Zack
#17
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Posted 18 November 2003 - 06:52 PM
I think thats a maintenace problem rather than Yan. I mean don't they take off the sheave trains and put new sheaves on? They probably forgot to bolt it all the way into place and thats probably the reason it fell off.
- Cameron
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Posted 19 November 2003 - 08:49 AM
Yep, and becasue of the accidents and lawsuits, Lift Engineering went out of business, and now there are only 2 lift makers. Kinda sad if you ask me
Zack
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