A Question for You: Should resorts be held responsible for injuries that occur on artificial terrain?

August 19, 1997-- An El Dorado County, California Jury decided the first major case in the country to address the issue of ski area liability for the design of snowboard park terrain features. Sitting in South Lake Tahoe, the jury found that Sierra-at-Tahoe was not negligent in their design or construction of a jump in Snowboard Alley, its snowboard park. On December 1, 1994, 19-year-old Jim Kelly attempted to jump a "table-top" terrain feature and lost control. After traveling 24-34 feet down slope Kelly landed on his upper back and broke his neck resulting in permanent paraplegia.

Kelly, an experienced snowboarder, sued Sierra-at-Tahoe, claiming that the jump posed an extreme risk of injury. After a seven week trial, and two and a half days of deliberations, the jury rejected the claim, finding that the jump was an inherent risk of the sport of snowboarding, which Mr. Kelly voluntarily chose to assume.

According to Bill McKinley, of the law firm of McKinley & Smith, which defended Sierra-at-Tahoe, "This was a case about choice and personal responsibility. It is the rider, not the ski area, who determines the degree of risk to be assumed."

Tim Smith, co-counsel for Sierra-at-Tahoe, said that "only the snowboarder can control his speed, body position, and the degree of difficulty he chooses to encounter on any particular jump."

Snowboarding has been booming in popularity and snowboard parks are a big attraction. Ski areas provide table top jumps, halfpipes and other terrain features which snowboarders may use to catch air. Attorney for injured snowboarders contend that ski areas should assume responsibility for construction of these jumps to minimize the risk of injury to snowboarders. Attorneys for Sierra-at-Tahoe and other ski areas assert that a snowboarder alone controls whether a jump is taken and how it is taken, including speed, body position, and jump angle. Only the individual snowboarder knows whether he is competent to jump a terrain feature. Features can be jumped at an infinite number of angles and speeds.

John Rice, the general manager of Sierra-at-Tahoe, took personal responsibility for the design of the jump. He and other snowboard park employees had tested the jump, as he tests all of the jumps located in his snowboard park. Mr. Rice is nationally recognized as a leading expert in snowboard park design, and often referred to as the "Grandfather of snowboard parks." According to Rice, "Mr. Kelley's accident was a tragedy. Snowboard jumping, however, is dangerous and accidents do occur. There is simply no way to prevent accidents without fundamentally altering the nature of the sport."

A Question for You: Should resorts be held responsible for injuries that occur on artificial terrain?