Flying Skiers: Who is Responsible? | The Gudauri Ski Lift Malfunction

[@Noodies]

CORRECTION: On a well designed lift, brakes activate automatically upon a power loss because they are held open with power. The backup power allows the console to continue to function during the emergency. thanks @csabasipos6525 & @chadlucier 🔸Become a Member: kzbin.info/door/uCd4H8swyV19RpFLWGt1Mgjoin 🔸Donate: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=CH2XJQTH298U4 🔸Twitter: twitter.com/1ButteredNoodle 🔸Discord: www.discord.gg/VKfQ3NDrE5 🔸Twitch: www.twitch.tv/ButteredNoodies

[@wildniscamper7276]

i was going to write that..

[@commandbrawler9348]

next time use metric in your videos instead of those stupid american measurements!

[@johnthompson6374]

You forgot to mention the "drop Dogs" as a final emergency device designed to physically drop down anytime the bullwheel starts to go backwards. I am glad you added your correction though. Peace/JT

[@sethc4758]

​@@johnthompson6374

[@jackyboi8832]

I’m working in whistler as a lift operator and I would say the manufacturer, lift maintenance, is to blame for there not being a rollback safety device

[@Noodies]

amen

[@AirwickY]

Was this lift made by doppelmayr? It looks a lot like one. If so, it should have a rollback device, unless it was an older lift, which I doubt it. There is also a possibility where they did not test the rollback device and the device ultimately failed

[@Noodies]

built and installed by Dopplemayr in 2008

[@papuaoshi]

Poor maintenance is the reason. Georgia is a post-soviet country with a soviet mindset of a half of its population. Also the shortage in maintenance budget did its job.@@AirwickY

[@MK-ev5rz]

@@Noodies Doppelmayr really shouldn't sell lifts without a rollback device.

[@mikegroberman247]

The resort is at fault, 100%. I'm a ski lift technician, every resort I've been to, operating the evac drive (or any operating of the lift with safety systems other than RPDs bypassed) is STRICTLY prohibited unless a technician is physically present at the lift either doing it or guiding the operators. The issue is the coupling: it connects not to the drive shaft but via bolts through the service brake disc, sometimes accessory belts for things like the oil cooler get in the way and the disc brake has to be bypassed and moved by hand. You should never switch the controls to evac mode until you're coupled since with the controls in evac mode A. someone could start the evac engine remotely whilst your hands are in the machinery B. in any mode except evac the e-brake will deploy automatically if the service brake is bypassed manually. This has nothing to do with bad design, it's actually very important that a trained technician be able to take un-restricted control of the lift during certain emergencies or for testing purposes, however these fully manual control systems are not intended for use by the lift operators. All that being said, newer Doppelmayr lifts use hydraulic pressure from the evac drive to release the e-brake in evac mode so it's physically impossible for all 3 brakes to be open unless the engine RPM is high enough to move the lift.

[@Noodies]

good info, thanks for the first hand input!

[@mr.cookedfish9978]

I frankly thought the oil pressure thing was standard and like that on every lift

[@VypeReaper]

Holy shit, imagine being at fault for something you were not properly trained for by your leadership. For something that isn't built by you, bought by you, or even implemented by you. Fuck that shit. I would sue whoever runs that Ski Resort, the CEOs, and Directors for negligence.

[@Noodies]

that theme actually may become a series on the channel. so many instances of it happening

[@ericjbowman1708]

Scapegoated, definitely. But not an issue of improper training -- not part of the lift operator's job description. We had a rollback on (the old) Sunshine lift at Steamboat when I was operating it, when the "dog" dropped into the spokes of the bullwheel it made a loud clang, and stopped. That lift had been struck by lightning so many times it had a mind of its own, and yeah, hitting the e-brake did nothing. My training ended with "hit the e-brake" not troubleshooting why it didn't work, resetting electronics etc., that's someone else's job. I didn't know anti-rollback was an optional feature, that's absurd.

[@edaxsachorwzky8898]

True, unfortunately Georgia being a third world Country it will be difficult to win that lawsuit

[@Cara.314]

classic capitalism, capital owners decide to save a few bucks, everyone else pays.

[@svr5423]

@@ericjbowman1708 I'd say if you had a lift that complicated to handle, every position should be double staffed* and all of the staff members should hold regular emergency drills outside of visitor hours to stay current on their procedures. Automation would clearly be cheaper. *an operator could be occupied with another emergency or become incapacitated

[@justanunverifieduser2075]

I had to double check that you only had 572 subscribers -- amazing work!

[@Noodies]

spread the word baby! thanks for watching!

[@hunterjumper5892]

This same accident happened at Bartaloche years ago. Popping one’s skis off would have been hugely helpful before jumping. Great video.

[@Noodies]

crazy how once isnt enough to learn thanks for watching!

[@junli6065]

what do you suggest the snowboarders do in this case?

[@apparentlyzak]

yeah@@junli6065

[@MrBrenos]

@@junli6065to be honest. Getting skis off mid air would be way harder than just unclipping a snowboard.

[@anonymous-ew6gh]

​@@MrBrenosYou must be a skier. Or if youre not a skier youve never been on a hill.

