By Ellen Rugeley
Another skier has filed suit against Vail Resorts Inc., the parent company of Lake Tahoe-based Heavenly Mountain Resort. The suit, filed on behalf of Elisabeth “Elly” Benschop, 54, of Gardnerville accuses the company of negligence resulting in brain injury, emotional distress and loss of consortium.
The suit, filed by attorney J.D. Sullivan in U.S. District Court in Reno, alleges that on February 22, Benschop was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain injury when Heavenly employee Andrea Ramos, 20, of Brazil crashed into her on the resort’s Olympic ski run.
During an interview, Calvin Fitzgerald, Benschop’s husband, noted that over the gates leading to the resorts Olympic run are signs that warn skiers to stay in control, and also noted that a Heavenly employee wearing a yellow jacket was slowing skiers down. “We thought we were safe,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald, a retired Los Angeles Police Department detective, described the crash as “an explosion.”
“Elly was doing her intermediate-type skiing. It wasn’t a busy run. And all of the sudden, there is this person who knocks Elly on the ground.”
After the crash. Fitzgerald “looked at Elly. She wasn’t moving at all. I thought she was dead.” He then said he stopped the snowboarder and saw that she was wearing a Vail Resorts employee pass. Ramos kept apologizing, he said, and then the ski patrol arrived.
Benschop was carried down the mountain by ski patrolmen and taken by ambulance to Barton Memorial Hospital where she was diagnosed with “concussion and brain injury,” according to the complaint.
Benschop is seeking damages of $75,000 to cover her emergency and medical costs, as well as legal fees and expenses. Her suit also claims that the resort has failed to hold liability insurance to cover its foreign employees and has refused to take responsibility for its employees’ actions.
According to the suit, Vail and Heavenly hire seasonal foreign employees and offer low wages, free ski passes and discounted food. But the workers are not provided with liability insurance, “so after they crash into other resort guests,” the guests have no recourse.
“As an employee of Heavenly, Ramos was well aware, or should have been made well aware by Heavenly, of the posted rule that downhill skiers, i.e. skiers ahead, have the right of way,” the suit said. The resort’s failure to properly train its employees makes it negligence, the suit added.
Officials for the resort company deny any responsibility for the accident.
In an e-mail sent to Sullivan, Vail Resorts Management Co. litigation counsel Marc A. Bonora said Ramos was not an employee of Vail or Heavenly. “And she does not have an on-mountain position that would require her to be out riding a snowboard,” Bonora said. “Most significantly the collision occurred on her day off. She was skiing on her own as a guest at Heavenly, just as your clients were.”
Ramos was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“This has happened to another skier. I just want this to stop. They need to get some kind of training up there,” said Fitzgerald.
Sullivan filed a similar suit in December on behalf of Kimberly Bland of Florida, who was injured in January 2011 when Heavenly employee Daniel Barreno crashed into her while he was riding down the Olympic slope on his snowboard. Bland was reportedly knocked unconscious and suffered injuries to her head, neck, shoulder and back. She sought at least $350,000 in damages, plus costs. However, unlike Ramos, Barreno was on the clock during the time of the accident.
Both lawsuits claim that the injuries resulted from a pattern of accidents caused by seasonal employees from abroad with little training and no insurance.
