This was originally published on the SGR Blog.
Was Training Sufficient to Trigger Skier’s Assumption of Risk?
New York State has a statutory “Safety Skiing Code” that allocates training duties and safety obligations between the skier and the facility operator. And, as a recent case illustrates, when an accident ineluctably occurs on a ski slope after a training lesson, the Court must weigh the fact-specific circumstances against those statutorily apportioned duties and obligations.
On January 1, 2014, Daniella Bodden, then 16 years old, was injured while skiing at Holiday Mountain Fun Park, a facility in Sullivan County owned and operated by Holiday Mountain Fun Park Inc. Bodden, a first-time skier, rented equipment from the facility and received a private one-hour lesson from a ski instructor. The lesson took place on a slope referred to as the “bunny hill.” After the instructor showed Bodden the pizza wedge technique for turning and stopping, she and the instructor went down the bunny hill together five or six times. By that point, the instructor felt that Bodden was ready to progress to one of the designated trails known as Benson’s Glade. Although Bodden expressed some concern, the instructor assured both Bodden and her mother, Lola Bernard, that Bodden was ready and that the instructor would be with Bodden the entire time. Coming down Benson’s Glade, Bodden gained too much speed and “lost control,” eventually crashing into an orange safety fence at the base of the trail, injuring herself.
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