[@Devilpeakmotorsports]

As a lift mecanic and maintenance foreman for the last 22 years, the narration of this video has a lot of inaccuracies. Modern lifts all have systems to prevent rollbacks in the event of power or mechanical failure. It takes a crazy sequence of events that include human error for something like this to happen. My staff and I do daily, weekly, monthly and annual testing and maintenance of all brake systems as well as load testing every 7 years where we put 110% of the rated load on the lift (trash bag lined boxes filled with water, 187 pounds per passenger) and test that each of the 4 braking systems will automatically trip and stop the lift from rolling back independently. Procedures were not followed (poor training) and systems were disabled (negligent operation and/or maintenance) that allowed the accident to happen when problems with the power or machinery occurred.

[@Noodies]

thanks for the info!

[@IAmDirtyDonuts]

you say the video is full of inaccuracies but you don't provide any information relevant to that statement or corrections. what did he say that was inaccurate? How does putting a bunch of water in buckets apply to whats being discussed other than saying what you do for regular load testing somewhere else in the world? Is noodles' statement that this lift in Georgia doesn't have a rollback safety wrong? A lift with safety protocols with so many points of failure is the issue. Even if the operators did everything right, according to noodles' video all it takes is one wrong button for everything to come crashing down.

[@Devilpeakmotorsports]

@@IAmDirtyDonuts load testing tests the systems that are in place to prevent a rollback. It's very relevant to this video.

[@mastpg]

Uhhhh, you just listed a bunch of things YOU do/did and didn't address this specific lift or the incident at all. You may have lift experience...but that seems like the only experience you have.

[@Devilpeakmotorsports]

@@mastpg I listed what I do because it is the maintenance and testing that is required to be done by the lift manufacturers, insurance companies and government regulators to ensure the systems that are in place to prevent a rollback like this will functioning correctly. The point is that there are multiple things that need to go wrong for something like this to happen.

[@chadlucier]

As a lift operator this doesnt make sense. Service and emergency brakes are held open with electricity. If there was no power, they should have remained closed. If there was power to open them them the system should have been able to detect the rollback and close the brakes. In the US lift safety is way different, even the design. Most lifts not designed to go in reverse have whats called a 'dog leg' which is designed to drop into the bullwheel if it goes in reverse.

[@Noodies]

this lift was majorly flawed, I don't know what the hell they were thinking

[@csabasipos6525]

The "well designed ski lift" explanation is majorly incorrect. You dont need any battery power at all for the breaks to operate, that is the whole point of failsafe break design. You need power to keep the breaks released, once the power is gone, the breaks apply automatically, which it did in this case. This was a clear operator error, as they disengaged the main shaft (which had the breaks applied) before they connected the auxiliary diesel generator.

[@Noodies]

youre right they can be designed even better than what I referenced. every lift is different, my research was based on operation manuals and the first hand experience of operators I talked to. however there was no automated rollback fault on this particular lift, and as another commented its probably because of the lax rules of the Georgian government.

[@vonsiii]

@@Noodies Doppelmayr is one the best chairlift manufacturers in the world and has proven designs but a rollback bake system (which this lift did have) cannot work if has been essentially bypassed like it was in this case.

[@csabasipos6525]

@@Noodies First of all, once the power was gone, the lift automatically went into a safe, locked state, there was no rollback until the intentional operator misconduct happened. More importantly: this was a rather new Doppelmyar lift. I highly doubt the largest lift manufacturer on the planet actually sells different - less safe - versions of the same lift type. FYI, exactly the same lift type can be seen running in Austria, Germany, France as well. I think the misunderstanding of rollback protection comes form these old lift videos you can find on YT, one of them shows an old lift bull wheel from the 90's with this mechanical clamp like device. No modern lifts has that, as large capacity lifts cannot be stopped by a simple device like that, there is simply too much weight and they don't scale well.

[@kray3883]

​@@csabasipos6525That there's a way to disable the rollback protection at all seems questionable but assuming there's some reason why there should be a way to disable it then maybe it also needs some automatic speed limiter that cannot be disabled.

[@csabasipos6525]

@@kray3883 When the power is lost, breaks cannot be released. That is the reason you need to disconnect the main shaft, otherwise you cannot move the lift even with the diesel generator, as that does not produce electricity, only mechanical force to drive the lift slowly. I have a feeling that installing some simple mechanical device like a governor on these fast modern lifts completely independent from the main shaft is not doable, otherwise they would have done it already.

[@wolfy_potatowcue]

Doppelmayr lifts are unsettling nowadays. My local ski mountain, Mont-Saint-Anne, have gondolas, whom's manufacturer is Doppelmayr. That lift had 2 accidents in less than 4 years appart. In the 2020 season, the gondolas suddenly stopped (that happened twice in the same season, before they closed the lift for the rest of the season!), causing a havock inside each cabins and there were about 50 injured. The lift was closed for the next 2 years. December 2022, the lift wasn't open yet, one of the cabins fell off and was crushed.

[@Noodies]

wtf its officical I'm never riding a lift again

[@SAA-hr9gr]

So weird because in Switzerland obviously pretty much all lifts are Garaventa made. Never heard of any problems, quite literally ever.

[@kalen1702]

100% not the lifty's fault. They're trained for some emergency situations, but a rollback fault is supposed to stop the lift. If that fails, and the emergency brake fails, then there's really nothing they can do.

[@Noodies]

nice to have a couple scapegoats when things go wrong

[@VENNOM711]

I did not know that that could happen on a lift! Crazy! I hope all the lifts I ride have all the safety measures in place, and no convoluted safety procedures.

