Ski Lift Failure - Georgia

[JZgor]

Ski-lift failure in Georgia sends people flying into the air:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/europe/georgia-ski-lift-accident-intl/index.html

 

[JZgor]

As a regular skier this is pretty scary to see

 

[JohnRBaker]

I hope people realize that this is the country of Georgia, as in part of the former Soviet Union.

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Irvine, CA
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[JZgor]

Does the state of Georgia have ski resorts?

 

[bimr]

Not in Georgia, but a few hundred miles northward. Don't expect the snow conditions to be consistent either.

https://getawaytips.azcentral.com/skiing-nearest-georgia-3266.html

 

[r0adman11]

It's the country Georgia

Here's good view...

Link

 

[Tomfh]

This is horrible. They way it speeds up and won't stop, ugh.

Did the motor/brake fail leaving it to reverse under the weight of the skiers?

 

[3DDave]

There's similar footage for anchor chains when the brakes fail and for escalators, which don't allow the passengers any way to avoid the giant pile up at the bottom.

 

[r0adman11]

Here's one that happened a few years back at Sugarloaf. It appears a manual brake was applied by the lift attendant. For this Georgia failure either there was no manual brake, it failed as well or it wasn't applied.

Sugarloaf rollback....

"The gearbox failure effectively de-coupled the bullwheel from the lift's primary service brake, which is located on the drive shaft between the two gearboxes, and its anti-reverse brake, which is the first of three redundant backup mechanisms for preventing reverse travel.

At this point, the emergency bullwheel brake, which uses calipers to apply braking pressure to the flange of the bullwheel itself, was applied by the lift attendant. This brake slowed the speed of the rollback and ultimately brought the lift to a stop. The application of the emergency brake by the lift attendant likely prevented a more extensive rollback."

 

[dgallup]

When I first heard of this the person telling me about it said it was in Atlanta (Georgia), we were all going "there's no ski lifts in Atlanta". I wonder how many people did not realize is was the former Soviet country of Georgia? Never the less, very disturbing failure. You could see many people jumping off as their chair approached the bottom, that's pretty dangerous too.

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[3DDave]

On a scale of 1 to 10, the danger from jumping off going backwards is about a 2.
Staying on for the quick turn into the pile of broken chairs rates an 11, possibly a 13.

I think the view of the pile of increasingly battered chairs led those on the chairs to underrate the danger. By the time they could see their mistake it was too late.

 

[MJCronin]

You would almost think that there should be some kind of National Standard to address these kind of braking mechanisms.

Public Safety is at risk ...

We have ASME National Standards that define minimum requirements for similar systems such as escalators and elevators.

http://files.asme.org/Catalog/Codes/PrintBook/29151.pdf

Why not chair lifts for skiers ??

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer

 

[IRstuff]

We are talking about Georgia the country here. Most such installations in the US are from reputable manufacturers.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[azcats]

This lift was made by Doppelmayr who has lots of installations in the US.

Here's their statement.

http://newsroom.doppelmayr.com/en/doppelmayr/news/accident-gudauri-georgia-friday-16-3-2018/

 

[Tomfh]

This lift was made by Doppelmayr

That stuff is everywhere. I've always admired it when riding ski lifts.

 

[charliealphabravo]

Here is a older video of a roll-back test on a chairlift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwPP4i7ENvQ

 

[azcats]

This article/press release says human error. But it reads as a bad translation.

http://www.economy.ge/index.php?pag...eb-biuro-veritasis-pirvelad-daskvnaze&lang=en

 

[MacGyverS2000]

So if the lift loses power, it's up to an operator to switch it to a backup generator to prevent such a horrible disaster?

Either we're missing something in the translation or they need a serious revamp of their backup power process...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com