Lauchernalp in Valais Employee falls from chairlift - seriously injured
A serious accident occurred at work on Lauchernalp on Wednesday. An employee of the Lauchernalp mountain railroads was seriously injured after falling from a great height.
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- A 23-year-old man has been seriously injured in a work accident in Valais.
- The mountain railroad employee fell from a chairlift.
- A winch cable from a snow groomer had collided with the chairlift.
At around 7.35 pm, a serious accident occurred on Lauchernalp in the canton of Valais in which an employee of Lauchernalp Bergbahnen was seriously injured after falling from a great height. A collision occurred between a winch cable of a snow groomer and the chairlift, writes the Valais cantonal police in a statement.
According to initial investigations, the 23-year-old railroad employee was traveling in a chair on the Stafel-Gandegg chairlift from the Gandegg mountain station to the Stafel valley station. At the same time, another employee was preparing the slope with a snow groomer. The vehicle was connected to a winch cable.
For reasons as yet unexplained, the winch cable came into contact with the chairlift on which the victim was traveling downhill. As a result of the collision, the chair was torn from a height of several meters and crashed to the ground.
The employee was seriously injured in the collision. After initial treatment on site by an Air Zermatt rescue team, the man was transported to the Inselspital in Bern with serious injuries. In addition to Air Zermatt, the Valais cantonal rescue organization was also deployed.
In order to clarify the exact circumstances that led to this accident, the public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation with the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, STSB.
Due to the ongoing investigation, the Lauchernalp cable car from Stafel will remain closed until further notice.