[@Noodies]

the illusion of safety, right?

[@shortkeys73]

Only in countries where a certain type of emergency brake is not mandated. In first world countries this could never happen because they are equipped with a special brake whose only purpose is to stop this from happening.

[@vonsiii]

@@shortkeys73 actually the European and US Codes stopped mandating the use of mechanical high speed backstops on the input side of the gearbox (drivetrain backstops) which likely would have prevented this accident. In this situation the rollback brake had been disabled to move the lift.

[@777PLove]

In America it is mandatory to have emergency stop I believe in other countries not so sure anyhoo if you are on a chair rolling back jump as soon as it is feasible

[@mr.cookedfish9978]

On any newer lifts, the rollback brake, or the emergency brake cannot be released together if the lift is not actively moving

[@Soundsculpturesofficial]

I’m a ski lift operator and I firmly believe that the resorts at fault. Doppelmayr is my favourite company for ski lifts and this lift did have a rollback prevention device but it malfunctioned severely

[@Noodies]

trust no one!

[@vincentraymond8067]

How do you know the operators didn't release the rollback brake? How can only two operators decide by themselves to attemp such a dangerous procedure? If you meant they were not trained or retrained properly I hear you. This I guess is difficult to evaluate; ALL implicated before, during and after will likely blame two humans rather than "reputable" entities

[@pony0110]

Loved this video! Wanted a deeper dive into how the hell something like that happened! Appreciate the content my guy! Top tier!

[@Noodies]

thank you so much!

[@mlee8086]

YEETED!! BUT WHY?? Sorry these people got hurt but that vid caption and screenshot lmao awesome. Learned a lot about ski lifts, very informative.

[@Noodies]

💛thank you!!💛

[@toxic0w0]

Amazing work as always

[@Noodies]

thanks for watching as always 0w0

[@thomasgoeckeritz9198]

Ive been seeing this clip on instagram tik tok and other socials, nice to finally get a good, thorough, and correct explanation. Good Video :). Also I liked your accent i thought it made the video more entertaining.

[@Noodies]

thanks boss i appreciate it!

[@mydarlingisa]

9:23 Yes, when me, my dad, and my sister were on American Flyer, located in the very center of Center Village, something just made it stop even though it was a Leitner-Poma 2018 bubble lift, all 3 of us were stuck for like an hour. Thankfully, with the power of human strength, all 3 of us made it to the upper terminal. *and it never happened again*

[@ruoplay8149]

I really don’t think the lefties should be charged with such a hard sentence. They tried the procedure, sadly failed and that was probably when panic struck them. It’s not that they didn’t do anything and just let the lift be. The poor design of the lift and the resort not willing to spend some extra money on safety mechanisms should be the main blame

[@Noodies]

i wholeheartedly agree. imagine getting a job for the winter, doing something wrong, and spending 5 years in prison cause of ur mistake.

[@getahanddown]

Totally. A design that doesn't 'fail safe' with zero human input should be considered insufficient

[@ZePopTart]

I agree. Why do white collar criminals with clear malicious intent or clear neglect get off lighter than some seasonal workers making $20/h.

[@anonymous-ew6gh]

​@@ZePopTartwhere tf you making 20 hr as a liftie i wanna know

[@ZePopTart]

@@anonymous-ew6gh never been a liftie. But the expensive areas do. Tahoe and Aspen.

[@DiamonDust]

Thank you for standing up for the employees. I know what it's like to work for a company that completely neglects training and doesn't give us employees the tools we need, and it's absolute hell when something goes wrong. I'm not even in a job where someone's safety can be compromised like this, so I can't imagine how awful this experience was for the operators. If an employee is not properly trained I think it's the management's fault like 99% of the time, especially if it's in a situation like where it's safety training.

[@echteferux]

This information is not entirely correct. I cannot believe that the emergency brake is not spring loaded and does not close in case of loss of power. I do understand that it could be bypassed in case of doing the procedure with the diesel system though and that that might have been the cause of the accident. About the big emphasis on anti-rollback: on this kind of old-fashioned lift it maybe makes sense. But a lot of lifts out there run backwards on purpose in case of garaging the chairs so for those lifts anti-rollback wouldn't work.

[@Noodies]

definitely is strange how differently these lifts can be installed and work

[@mr.cookedfish9978]

I've worked on a modern lift in the Aletsch Gletscher ski resort (CH) and something like that is unthinkable, everything that can go wrong always results in the safety brakes being applied, also all brakes are tested every morning, there were 4 redundant braking system in the lift I worked at, one of the you could trigger directly pneumatically. Also bypassing the safety system in a socalled "Überbrückung" requires a lift tech on hand with a special key, and the speed is limited

[@Noodies]

makes u wonder how safe other things u ride in are

[@aeg_125]

Great video. The buck has to stop at the resort. They are responsible for training their employees properly and they are also responsible for purchasing safe lifts, not whatever cheap thing they had installed. Imprisoning low wage seasonal workers for messing up at work does zip to make the resort safer.

[@Noodies]

I didn't even think of that. "Now that these 2 men are in prison, this lift will magically work completely differently and safely."

[@VypeReaper]

@@Noodies well said!! no other way of putting it.

