 Poster: A snowHead
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  Today in Gmunden two people were hurt, one seriously, when, around 100m from the base station, a gondola detached from its towing cable and crashed into the car below...
Fortunately, the detached car was empty, as it then left the cable altogether, crashing to the ground. However the lower car was occupied by a grandmother and her three year old granddaughter. The child fell 10m from the gondola suffering a fractured skull, broken ribs and facial injuries, though her condition is described as stable. The grandmother had to be rescued by helicopter from the remaining gondola, which was also in danger of falling.
Full report here (in German)
(some data edited from following posts)
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 16-10-04 20:39; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Towing cable still in view in the second pic, my guess would be that the link between towing cable and the first Gondola failed, allowing the first gondola to slide back down the suspensor cable into the second one, this impact would have then jarred the first one off the suspensor cable and without its connection to the towing cable it then dropped to the ground
Scary stuff though and lucky it wasn't much higher, or that there was noone in the cabin that came off
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Just read the report properly, that's what happened, well spotted. The impact must have jarred the door open on the lower gondola, what bad luck that the child should have fallen. "Badly injured", but no indication of just how seriously. A 10 metre fall - and if it was on to concrete as in first pic....
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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As a guess I wonder if the child had stood up to get a better look at what was happening, as a result of the impact the Gondola would have swung a lot and she probably flew out the open door, very sad though 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| PG wrote: |
| Just read the report properly, that's what happened, well spotted. The impact must have jarred the door open on the lower gondola, what bad luck that the child should have fallen. "Badly injured", but no indication of just how seriously. A 10 metre fall - and if it was on to concrete as in first pic.... |
"Nach ersten Informationen aus dem AKh Linz hat das Kleinkind einen Schädelbruch, einen Rippenbruch und Gesichtsverletzungen. Der Zustand wird von den Ärzten aber als stabil bezeichnet."
Translation .....
First information from Linz General Hospital is that the child has a fractured skull, broken rib(s) and facial injuries. Her current condition is stable.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Gondola accidents (in fact any ski-lift accident) - like airplane crashes - make the news; and scarey news it is, so it rather donimates the memory to make Gondolas seem dangerous for a time. But I imagine these sort of accidents are actually rare. Does anyone have statistics?
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Sad news and scary, any got a translation of the report.
Any news of an investigation as to why the cable failed
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Russell, it's not a cable failure, if it had been all the gondolas would have dropped or at least sagged, an educated guess given the two photos that we have is that the gondolas used a fixed cable and a continuous pulling cable similar to a larger cablecar system (it uses 26 gondolas I checked) a shrewed guess would be that the method of holding the gondola to the pulling cable failled catastrophically causing it to slide down the main cable into the next gondola, as to what could cause this there are a number of possible reasons why it might have failed and since I am unsure of the actual method of fastening in this particular case I will not hazard a guess, however in the past similar failure of machinery are often either the result of human error, e.g person X forgot to tighten bolt Z to the correct torque, or an unexpected event, e.g under certain rare climatic conditions the lubricant turns solid, or deliberate and malicious destruction (though I'm not suggesting that in this case, as only one car failed and I'd expect more to do so if deliberate).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Curious that the picture shows absolutely no sign of any impact damage nor distortion of the door. The window isn't even cracked. (There is a bigger image here). So why did the door open? Modern gondolas (which this one seems to be) normally have a mechanical interlock which holds the door closed until it arrives at the loading/unloading point where it is lifted off the moving rope. This one seems to be a fixed suspension rope but I'd guess some sort of lifting onto rollers or guide tracks still happens and that releases the safety device. Of course if it was also in real danger of coming off the cable, the impact may have been sufficient to lift it far enough off the suspension cable to trigger a door opening.
Sad about the little girl but paradoxically she may have been saved by her youth and small size. Toddlers can generally withstand bad falls better than bigger children or adults.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Welcome to snowHeads, Jumpin Jack 
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The text of the two items is identical and appears to come from Associated Press, they refer to the Kaprun mountain railway fire as a "cable car"...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Jumpin Jack, welcome to snowHeads
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Looks very similar to the accident they had with the Rendlbahn in St Anton a couple of years back.
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You know it makes sense.
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Hmmm, that's the same set-up for the new "longest span" one in Kitzbuhl (sp?), isn't it?
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