Heavenly sued by second skier allegedly hit by employee while on the slopes
By Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal
A second skier who was injured when a Heavenly Mountain Resort employee on a snowboard slammed into her has filed a lawsuit claiming the resort’s owner is liable for its employee’s “unsafe, out-of-control (snow) boarding.”
Elisabeth “Elly” Benschop, 54, of Gardnerville was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain injury on Feb. 22 when Heavenly employee Andrea Ramos, 20, of Brazil crashed into her on the resort’s Olympic ski run, according to the suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Reno.
Another skier, Kimberly Bland of Florida, filed a similar lawsuit in December, claiming she was injured in January 2011 when Heavenly employee Daniel Barreno crashed into her while he was riding down the Olympic slope on his snowboard.
Russ Pecoraro, director of communications at Heavenly Mountain Resort, declined to comment on the two lawsuits, saying in an email: “Our company policy prohibits commenting on pending litigation.”
The suit, filed by Minden lawyer Jay Sullivan, seeks damages topping $75,000 to cover the emergency and medical costs, as well as legal fees and expenses. It claims that the resort has failed to hold liability insurance to cover its foreign employees and has refused to take responsibility for its employees’ actions.
“Vail and Heavenly are taking the position that Elly is on her own against Ms. Ramos, who is scheduled to return to her home country on March 15, 2012,” the suit said, “and that Elly should try and collect her thousands of dollars in ambulance, ER and CT scan billings, plus future treatment and disability costs from young Ms. Ramos personally.”
Deep pockets. Sue the (broke) young boarders. They are responsible for their own actions while on their own time.
It’d be like suing a restaraunt if a waiter hit you while boarding.
A retired L.A. polic detective, probably has great insurance to cover everything. Did this lawyer approach the detective,an “ambulance chaser”, just looking to fatten his own wallet? If this boarder was not employed by Heavenly, would they be suing?
I ski 50-75 days a year and when I have close calls or been clipped, it seems to always be with boarders. Almost happened today with some guy on a board zipping out of the trees out of control. His comment”oh, almost got you, bet that pissed you off”.
Boarders need much more education and every boarder and skier are respnsible for their own actions, not their employer.
I am not necessarily pro or con snowboarders, but it sure seems that most of my near misses have involved snowboarders. And in the last 10 days I have personally heard of a 4 year old and a 7 year old both being hit by snowboarders to the point of getting thrown in the air and all equipment falling off. Neither snowboarder stopped to check on the kids. I know snowboarders have a bigger “blind spot” and cannot manuever/stop as quickly as a skier, but this is ridiculous.
Unless ski patrol is instructed to take a heavier stance on reckless skiing/boarding, Heavenly will be known as a resort that tolerates reckless behavior.
These are the type of people that keep me off the hill.
Worked for Heavenly for 8 years on the mountain. Ski patrol enforcement of basic safety rules is lacking to non-existent and always has been. I find the newspaper ads touting Heavenly’s enforcement actions hilariously self-serving and disingenuous.
Knowing how common serious safety violations occur and how few people are sanctioned demonstrates how insincere Heavenly management is. It is time they get serious about safety and not public relations.
Hang on a second folks, I’m not gonna sit here and let everyone bad mouth snowboarders, even though that’s not the main issue here. I ski and snowboard and when I ski I have much worse tunnel vision than when I snowboard, I also seem to notice this in other skiers, not all skiers but a good portion of them just make wide arcing turns without even looking to their sides to see if anyone’s is coming. I’ve had some near misses this season and it’s all been from skiers not looking to their sides. When I snowboard I am constantly turning my head to see what or who is around me so that I can make better decisions about when and where to turn. I also feel like when I ski my body is in the position where it will follow where my head and eyes go, sort of like biking (I was always told on a bike to look where you want to go and your body will follow).
Now, the real issue is skier/rider safety and it is a shame there are collisions, but it does happen every year and at many ski resorts. I think its worse this year, because up until this past week there was very little terrain available to spread everyone out. Heavenly is a huge resort but only when people are able to spread out into the trees, when it’s only groomed trails it’s actually a small area.
Heavenly should beef up their Ski Patrol & cite & remove out of control, skiers/riders. Like any traffic situation, reckless riding should have consequences and multiple offenders should be banned from the mountain.
Skiers, boarders, it doesn’t really matter. It seems to be an entire generational thing, where people now think everyone ELSE should be looking out for THEM. Folks are oblivious of others in all aspects of daily life, from walking out into the street without looking for cars, to walking right up to the front of the line without even seeing that there are 8 people waiting ahead of you.
And Heavenly has lots of folks in yellow making folks slow down. There’s only so much you can do to teach the clueless.
I still say Heavenly should not have to pay for these “accidents”. The perpetrators should.
The real issue is too many skiers and riders in too small an area. Heavenly is not really that big when it comes to groomed runs. Actually, its very small and its merging trails are a recipe for accidents. Ask any experienced skier/boarder
People ski/ride because they want to be outside, challenge themselves and have fun. For many of us that is moving at a fun pace. We don’t go up there to sit in traffic like the freeway during rush hour. Lift lines are bad enough and we would abandon the sport before we move like turtles.
As to employees hitting guests…like any other business, you are responsible for your employees. So yes, Heavenly has to bear it just like McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.
One big question that the article doesn’t seem to address is whether the employees in question were working at the time of the accidents. If they were working at the time than the resort should bear some responsibility, if not than it should be treated like two private citizens.
To Judi’s suggestion, if you start doing that then I demand you ticket people on terrain that is clearly above their ability levels or those that turn all the way across the run
Last thing Heavenly wants to become is cops.
The industry has a problem and across the USA has not figured out what to do. Skis and boards are better, people are skiing faster and sooner on more dificult terrain. Mountain etiquette and snow common sense are not in pace. look around at the slow signs and at people being pulled over. Didn’t happen 20 years ago.
the Heave has always been the home of out of control reckless YAHOO’S
I was there when those 2 skier guys ran over and killed that other skier guy on I-5 right under Sky Chair Christmas of 84
thats when the State made the law about stoping and being responsible
Supposedly the rule is: “People ahead of you have the right of way. It is your responsibility to avoid them.”
You shouldn’t have to be looking uphill constantly, to make sure no one is about to strike you!
And skimming people is uncalled for, you should stay 5+’ away from other people, except in very narrow areas, and then drop your speed, unless of course, it’s only about your fun, and I still believe it’s the ski area that sets the tone, so I guess that’s what Heavenly is about.
I wonder what the accident rate, per skier days is? Is it at the upper end at Heavenly? If so, that’s great for Barton ;)
Heavenly publishes its skier/boarder infractions, tickets pulled, passes pulled. It’s on a great big sign right at the base for everyone to see.
Without the abundance of injuries at the area ski resorts that need prompt and expert attention, we wouldn’t have the fine facilities we have at Barton Hospital today.
Be careful what you wish for. Leave the resort rules and enforcement as they are.
New Heavenly slogan- “Everyone’s so out of control, you’ll break your bones, but hey, we’ve got a hospital with a lot of practice in town!”
That would make for some wonderful cherished family memories, not! lol
I ski and board.. Undoubtably skiing you have more control and better vision although a good boarder should be able to compensate for both. There are too many out there pushing their limits past their skill level. On a crowded slope I’m surprised more aren’t hurt… There’s risk in any sport goin high speed with others around you. Soft senior sue happy Barnos should stay off the slopes…. Don’t blame the Brazilian bikini babe….