[@jpe1]

I agree with you 100%, but I will note that it very much looks like a Dopplemayr lift, I don’t think it’s fair to blame the lift manufacturer for a poorly maintained/operated lift

[@jacksonmixon5090]

​@jpe1 it wasn't poorly maintained... just poorly designed from the beginning. It had everything to do with the manufacturer

[@aeg_125]

@@jpe1 true, but I think it would be best if the manufacturer had a rollback failsafe on all their models. The resort ultimately decided which lift to purchase and what safety features it was willing to pay for. It would be nice if these lifts with this design could be retrofitted to have a physical mechanism to prevent rollback even in the event of double failure (power failure plus operator error).

[@LordBussey]

This exact situation happened to me and my brother when we were kids skiing at Devils Head in Wisconsin. The lift stopped then started to go backwards and speeding up significantly faster than it normally went. We were about half way up when it started and noticed people getting flung off the ski lift at the bottom. We both decided to ditch our gear and jump off right before we got to the very bottom. It was about a 10-15ft drop but better than the alternative. Scary situation for kids to experience and especially because the only way they could stop it was by cutting power entirely to the lift.

[@steorra15]

The "No fucking way" at 8:57 made me LOL.

[@Noodies]

😁

[@matter7180]

To be clear; the problem was not the voltage drop, neither forgetting to engage the diesel generator after the voltage drop as the lift came to a proper stop. The accident occurred after the operators incorrectly followed an emergency recovery procedure. First you should engage the Diesel Engine, afterwards you may disengage the emergency brakes. They did it the wrong way around, they disengaged the emergency brakes without engaging proper drive first.

[@Noodies]

I agree, which is why I put that explanation in the vid 🤣

[@getahanddown]

Rollback failsafe should be independant and 'dumb'. Regardless of anything else that reverse speed should see an autobrake apply

[@TackleTheDog]

Our old shitty Riblet is equipped with anti-rollback dogs. Our main electric panel (sabina), or LV (low voltage) panel and our wind system were designed by some random old bucko who has passed and left the blueprints in his estate so we dont really have any idea how it works nor can we fix it if it goes wrong. Yet that old dilapidated shitbox of a lift has anti-rollback devices to make sure this doesnt happen. I would have thought it would be mandatory to have this fail safe in place no matter the age of the lift, and this case is one of i’m sure many that prove just why it should be mandatory

[@Noodies]

lol wtf kind of horror movie is this place?

[@leannevandekew1996]

Hyak near Seattle had a similar lift event.

[@Noodies]

when will they learn :(

[@TheHellis]

In my opinion Doppelmayr is to blame. They made it possible to buy a ski lift with sub standard safety features, and there is nothing (I assume) on the boarding area that tells the skiers this is a cheap and dangerous version of a proper ski lift. Imagine if you could buy elevators without emergency brakes. Some things should not be an option just because it's possible. If a ski lift is built in 2007 then you would assume it's built to standards in that time. If the ski lift was 50 years old then I would assume it was built to standards back then, BUT updated to new standards.

[@Noodies]

the elevator analogy is exactly what attracted me to the "why" of this

[@TheHellis]

@@Noodies or buildings without fire protection/alarms/sprinklers/escapes. You just can't build things that is dangerous just because the customer wants it. You can't even get a car without airbags and ABS brakes anymore. 20-30 years ago that was a "luxury" accessory to your car. Now you can't get them without. (I realize there is probably also production reasons too here) But so many industries have realized that people are not smart enough for their own good and just don't give you the option to be stupid. But when a company makes options of safety (that affect innocent people) then they should go to jail for the rest of their lives.

[@coeneschamaun1735]

I'm of the belief that this lift did have rollback protection. But that either the circuitry (intentional bypass, or unintentional short or open), or something physically restricting the drop jaws (drop dog) from deploying, is what allowed a rollback to occur. Its also unknown where/when this lift was purchased. Was it direct from Dopplemyer, and new in 2008? Or 2nd hand from another ski area, with perhaps unknown modifications?

[@Biggames-n6i]

I will say from a lift operators perspective. There is almost NEVER adequate training for lift operators, I was a lift operator at a Massive resort which I will not name, my first day with 0 experience they took me to a detachable high speed lift with a moving carpet to load, and showed me how to start stop and slow the lift and said just ask the guys up top if you need help, I worked that hole season without any official or documented training, I don’t know what it’s like at this resort, but if this had happened to me or just about any of the other lift operators I would have been just as scared dumbfounded and totally oblivious to any order of operation in this scenario. Moral of what I’m saying there should be a higher standers to uphold from a mountain in training, everyone in these comments ask a lifti if they have had official training I bet the answer is no

[@TheDanishPixl]

Great video. I remember when the clip went viral but never made any research as to why it happened. KZbin recommendations, you've done it again! 😅

[@Noodies]

all hail the algorithm

[@robfitzsimmons8003]

I was a lift operator in the 1980s. We had 4 brakes - the bullwheel backstop was like a ratchet - it is impossible for it to run backwards.

[@Mrs.jimmy_kimmel]

I’ve been skiing my whole life and I’ve started to notice ski lift operators just sitting on their phones and not paying attention to the people on the lift and the lift itself. Just the last weekend one person had fallen and the operator didn’t stop the lift causing everyone to fall and run into wa h other. Half the time they are on their phones too and I just feel they need to have more training and be stricter on the employees.

