Skiers flew over the edge like dolls, Dutch Inge (28) was crushed to death: lawsuit surrounding a “slippery” ski slope in Austria ends in acquittal | Abroad

According to the public prosecutor, it was clear: the ski slope on the Hintertux Glacier in Austria should never have opened that New Year’s morning in 2023. The track was simply “life-threatening”.

According to a ski expert from the Austrian court, there was “all sorts” wrong with the slopes that New Year’s Day. The gist: the weather had been humid and the water vapor and fog had turned the track into an ice rink. Skiing was virtually impossible. Yet the track opened, with all its consequences.

The young Dutch woman who died was called Inge. She fell hard around 10 a.m. and slid 100 meters down the track; she shot through the marking net, flew 27 meters through the air and landed against a tree. She died at the scene of her injuries. Her friend Lisa fell almost simultaneously; she landed on a rock and broke her back. In addition to the two Dutch women, five more skiers flew over the edge that morning. Some victims had decades of skiing experience. They were also injured.

Beate Kugel, a German tourist, was seriously injured, just like the Dutch Lisa: she broke her skull when she hit the rocks tens of meters below. Kugel is still in bad shape and will need a few more surgeries for her recovery. Today she walked into the courtroom in Innsbruck with the help of walking sticks. “It was so slippery, it looked like an ice hockey rink. I couldn’t move as I slipped away.”

Almost every witness stated that they had gone down with “no chance”. Some took others with them in their fall. Many dozens of people slipped on the ice rink. Those who were “lucky” did not fly over the edge or come away with only a broken hand or bruises.

Klaus D., the 65-year-old director of the Zillertaler Glacierbahn and two of his employees, Michael G. (34) and Markus U. (24), were tried today for manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm due to gross negligence . The three pleaded not guilty. They did what they always did that morning. “The conditions were not extreme, it was slippery,” U. said.

According to their lawyer Andreas Grabenweger, there were exceptional circumstances that caused the track to suddenly become icy early in the morning. Climatologist Karl Gabl had said in a report that “a metamorphosis of the snow cover” was taking place.

The Dutch Lisa and Rutger told their story a few weeks ago to our colleagues at AD.nl. They were also witnesses in the courtroom in Innsbruck today. Lisa said that they went down very carefully. “We had encountered more icy parts so we said to each other: be careful. We are going very slowly, although it will take a long time to get to the bottom.” But at the scene of the disaster there was no stopping it.

There was more wrong than just the icy track. That morning, no one from the ski lift company had made a descent to inspect the slope to make sure everything was safe. That is mandatory. When asked by judge Norbert Hofer why the track had not been checked, the three suspects had no answer.

The people who went down indeed had no chance. The women probably flew towards the rocks and trees at a speed of about 50 kilometers per hour. The reconstruction of the accidents on the slopes and the explanations show that some people slid as much as 100 meters on the ice rink. The net in front of the abyss was a marking net and not suitable for catching people.

Why didn’t the track close? The file shows that one of the employees did call that it was dangerous in that location, but the track was only closed after the terrible accidents. Lawyer Florian Stachowitz, who represented the Dutch victims: “The manager did nothing after that call. And the man who was on site had been working on that track for a long time. He should have acted immediately and closed the track. That was his job.” The two track employees said that they “always did it that way”.

“When you buy a lift pass, you enter into a contract,” the Dutch lawyer argued. “You have to ensure that you can ski, the lift operator must ensure safe slopes.”

Where does the skier’s responsibility end and the ski lift operator’s responsibility begin? So that question was central to the judge in Innsbruck today. Klaus D., Michael G,. and Markus U., could receive serious prison sentences for their negligence and the elevator operator a sky-high fine. There was a lot of interest in the lawsuit from Austrian media and ski lift operators. The ruling could have major consequences for the safety requirements imposed on ski areas.

Ultimately, the three defendants were acquitted. The judge found it not proven that the employees did not exercise due care. He believes that the “exceptional winter with little snow and difficult weather conditions” should be taken into account. The ice formation only occurred the morning before opening and, in his opinion, additional checks by the staff had not changed the situation.