Kimberly Bland, a skier from Florida is suing South Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly Ski Resort after she was hit and injured by an on-the-clock mountain employee riding a snowboard, according to a story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.
[Bland] was stopped on the lower Olympic downhill run on the Nevada side of the resort, at about 3:50 p.m. on Jan. 18, trying to decide where to ski next, when Heavenly lift operator Daniel Barreno crashed into Bland on his snowboard, the suit said. . . Bland, a paramedic in the Miami area, was knocked unconscious by the impact and was taken by ambulance to the Barton Hospital emergency department, said the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Reno. . . She suffered injuries to her head, neck, shoulder and back, the suit said.
In the suit Bland is seeking “at least $350,000 in damages, plus costs and fees.” We’ll say this again, though it seems so obvious to us. Any snowboarder who can’t avoid hitting a person stopped on a run, has no right being on the snow. The courts will decide how responsible Heavenly is.
[Link: Reno Gazette-Journal]
Ever read the back of a list ticket? Suing the employee personally may be one thing, but she won’t get a dime from Heavenly. Inherent risks and such…
Sorry she fell, but over a quarter of a million dollars in damages and she is alright? geez. welcome to america.
Rubbish. She should be ashamed of herself for suing for so much. Really, how could her experience be worth $350k?! Sounds like she’s trying to buy a house or pay off student loans. Hope she doesn’t run into a similar mishap at her job. With that karma, someone will take her to the cleaners for malpractice. If she can’t handle a crash, stay in Florida. These things happen, and as all mountain folks know, the rules that dictate liability on the road do not transfer onto the snow. See above for inherent and assumed risk.
What a punk. She’s just capitalizing on the fact that this person was a resort employee. The case would likely never go to court if the snowboarder was unaffiliated, and I’m willing to bet that she was stopped in a place where she wasn’t visible to uphill traffic. Again, go back to Florida… and stay there. I bet she’d even sue a shark for biting her if she could.
Probably sitting at the bottom of a jump like all skiers…..”Hey, I’M done using the jump, so everyone else can wait until I’m don’t texting all my friends and telling them how “epic” my day is going in the terrain park that was made for snowboarders”
While the snowboarder is technically responsible for everything in front of him, i’m constantly amazed at the risk people put themselves in by standing around high traffic areas. This is why I never go to Tahoe during winter break, amateur hour. It’s just like a golf course….there’s etiquette involved…if i’m trying to decide which trail to take, I’m so far off to the side that someone has a better chance of hitting a tree than me. This is typical self entitled attitude….”I stopped skiing, everyone look out for me!” Karma is a bitch Kimberly Bland, and you work in just the right profession got get some bad karma back….good luck!
Pretty typical. Most accidents are caused by snowboarders.
Our firm represents Kim. She is a tough, stand-up, paramedic, single working mom, who has been trying to get onto the fire department. She had been skiing all day and was stopped at the side of the run, in full view of riders from above, She was not stopped below a jump or in any way out of view. The Boarder from Peru, Daniel Barreno, a Heavenly lift operator, was working at the time and hit her from above at a high rate of speed, knocking her out. She was ambulenced to the hospital. The lift ticket releases are for the “inherent risks” of boarding and skiing, but the courts have held that “inherent risks” do not include situations like this where the Code of Responsibility or local ordinances have been violated. In this case, the cardinal rule of failing to avoid the downhill skier/rider was violated, under Douglas County, NV ordinance, and El Dorado County, CA ordinance, as well as Nevada state law, so the ticket release of liabililty and assumption of risk does not apply. Whenever you ride, you assume the risk of injury from ice, snow, trees, rocks, lift towers, etc., and your own neglect, but you do not assume the risk of other skier breaking the laws of skiing and riding. If they do break the rules, and you are hurt, then you can sue them. In this case, it was not just another rider, it was a Heavenly employee, Daniel, on the clock, who caused the crash, so Heavenly is on the hook. If Daniel were not employed by Heavenly, then he could have been sued personally, but this Daniel, from Peru, cannot be found, so if Heavenly were not jointly responsible, then Kim would have no recourse for her injuries. Heavenly began planning its Safety Awareness Campaign, launched publicly today, last spring, just after Kim’s accident. If this accident and Kim’s case can prevent one serious injury or death, then it is so worth it, whether a penny is ever collected or not. It is easy to be judgmental of injured claimants or attorneys who help them, until you yourself are injured, then you take a different view. J. D. Sullivan
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