[@Noodies]

hard to care when ur paid minimum wage too

[@coeneschamaun1735]

Agree on both. Better training, and reduce distractions (ie phones) FYI, 13 years in lift ops.

[@wibblywobblyidiotvision]

I've worked as a lift mechanic for 10 years, and driven lifts (including Doppelmayr lifts) for over 20. There's an awful lot wrong with your description. Firstly, it's not a diesel generator, but a diesel secondary driver. Either a diesel motor directly attached either via shafts and couplers, or belt drive, to the gear reduction system that drives the main bullwheel, or on more modern lifts, a diesel motor driving a hydralic pump that in turn runs teh hydraulic motor that turns the bullwheel. Nextly, braking. There are two braking systems on a chairlift. The main brake, which usually acts as a parking brake (the actual deceleration being caused by varying the speed of the electric motor) acts on the output side of the electric motor, before the gear reduction system. And the emergency brake, which acts directly on the periphery of the main bullwheel and usually has 2 independent calipers, each cpable of stopping the lift on its own. Both the main brake and the emergency brake are positive action systems, and under normal circumstances require a positive action to remain open - loss of power or hydraulic pressure will cause the brakes to close automatically. The safety interlocks in the system, which detect, amongst other things, overspeed, rollback, derailment, motor failure, power loss, and physical forcing open of the main brake, cause the emergency brake to activate. While it is possible (and often necessary when moving to evacuation mode) for the operator to force the main brake open, this is not possible with the secondary brake. When switching from normal operation to a secondary motor evacuation mode (there are evacuation modes using the normal motor), there is a point at which the electric motor needs to be uncoupled and the emergency motor coupled. Once the main drive is uncoupled, the normal braking system is no longer active, and /only/ the emergency brake remains in action. However, except in the most extreme of evacuation modes (ultimate mode), which is only ever used in very extreme circumstances and takes significant amounts of time to set up, the safety interlocks remain in place, and a rollback will cause the emergency brake to activate. So (and this is only speculation). If the rollback started shortly after the lift stopped, something was very wrong. Either the emergency brake was deliberately and physically disabled (something we saw in the Italian cable car tragedy) and / or the safety interlocks were deliberately disabled, or there was a major problem with the emergency braking system. Regardless of how the rollback started, the emergency brake should have been capable of stopping the lift if operating normally. However, a heavily loaded lift supplies significant torque, and if the brake was slow to activate or weak, the start of a rollback could simply smoke the brakes and leave the lift with no significant braking at all. Having watched the footage, I would suggest the final stop of the lift was not due to the brakes, but the drag on the cable caused by it being pulled through the grips of the chairs tangled up at the bottom.

[@Noodies]

yeah thats what I meant 😅

[@archit8658]

Seeing that chair send the people flying so far really gives me a newfound respect to the fact that momentum = mass * velocity

[@Noodies]

YESSS MORE PHYSICS NOW

[@Extralarse]

If this happened on an icy day instead of a pow day, things would 've been a lot worse. I'm gonna check every chairlift I hop on for the emergency brake now 🙂.

[@Noodies]

this could've been so much worse than it turned out

[@peterbetts858]

but such a basic safety F UP .@@Noodies

[@stefangonzo]

"One rider even returned to the mountain that same day!" Priorities.

[@Noodies]

gotta get ur money's worth

[@Blido]

I would do that too if I would get away without injuries. Just another adventure lol

[@mxslick50]

As a motocross racer, we have the same mentality. I even snowboarded for a while, and despite ringing my bell pretty good on my first day, I still got back to the run again to keep going. (I paid for it dearly the next day though...)

[@peterbetts858]

u can only down hill on a mountain . not on main st .

[@davidorf3921]

Skied into a rock face this winter (avoiding 3 young kids on the piste) could have been far worse, just got up with blood flowing down my arm and skied down, cleaned out the cuts and was up on piste the next day, looks like I will be left with a couple of small scars but no big deal, if the chairlift thing had happened to me I'm not sure I'd have been in any hurry to get back on anothe chairlift though, especially in the same resort

[@GoalWalker]

1:10 Took me a moment to realize this clip is played in reverse---with the skiers going up the hill. Still, a neat touch to get an initial feeling.

[@Noodies]

nice catch, thanks for watching!

[@tristanplayzpoke]

great video. I loved every minute of it.

[@Noodies]

i love every minute of YOU

[@daveedarevalo1]

Great breakdown! Please review that lift accident that smashed the lift behind it, happened in Tahoe

[@NextNate03]

I was a Lift Operator at a small ski resort. We where underpaid (min. wage) and receive hardly any safty training. The only safely training we had was if a customer falls while getting to the lift chair, push the emergency stop button. As a side note. There was a policy in place where if there is lightning in the area, then the whole place gets shutdown. 1 day, it was a cloudy day with very heavy fog (could see anything 100 feet out. Then everybody heard very loud thunder. They kept everything up and running because nobody saw the lighting. How could anybody see any lightning in a very dense fog?

[@liberatumplox625]

Poor design. A power outage should not require the manual application of an emergency break. Instead, there should be a breaking mechanism that is held open, under powered operation, allowing for a fail *safe* in the event of a power cut, or fluctuation. Alternatively, I can think of at least three, completely passive designs, that I could probably mock up with technic LEGO in under an hour. There's no excuse for that kind of negligence and myopia in engineering. The manufacturer should be held liable.

