CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine — Seven people were hurt when an out-of-control chair lift at a Maine ski resort stopped and then headed down the mountain backward, prompting riders to jump off, officials and witnesses said Saturday.
Three people were taken to a hospital from Sugarloaf Mountain Resort for treatment, though none are believed to have life-threatening injuries, resort spokesman Ethan Austin said.
“It was really scary,” said David Segre, 42, of Falmouth, who was standing in the crowded lift line. “It was like a gear had let loose and it was slowly picking up speed going the wrong way.”
“So all the chairs … they were slipping backward. And as gravity works they started to go faster and faster and people were jumping off at the lower levels,” he said.
Segre estimated that the lift went the wrong way for about a minute, traveling about 200 or 300 yards, before it stopped. One man who wasn’t able to jump off ended up going around the loading area and heading up the mountain on the other side, he said.
The injured were treated by ski patrol and taken off the mountain for treatment by emergency medical responder, Austin said.
Segre said it looked like three or four people were being tended to in the loading area of the lift.
“Anybody that got injured seemed to be lucid,” he said. “I think everybody was being very careful not to move them until ski patrol arrived.”
More than 200 people were riding the King Pine quad lift at the time of the accident. Those still on board after the lift was stopped were evacuated.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. The chairlift receives routine daily inspections for safety, Austin said.
Sugarloaf was the site of another chairlift accident in 2010 in which a 35-year-old lift derailed, causing five chairs to fall 25 to 35 feet to the ground, injuring eight skiers. That lift was replaced in 2011.