A gondola, which was transporting workers, crashed on Tuesday November 19, 2024 when it arrived at the station in the Val Thorens resort, in Savoie. The accident left six people injured, two of them seriously. It comes a few days before the scheduled reopening of the slopes.
The accident occurred “in very difficult weather conditions at more than 3,000 meters” of altitude, around 7:30 a.m., according to a press release from the Savoie prefecture.
The cabin of the Cime Caron cable car, used as part of an ongoing construction site and which transported a total of 16 workers, hit the arrival station for an unknown reason. The report shows “two people seriously injured with no life-threatening prognosis and four slightly injured”, state services specify.
2,300 meters above sea level
A crisis management unit has been activated, as well as a departmental operational center and a numerous casualty plan (NOVI), for better coordination of relief efforts. “Significant resources from the departmental fire and rescue service and the Savoie SAMU are committed to caring for the victims. The station’s first aid trackers, the CRS Alpes and the PGHM are also on site,” indicates the prefecture.
The victims and those involved were being evacuated by another gondola late in the morning.
The Savoyard resort of Val Thorens, the highest resort in Europe at 2,300 meters above sea level, is due to kick off the ski season on Saturday November 23, along with that of Tignes. The other resorts will stagger the opening of their slopes until the Christmas holidays.
Uncommon accidents
Despite the accident, we will open the station on Saturday “, the resort’s tourist office told AFP. Information concerning the opening perimeter (piste and lifts) will be communicated soon on social networks.
The workers were going to the construction site of a reception building at the top of Cime Caron, which will offer skiers and walkers several services, including catering, within a few weeks. They used the Cime Caron cable car, the largest in Europe when it was built in 1982, and which was renovated in 2019. Tuesday morning, the webcams installed on the slopes showed a snowy landscape and a horizon caught in the clouds.
Gondola accidents are not frequent but may have had serious consequences in the past. In July 1999 in Saint-Etienne-en-Dévoluy (Hautes-Alpes), 20 people were killed when a cable car bucket fell.
In May 2021, the fall of a cable car cabin, probably due to a broken cable, killed 14 people in Stresa, a seaside resort on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.