[@Noodies]

they got Wile E Coyote to build this one

[@llljb.l]

wow, great video. you are very underrated.

[@Noodies]

I appreciate it! thanks for watching!

[@jaxondaigle1299]

I had a skiing accident once near North Vancouver. Earlier that day I had twisted my foot by accident, I went to the resorts restaraunt, and the food distracted me from the pain, I thought I was all better, so I hit the slopes cause I'm not paying that entry and kit rental fees for nothing. So I was going down a slope made for experts cause I didnt see the sign so I thought it was an easy one, about a bit down I lose control and I'm hauling down that slope, and right beside me was like this small cliff like thing that was like a ledge and I tried to stop but since I had twisted my foot earlier my feet were weak, the ledge was approaching so I had to like bail and just like throw my weight the other way. I end up falling off my skis, I dont remember what happened after that but I just remember being in severe pain and I had to like hike myself down the mountain cause I had no cell reception to call for help, and it was a long way to hike. I felt those pains for days even weeks

[@maxdoesstuffff]

Great video man, you earned a sub!

[@Noodies]

thanks dude! 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

[@tovanille]

Really well explained!! Thank you

[@Noodies]

I appreciate it, thanks for watching!

[@Nuggito20]

Lets goo! you deserve more man!

[@Noodies]

thanks mr nugget

[@connorrothen]

As a lift operator, first thing you would press is the emergency stop it takes so fing long for them to stop it It literally takes one second to push the emergency button

[@Noodies]

who needs an emergency stop when you have jumping?

[@rainmaker3700]

Poor training of the operators was the ultimate cause. And the roll back safety feature is standard, did Doppelmayr build this lift? I am surprised they would certify it without a roll back brake.

[@Noodies]

yea Dopplemayr built and installed it, and everything was found to be in perfect working order after the investigation.

[@vonsiii]

​@@Noodies The lift had a rollback brake the ops had disengaged it was the issue

[@TheRealUnconnected]

deserves more views bro

[@Noodies]

i agree lets talk to the youtube CEO

[@marcel7523]

The person at 2:10 was not frozen. She was stuck because the other guy got stuck on the bar and she couldnt get it up

[@Noodies]

😲 good eye

[@zerounderscore]

suppppper interesting stuff, really enjoyed this.

[@Noodies]

thanks dude!

Theres another lift on the Tube they test to destruction. When they did the runaway test it shows the testers running for cover as the weights used for test are being tossed 100s of feet from the crash at the bottom.

[@merc340sr]

Complex explanation!

[@Noodies]

hope u could follow

[@ITViking]

The lift should have no physical ability to reach that kind of speed..

[@Noodies]

does look fun tho 😅

[@CoachJohnMcGuirk]

Shouldn't you be off cheering on yugi in some duels or something? Since when is Joey Wheeler a ski lift expert?

[@Noodies]

holy shit I had no idea who that was and I just laughed for about 10 minutes straight when I looked him up 🤣🤣

[@beth-bi9yv]

What a ridiculous system, how they thought ANYONE could carry out those steps in an emergency is ridiculous. What a joke that the operators where held responsible for this. The ppl who designed this and the CEO should have been blamed.

[@dustinthewind3925]

I work with around lattice boom cranes, and there's always a long lever above the operator that everyone in the industry calls "the oh sh*t bar." It's very simple how it works... pull the lever, and it stops the boom from free falling when the drum brakes fail. No electronics, no procedures, just pull, and nobody gets squished or goes flying... hopefully.

[@Noodies]

as they say: keep it simple stupid

[@finn4485]

Im a liftie, we all have a big red emerg stop button

[@slickshewz]

how tf was there no rollback protection? jesus christ. you can't blame this on the operators. i can just see the person up there spamming the e-stop, losing their mind as it's not working.

[@Zweisteinchen]

Verry great Video 🎉

[@koryabel6319]

Insane that lift didn’t have an automatic transfer switch to switch to generator power. A manual interlock on a multi million dollar lift blows my mind.

[@Noodies]

nah that lift cost about tree fitty

[@JM_2019]

How can a lift even be certified without brakes that are only open if power is available?

[@Noodies]

Georgia probably has very different standards sadly

[@zygmuntIIIwuzza]

great video, you've earned a subscriber

[@Noodies]

welcome aboard sir

[@jefferyanderson8236]

If you make something so it can never happen it will never happen. If you make something so it should never happen it will happen eventually

[@Noodies]

ehh whats the worst that could happen 🙄

[@zosterinski]

Is mind boggling they don’t have a mechanical emergency break if the lift wants to go backwards, that wouldn’t need any electricity or human input

[@Noodies]

for real

[@xvillin]

You would have been a good lawyer for this case and maybe would have kept the operators of the left out jail. The many people that had designed and approved and sold this system should be jailed.

[@Noodies]

damn I missed a career there thanks for watching!

[@thelateguy4]

i broke my thumb while skiing this weekend and it was completely loose from the base

[@Noodies]

gross

[@pohledzesaliny]

Isn´t there a manual valve that you can close and stop the lift? You should be able to close it thus stoping the lift.

