DILLON, Colo. –
Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are now trying to learn why a Loveland Ski Area lift maintenance worker died while working Thursday morning.
OSHA investigators tell FOX31 that Adam Lee, 40, was working on the Magic Carpet, a piece of equipment that helps beginners get up a hill, when the accident happened. They wouldn’t divulge more details.
“It was a shock,” Erika Lee told FOX31, when she learned that her husband of 14 years had died.
Erika and Adam have three children together, two girls who are 12 and nine years old and a boy who is five.
“He just really loved those kids,” Erika said. “Everything was about the kids. We always did family things together.”
But they’d been a part a lot the past two years. During the winter seasons, Adam lived in Colorado and worked at Loveland, while Erika and the children lived in Michigan, where she’s from.
Finally, this summer Adam was promoted to a lift maintenance worker and the rest of the family moved to Colorado.
“We struggled,” Erika said, talking about their time apart. “Anyone who knows, knows we struggled and we fought really hard to stay together as a family. We didn’t just say OK, we’re going to call it quits.”
Now Erika wants answers as to what happened in the accident that took Adam’s life. She told FOX31 that Loveland Ski Area wouldn’t give her many details about how Adam died.
Loveland Ski Area sent FOX31 the following statement:
“At approximately 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 28, a Loveland Ski Area employee was involved in a fatal accident while working. Ski Patrol was in the area and responded immediately. The circumstances of the incident are being investigated. Loveland Ski Area extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends affected by this tragic event.”
“I didn’t say bye to him that morning,” Erika said. “I was rushing out the door, and I just…I was wondering how I was going to get to work and I didn’t say bye to him and that just went through my mind," she said. “It’s hard to imagine he’s never going to walk through that door again,” she said.
OSHA investigators said it could take up to six months for their investigation to be complete. They said deadly accidents involving workers Loveland and other Colorado ski areas are rare.
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LOVELAND SKI AREA, Colo. —
A maintenance employee died while working at Loveland Ski Area on Thursday morning.
Officials said the employee, identified by family members as 40-year-old Adam Lee, was involved in an accident about 11 a.m. It did not say where the accident took place.
The Clear Creek County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy was scheduled for Saturday.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident. A spokesman said the investigation will take six months.
Loveland officials said Ski Patrol responded but Lee was pronounced dead. The circumstances of what led to the accident are under investigation.
The hours of operation at the ski area will not be impacted on Friday, officials said.
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KUSA, CO -
Federal authorities launched an investigation Friday into the death of a Loveland Ski Area worker who got caught up in a “magic carpet” lift he was working on, 9Wants to Know has learned.
Two investigators from the Denver office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration spent part of the day at the ski area in Clear Creek County, said Herb Gibson, the federal agency’s area director.
“We were there first thing this morning,” Gibson told 9NEWS. “We’re trying to determine the cause and exactly what happened in this incident and, obviously, prevent it from happening again.”
A “magic carpet” lift is, essentially, a conveyor belt installed at snow-level. Skiers stand on it on their skis or snowboards and are transported uphill.
They are often used on beginner hills.
Gibson said the lift involved in Thursday’s deadly accident was “very small” and not in use while the worker was performing maintenance on it.
“The person got caught up in some of the equipment,” Gibson said. “This is a tragic accident during the holidays.”
The identity of the 40-year-old man who died after an accident around 11 a.m. Thursday has not been released because efforts were still underway to notify his family, Carrie Blackwell, chief deputy coroner in Clear Creek County, told 9NEWS.
An autopsy is scheduled Saturday.
The Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board regulates ski lifts and is responsible for investigating any death or injury that could be the result of an equipment malfunction. An engineer conducted an inspection that “revealed proper functioning of the lift,” said Lee Rasizer, spokesman for the tramway safety board.
As a result, the tramway safety board won’t be involved in the investigation.
OSHA is part of the U.S. Department of Labor and is charged with investigating workplace accidents.
Gibson said it is likely to be at least a few months before OSHA investigators reach a conclusion about what happened.
He said the operators of the ski area have been cooperating with investigators.
John Sellers, the marketing director at Loveland Ski Area, described the death as a “fatal accident while working” in a written statement but did not shed further light on the incident.
“Ski Patrol was in the area and responded immediately,” Sellers said in the statement. “The circumstances of the incident are being investigated.”
Loveland Ski Area opened for the season on Oct. 20.
In March, the ski area’s administrators came under criticism from Clear Creek County Coroner Chris Hegmann after he learned that employees moved the body of a dead skier before investigators arrived at the scene. That man died after crashing into a tree.
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GEORGETOWN – State tramway safety board engineers investigated a lift at Loveland Ski Area and determined that it was functioning properly and unrelated to the death of an resort employee on Thursday.
The ski area said its ski patrol was in the area when an accident happened around 11 a.m. Thursday and responded immediately.
Resort spokesman John Sellers said the circumstances of the accident, which occurred while the employee was working, were under investigation and declined to give details.
“Loveland Ski Area extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends affected by this tragic event,” a statement read.
The name of the employee has not been released, and local law enforcement authorities haven’t released further information.