The Spanish ski resort of Astún, in the Pyrenees, reopened on Sunday the day after a chairlift accident which left 30 injured, including two still hospitalized. The resort, close to the French border, shows normal activity with chairlifts in operation and skiers hurtling down the slopes, according to images from public television TVE. The damaged ski lift remained closed to allow the work of investigators who are trying to clarify the circumstances of the malfunction, indicated Andres Pita, the deputy director of the company which manages the station, Eivasa.
The accident, which occurred on Saturday morning, occurred after damage to a pulley of the chairlift which was then carrying 80 people, leading to a loss of tension in the cable, the fall of some chairlifts and the significant destabilization of others. “Suddenly we heard a noise and we fell to the ground in the chairlift. We bounced about five times, our backs hurt or bruised, but some people fell off the seats,” María Moreno, one of the skiers on the chairlift, told TVE on Saturday.
Of the 30 injured, ten were hospitalized, two of whom were still hospitalized for trauma on Sunday in Zaragoza, the capital of the Aragon region where the ski resort is located. In a press release published overnight from Saturday to Sunday, the Eivasa company declared “not knowing the causes of the accident which are currently being investigated”. Three parallel investigations were launched, explained Andres Pita: that of the police, another led “by the government of Aragon and ours, carried out by our technicians and the manufacturer” of the chairlifts.
“All facilities,” not just the one that was involved in the accident, “but all facilities are up to date and have undergone the inspections required by law. The law on cable transport in Aragon is very demanding,” assured Andres Pita.
