Bill To Allow More Access To Accident Data From Colorado Resorts Fails, Resorts Say It Would ‘Scare Prospective Skiers’
CBS Denver 2 hrs ago Syndicated Local – CBS Denver
DENVER (CBS) – A Colorado bill aimed at making data from ski resorts more available failed to gain traction this legislative session, but will likely be back next time around. The Ski Area Safety Plans and Accident Reporting Bill, or SB21-184, failed to pass its first committee hearing.
Sponsored by Democrats Sen. Tammy Story, of Conifer, and Sen. Jessie Danielsen, of Wheat Ridge, SB21-184 would have required ski area operators to “adopt and disclose safety plans, disclose seasonal ski accident statistics and maintain an accident data database.”
Colorado Ski Deaths Transparency Bill Killed westword.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from westword.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A dozen skiers and snowmobilers died in avalanches in Colorado during winter 2020-21, primarily in the backcountry, which sadly matched a state record set in 1993. The total number of deaths was the most of any state this season, a distinction held by Colorado for the past 70 years.
The public has access to such data because it is closely tracked by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center
, a Boulder-based state agency. The statistics are used for a variety of purposes, including making forecasts, reviewing trends and promoting education and safety in the increasingly popular backcountry playground.
Even more people, an average of 13 each year, died while skiing or snowboarding inbounds at Colorado’s ski resorts during the 2010s. The single-season total reached a high of 22 fatalities during 2011-12.
On Christmas Eve 2020, Etthan Mañon, an eighteen-year-old from the Dominican Republic, died after a skiing accident at Echo Mountain. It took rescuers more than an hour to extricate Mañon from the trees where he d crashed, and that passage of time may well have spelled the difference between survival and losing his life.
Although everything about the incident was tragic, Mañon s death appears to have gone unreported for months, until a March 23
Colorado Sun article previewed a new bill about transparency related to ski resort accidents and safety plans. The measure will be discussed by a Colorado Legislature committee today, April 15, and Danilda Streeb, Mañon s aunt, who lives in Denver and is still reeling from her nephew s passing, supports it wholeheartedly, even as she expresses astonishment that such mandates aren t already in place.
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