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I saw a youtube video of a mechanical engineer type person pontificating about this accident and what likely caused it to happen. What I remember him saying is that a ski lift has an unbalanced load. Everyone is on the up side, so as a safety device, there is some sort of braking system that is supposed to prevent the lift from running backwards in the event that the motor shuts off. He seemed to think that regular inspections were required of this braking system and that this ski resort was negligent in that area. The motor stopped, the brakes didn't work, and the ski lift ran backwards with all that weight of people on the one side. It picked up speed and was flinging people off like crazy as the chairs piled up into each other on the bottom.
Skiers had to jump, as many did, or get flung off, or hold on for dear life and get smashed into the pile up of chairs.
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