Palcall Tsumagoi gondola death

[mina2 6]

Seems that a member of the staff at Palcall Tsumagoi resort in Gunma died after getting caught in the door of a gondola when it moved and soon after died after falling 15m.

 

 

MAEBASHI — A 63-year-old part-time worker at a ski resort in Gunma Prefecture died early Thursday after he was caught between the doors of a moving gondola and fell to the ground about 15 meters below the previous day, police said. Masashi Ito, from Saitama Prefecture, died in a Nagano Prefecture hospital from hemorrhagic shock. He sustained bone fractures from the accident that occurred Wednesday morning in the Palcall Tsumagoi ski resort, where he worked aiding skiers get off from the gondolas.

 

According to police, Ito got his arm stuck between the doors of a gondola after he tried to fetch a glove left behind by a passenger. Another worker pushed the button to stop the gondolas, but the gondola, from which Ito was suspended, proceeded about 10 meters before he plunged to the ground.

 

 

[OkemoLoon 0]

Another tragic tale, when will the bad news stop. Vibes to family and friends. It would seem there would be further safety features on gondolas.

[nzlegend 1]

Sad news but this is suspicious: It just doesn't add up. I used to be a Gondola operator in Colorado and had my level 3 ticket which meant I could run the thing alone.

The two Gondolas at the resort I worked at both had about 15 safety switches around the whole thing that would trip if anything was even slightly a miss especially if the door wasn't closed properly - an arm in the door should have tripped that one particular safety switch and immediately halted the gondola and I am sure, well actually I hope the authorities investigate why that didn't happen. I saw limbs in doors tripping the safety several times.

 

Sounds like the worker who hit the stop probably should have hit the E-stop rather than the regular stop, The E-stop would have halted it instantly inside the gondola terminal and not 10 metres later which left his co-worker dangling 15m in the air.

On most Gondolas there is about 5 sec after the doors close before the Gondola moves to the point where it picks up speed and then another 3-4 secs before the chains or tires get the Gondola up to full speed to re-connect to the haul rope. Thats plenty of time to stop it - someone should be near the controls at all times, whether the ones in the shack or the ones at the loading and unloading points, someone obviously wasn't paying enough attention as the stop should have been hit a lot earlier, someone is going to haunted by that.

too slow to hit the stop and then likely hit the wrong stop and now a dude is dead. That sucks.

 

also how about the poor perosn who left their glove behind? knowing their trivial minor mistake was the catalsyt for fatal accident? heavy.

[SerreChe 2]

That's terrible, especially if imcompetence or faulty gear led to that death. Never heard of that resort though wonder what impact it will have on them (closure for safety inspection I assume).