Articles Tagged with Ski Area Accidents

With winter finally here and much of the East Coast of the Untied States being hit by the recent blizzard, many will be taking to the slopes when they are able to dig out of their homes. New England has some of the best skiing in the country, and many Boston residents will be among those hitting the many local ski resorts.

Many will head to ski resorts in Massachusetts, and others will head up to the bigger mountains in Maine and Vermont. These mountains advertise directly to residents in Boston and arrange for bus trips to take the skiers up for skiing and, after skiing, entertainment at local resort bars. Continue reading

While this hasn’t been much of a winter for most of the country, it has been getting a little colder in the New England area, including in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One of the winter activities that is quite popular in our region is going to the ski slopes for skiing or snowboarding. While there is no question that skiing or snowboarding is an inherently dangerous activity, especially for those who are inexperienced, a ski resort is still required to take whatever reasonable steps it can to prevent foreseeable injury to foreseeable persons and property

Preventing foreseeable injury to foreseeable persons and property is the duty of care owed under the common law definition of negligence in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One issue that arises in these cases is that, whenever you go to a ski area, you are often required to sign a waiver of any and all liability. This is either done when you sign an electronic signature pad, such as you do when picking up a prescription at your local pharmacy, or it is actually printed on the back of your lift ticket. They say that by affixing the lift ticket to your jacket, you are agreeing to the conditions of the waiver. Continue reading

Skiing in a very popular activity across New England, including in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.   While skiing can be lot of fun, it happens to be somewhat of an inherently dangerous activity. It is for this reason, whenever your purchase a lift ticket or season pass, you are required to agree to sign a waiver that essentially excuses the ski area from liability.

It should be noted that these waivers often tend to go too far to try to limit the ski area’s liability from everything, from routine accidents to gross negligence and willful acts committed by their employees. These extreme clauses in the liability waivers are not likely to be upheld in Massachusetts, as they may be against public policy, but some clauses in the waivers may be effective. There are also choice of law provisions and often times a requirement to submit to binding arbitration, and these are things you should discuss with your attorney. Continue reading