A ski gondola crashed in Ötztal during the trip. A tree had fallen on the rope – but how could that happen? There are four seriously injured.
Oetz – The ski vacation of a family from Denmark in the Tyrolean Ötztal in Austria on Tuesday (January 9th) turned into a fiasco: Two brothers from Denmark (44, 49) were in the morning with the daughter (17) and a son (19) of the older one Climbed into the six-person gondola of the Acherkogelbahn in Oetz. This takes you to the Hochoetz ski area at an altitude of 2000 meters.
While the family was floating up, a tree in the forest suddenly snapped and hit the support cable at the point where the gondola was suspended. She was lifted from the rope and fell several meters deep. “The gondola fell vertically,” reports Michael Haid from the responsible police district command in Imst Merkur.de from IPPEN.MEDIA. Several helicopters were called in to rescue the injured. According to police, the father of the family was in critical condition as of Tuesday afternoon. “The terrain is steep and impassable,” explains Benjamin Rohrer, press officer for Bergbahnen Hochoetz.
Austria/Tyrol: Suddenly a tree snapped on the support cable and lifted the gondola out
Haid tells our editorial team: “The injured were taken to the hospitals in Imst and Innsbruck.” All four occupants were seriously injured, and the father of the family is in critical condition, according to the police. The remaining gondolas and their occupants were evacuated and removed from the rope; gondola operations are now suspended. However, Hochoetz can still be reached via other mountain railways.
How it happened that a tree could fall onto the gondola's support cable is the subject of the investigation that is currently being conducted into negligent bodily harm. “There was neither a storm nor a lot of snow, so a snow break is unlikely,” continued Haid.
“All regulations were followed” – three other passengers report injuries
It is unclear how far the gondola fell. “It was probably around ten meters,” said Rohrer. A swath has actually been cleared into the forest along the gondola route. But why can there be a tree next to it that is so high that it falls onto the gondola? “Trees next to the lift path can be high enough to reach the support cable if they fall over; all regulations were adhered to,” says Rohrer.
He asserts: “There was the required inspection trip in the morning hours before the official start of operations, during which no abnormalities were found.” According to ORF, three other passengers later reported that they had been injured by the vibrations of the suspension cable.
It was only in December that an accident in the Ratschings ski area sparked discussions. A tree also fell on the cable car there, but the reason was probably the wind.
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