[@Noodies]

yea but u have to go to a separate box, cook 3 eggs, and run a marathon first

[@pohledzesaliny]

@@Noodies on some lifts in Italy it was installed directly in the control room

[@vincentraymond8067]

People trained to performed this procedure learns before anything else: your actions may lead to a rollback, in doubt request help, people can be evacuated with cords or machinery

[@pohledzesaliny]

@@vincentraymond8067 yeah, but there should be still a basic rollback brake. It is weird that on a Doopelmayer lift it wasn't installed. It should be mandatory by law.

[@coupleodevs]

3:08 that would be me lmao that's how addicted to snowboarding i am lol

[@Noodies]

what's the worst that can happen?

[@coupleodevs]

@@Noodies i mean... what are the chances that it will happen again right after that? surely lower than the day before 🤣

[@shortkeys73]

I will never ever understand why people would just sit in the chair while everyone is screaming at them to jump. I don't care if you're a brittle 90 year old skier. Sliding off near the bottom and getting a little bruise is highly preferable to getting swung around violently and potentially getting crushed under a tangle of lift chairs. Idiotic.

[@Noodies]

people do some crazy shit in a panic

[@torm3ntor]

Freeze response (4F: Fight / Flight / Freeze / Fawn )

[@Noodies]

@@torm3ntor forgot the 5th F: fuuuuuuck!

[@getahanddown]

Only 600 subs? Commenting to please the algorythm! Subbed :)

[@Noodies]

yes this pleases me 😈

[@davidorf3921]

Certain countries have always had a reputation for doing things on the cheap, mostly Eastern European ones, this does not surprise me, in a lot of cases they used to buy older second hand lifts from other countries, often there would be a simple contract with the manufacturer to install these but not bring them up to the latest standards. About 45 years ago I was on a small 2 person chairlift that failed due to power issues, worse the generator failed as well, fortunately only a fairly short but quite steep lift, they wound everyone down by hand with two chaps turning a manual winch system with some sort of ratchet which you could here clicking as they slowly wound you back, then a 25 minute walk back to the village in ski boots fortunately almost on the level

[@Noodies]

thats insane! its actually crazy how fucked these systems are even when built right

[@davidorf3921]

@@Noodies The point is however that it failed safe, first the electrics failed, then the generator BUT at no point was there any danger to the passengers sitting in the chairs,. Any system can fail, sooner or later the backup will also fail, but so long as it fails in a safe way it's just that it takes a bit longer

[@joeg5414]

youtube has been pushing the hell out of this video to me for the last few days😂 I finally gave in

[@Noodies]

all hail the algorithm!!!

[@swiitmlk]

imagine this happen and then you return the same day😭. what was he thinking??

[@Noodies]

"bet the rollback faults are on the OTHER lifts"

[@brentnevius2849]

Thank you!

[@Noodies]

thank you MORE!

[@oliviabooth4993]

cant even blame the lift operators, the resort and lift manufacturer are definitely at fault for the lift lacking extremely basic failsafes

[@Noodies]

amen 🙌

[@Eddiep80]

I know this isn’t exactly funny. But a few of those skiers got to see what it feels like to get tossed off a bull😂

[@johnreyn19]

Great video!

[@Noodies]

thanks! Glad you enjoyed it

[@danielpierce7503]

With that many people on the lift, and it being so long.... there is little hope the generator could start turning the load, without back-spin !

[@smittyshmo]

Those min wage lift ops had no clue what they were doing. Im sure they were told to figure it out themselves by management. They did their best but had no clue the danger they were putting people in.

[@MrAsayaga]

So we can blame the resort for not updating a lift or replacing it for a new version

[@Noodies]

there were a lot of people up the chain from the resort all the way to the government that could've stepped in at some point over the years

[@societl]

the chair full of four people had to be the most stupid group of all. How do you watch that many people get injured and then have 20+ people yelling for you to jump and then continue to sit there as if nothing is wrong, even if your frozen by fear there’s no way all four of them just sat there unable to move

[@Noodies]

looked like they were preparing for a rollercoaster drop

[@Taekwondo_36]

Oh my God this is the worst ski lift function I’ve ever seen LOL

[@Noodies]

u should see Rube Goldberg's!

[@relfyem]

I wonder how much lift operators get paid to make risk of jail-time when failing to follow impossible procedures worth their while....

[@Noodies]

u can say that again

[@Datamining101]

Dopplemayr has apparently never heard the word "failsafe."

[@Noodies]

proof that just cause u manufacture something doesn't mean u have to install it

[@misiosz1983]

So,embody else said that they manually disabled the failsafe

[@Vizlagirl25]

It really sounds like aWTF situation. I thought there were a bunch of safety protocols in place, especially in this day and age!!!

[@Noodies]

new series "The WTF Situation"

[@Vizlagirl25]

@@Noodies 😭will check out!!

[@ianbelletti6241]

The brakes should be designed to engage on power failure in addition to manual and automatic system operation.

[@Noodies]

if only logic ruled

[@ianbelletti6241]

@@Noodies well that design flaw falls on the manufacturer making them liable in this incident. Logic still rules. If you don't design proper safeties into equipment as a manufacturer you become liable for impending future lawsuits. The other issue that makes the manufacturer liable is the complexity of the generator startup procedures and the lack of proper safety interlocks to prevent disengaging the brakes until the clutch is operated to transfer power as well as waiting for the generator to reach proper speed. All this was definitely technology that was available when the equipment was constructed. Throughout the years as safety requirements increased it would also be reasonable to shut down that lift until the added safeties were installed. However, just because it was built before a safety requirement was legislated does not mean that the manufacturer is not liable for injuries due to a foreseeable operator error.

