The accident occurred around 7:45 a.m. in “not very good” weather conditions, but which subsequently improved and its causes are currently unknown, he said. The toll stands at “two seriously injured people without a life-threatening condition, who were evacuated to the hospitals of Grenoble and Chambéry” and “six lightly injured”, he said, noting a previous report which reported six injured, two of whom were serious.
A person “very shocked was also taken care of,” he added. 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.
Manual mode
Some 120 people (firefighters, CRS Alpes, PGHM, Smu and slope services), as well as two helicopters and tracked vehicles were involved in the rescue operations. A medical-psychological emergency unit has also been set up in Orelle.
The Albertville public prosecutor's office was contacted and a team from the investigation and accident office is expected on site Wednesday morning “to analyze the causes of what happened”, added the prefect. The dumpster “entered the summit station at a fairly high speed,” said Claude Jay, the mayor of Belleville, where Val Thorens is located.
According to Jérôme Grellet, general director of SETAM, the company which operates the cable cars, the station operated in “construction site” or “manual” mode, that is to say less secure than when it is open to the public and is then managed in an automated manner. The cabin was operated by an “extremely experienced” pilot; “very shocked” by the accident, he was taken care of by the psychological unit, he said.
Opening Saturday
As for the weather conditions, they were “snowy” but “normal” for the high mountain season, he stressed. 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 with that of Tignes. Most other resorts will stagger the opening of their slopes until the Christmas holidays.
Despite the accident, “we will open the station on Saturday,” declared the tourist office. Information concerning the opening perimeter (slopes and lifts) will be communicated soon on social networks. The workers were heading to the construction site of a panoramic restaurant at the top of Cime Caron, which was due to open 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. Cable car 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.
