Fascinating article about one of the worst lift accidents in American history
Posted: Mar 21st, '24, 12:42
I'm sure many of you, like me, remember when this happened. I remember riding that same gondola about 5 years later and being blown away by how high it was, 230' in places according to this article.
It was 48 years ago next week, on March 26, 1976. Two gondola cabins at Vail holding 6 people each fell 125' to the ground, the equivalent of about a 9 story building. One landed upright, the other one upside down. Several other cars were hanging precariously.
Three people died immediately at the scene, one died 2 days later in the hospital. In the cabin that landed upside down, a 14 year old girl from Denver was killed and her 18 year old sister was critically injured with her right arm nearly fully amputated in the accident. Their 19 year old friend was also killed. The father of the two sisters had just loaded them onto the gondola after getting them their lift tickets. The lift attendant told him that he couldn't cut in line and board the gondola with them so he took the adjacent Born Free lift instead with the plan of meeting them at the top. Also in that cabin was a 42-year-old housewife from SD that was killed. The fourth victim was an 18 year boy from Massachusetts who was in the other cabin that landed upright.
The reason for the accident was a flawed design which resulted in excessive wear on the "track" cable which was the stationary cable that the gondola cabins were pulled along by another lower haul cable. The track cable became frayed and several long strands of it were hanging that became tangled in the wheels of the gondola carriage hangers derailing one and causing it to hit and get hung up at one of the towers. The haul rope then acted as a saw and sawed the carriage hanger in half on the car that was hung up making it fall to the ground. The other car fell as a result of another cabin that got hung up on the sawed-off carriage hanger at the tower sliding back into it after it became detached from the haul rope. Unbelievable story, the stuff of nightmares. What the father of those girls went through is beyond horrific.
It's a long article but definitely worth the read.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1976/12/13/t ... gondola-ii
It was 48 years ago next week, on March 26, 1976. Two gondola cabins at Vail holding 6 people each fell 125' to the ground, the equivalent of about a 9 story building. One landed upright, the other one upside down. Several other cars were hanging precariously.
Three people died immediately at the scene, one died 2 days later in the hospital. In the cabin that landed upside down, a 14 year old girl from Denver was killed and her 18 year old sister was critically injured with her right arm nearly fully amputated in the accident. Their 19 year old friend was also killed. The father of the two sisters had just loaded them onto the gondola after getting them their lift tickets. The lift attendant told him that he couldn't cut in line and board the gondola with them so he took the adjacent Born Free lift instead with the plan of meeting them at the top. Also in that cabin was a 42-year-old housewife from SD that was killed. The fourth victim was an 18 year boy from Massachusetts who was in the other cabin that landed upright.
The reason for the accident was a flawed design which resulted in excessive wear on the "track" cable which was the stationary cable that the gondola cabins were pulled along by another lower haul cable. The track cable became frayed and several long strands of it were hanging that became tangled in the wheels of the gondola carriage hangers derailing one and causing it to hit and get hung up at one of the towers. The haul rope then acted as a saw and sawed the carriage hanger in half on the car that was hung up making it fall to the ground. The other car fell as a result of another cabin that got hung up on the sawed-off carriage hanger at the tower sliding back into it after it became detached from the haul rope. Unbelievable story, the stuff of nightmares. What the father of those girls went through is beyond horrific.
It's a long article but definitely worth the read.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1976/12/13/t ... gondola-ii