[@jessiej3991]

With the advancement in technology these days ski lifts should at minimum be designed with a dynamic braking system

[@Noodies]

yea I'd agree if I knew what that was

[@kristian4645]

its not a month ago when a gondala fell down and injured 4 people badly

[@Noodies]

damn, where was this?

[@kristian4645]

@@Noodies Hochoetz Austria. 7 meter fall. It happened because a tree fell onto the wire and derailed the cablecar.

[@Noodies]

I'll def be checking that out, thanks for the heads up

[@Pabloesc571]

@@kristian4645 im never going skiing again fuck that

[@panukornrojanasomsith3304]

The chairlift moving dangerously fast! About 25 mph (40 km/h)!

[@Noodies]

💨

[@getahanddown]

I had the job of running a new lift in a beginner area while doing field ops for a ski area. Was carnage lol, first timers + a ramp the designers were dreaming when they designed

[@Noodies]

o man please tell me theres a vid 😆

[@getahanddown]

@@Noodies Was 2000 so way less filming. I don't know what they were thinking though. The most beginner chair and the offload was a steep 180° turn! We were waiting to haul bodies out of the way every chair and redesigned a far friendlier ramp. I also worked at a climbing gym where one top rope setup was the rope running over a fat steel tube. Way strong enough except there was just a bit too much room above and I watched a man go 12m (40ft) up then climb over the bar - rope now going direct from him to the ground - and get ready to let go. I tried to be calm but very clear to not let go and go back over the bar. Flippin heartstopping. Anyway bro love ya work :) catch ya

[@bermchasin]

,y dad once took a spill on a mtn to avoid crashing into a kid, and he twisted his leg around. the patrol came up and took him down to the medics. they said. itwas probably a sprained ankle. he walked up the stairs. toour hotel room and even drove home like 15 hours. then he went to the doctor locally and found out the leg was broken in 3 places. Although the leg healed up, he doesnt ski much anymore

[@Noodies]

ur dad is one tough mother

[@couchpotatoinc]

I totally get the guy who went back that day. Definitely a get back on the horse situation. If I didn't do it that same day, would probably quit the sport out of fear.

[@Noodies]

"that lift aint gonna get me dudes" 😎

[@mxslick50]

@@Noodies As a motocross racer, we have the same mentality. I even snowboarded for a while, and despite ringing my bell pretty good on my first day, I still got back to the run again to keep going. (I paid for it dearly the next day though...)

[@Noodies]

hope u steered clear of the trees!

[@mxslick50]

@@Noodies No problem with the trees but I sucked at getting off the lifts without running over my friends...at least we didn't get yeeted like in this video!

[@Noodies]

@@mxslick50 maybe one day you'll get to fly like these people

[@zachychu9675]

We making it out the trenches with this one

[@Noodies]

letsgoooooooooo

[@CharlieLali]

W content my man 💪

[@Noodies]

chad comment 💪

[@michealtessier7246]

It was Chinas and the owners fault. The owner of the ski lift ordered it off of temu

[@Retikulum01]

watched the full video yet, so i dont know if you inserted the clip here, but some austrian tourists (hehe my country) filmed themselves while on the lift. Luckily they didnt come to the bottom

[@clxudzYT]

crazy to see how much not-true information you give in this video .. please do more research

[@Noodies]

yea I probably should

[@clxudzYT]

@@Noodies nvm, just realized you only have 700 subs, and not a couple hundred thousands .. you're good, I take my comment back xdd

[@Noodies]

😐

[@Potatoe-f6u]

If they're being that careless with the kind of machinery they install, they might also not have proper training for their operators so that they can confidently react in an emergency. Generally the company would be legally responsible rather than an employee for this reason. Because training and making sure proper procedure is followed is the employer's responsibility. If they're allowed to just let the employees take the blame in cases like these, why would they bother investing in safety?

[@Noodies]

what's crazy is all operators were found to have full training by the independent invesigators. still shouldn't have been blamed though

[@GreatLiveEvents]

The operators should be convicted & someone should go to prison. However the implementation of correct procedures was not applied, maintained, or activated. Whoever had the ultimate authority to make sure the system was working & that emergency training was in place & that a rollback mechanism was not in place. I do hope that prison is in store at least for the main person responsible for ensuring such systems existed & were in place & tested long before there ever was an accident. I cannot believe that they didn't have a rollback feature. The owners of the company should go to prison. The staff cannot be held responsible for no rollback feature. Owners are supposed to make sure that procedures are trained, learned, & followed - with evidence of emergency training for staff every staff member as a condition of employment. The chief owner should go to prison - not his staff - unless it is proven he had trained all the staff properly & they simply shirked their duty.

[@Noodies]

the investigation found that everyone was trained correctly, but I still agree with you

[@trumpwatch9700]

@@Noodies I understand. Just training them correctly isn't enough. Making sure that they are followed & that competence has been maintained is only possible if the owner is involved. However if the owners really did train them properly there's no reason they should have failed. But clearly they did. Even then the owners were responsible for not purchasing an anti-rollback system & I do think the owners should be indicted for that alone!

[@Noodies]

@@trumpwatch9700 crazy what some people get away with!