Petition Demanding Enhanced Safety on Faraya Mzaar Ski Slopes
A petition raised by parents of a 9-year old child, urged people to sign a petition demanding enhanced safety precautions on the slopes of Mzaar ski resort.
The petition goes as follows: On Saturday January 26th 2013, Adel was involved in a life-threatening incident that left all the onlookers frozen in shock, and left him traumatized by his ordeal.
Adel was on the “Refuge” slope ski lift, on his own. For starters, in no case and under no circumstances should a 9-year old child be ever allowed to ride a ski lift on his own.
As any skier would do, Adel had lowered the safety bar and was waiting to reach the top of the “Refuge” terminal to catch up with the rest of his skiing group.
Upon reaching the “Refuge” terminal, Adel was unable to lift the safety bar – the wind was blowing in gusts and was resisting his efforts. He started screaming in panic, hoping the lift controller notices him and stops the ski lift. To Adel’s bad luck, the controller did not stop the ski lift; he either did not pay attention to him!! Or decided to ignore the distress screams and assumed the screaming child would eventually manage to raise the bar.
Right as he arrived to the terminal, Adel eventually pulled the bar upwards…but a strong wind gust slammed the bar violently and made Adel loose his balance and fall off the lift.
His 4 layers of clothes got tangled on the foot bar and he was now being dragged along with the lift upwards screaming towards the “Mzaar” slopes..and still, the lifts were going full speed. People were shouting, Adel was screaming… until the ski lift suddenly stopped.
"Adel was now hanging by the tip of his clothes with one of his hands holding on for life and below him was a drop of at least 12 meters,” his parents said.
The lifts do not reverse; they could not bring him back. The only way was either forwards or downwards.
A helpful man who spotted him kept talking to Adel, calming him down.
But at this stage, no safety procedures, no emergency response. No rescuers or Red Cross were in sight, and certainly no initiative being taken by anyone employed by Faraya Mzaar.
Some minutes later, the drama took another twist when a hero made an appearance to save our son.
One of Faraya Mzaar’s controllers (on his 3rd day on the job) working in the nearby button-lift took initiative. He stopped his station and ran across to the ski lifts.
This man, Ammar, reached the nearest pole to Adel’s lift and climbed-up. He then used his bare hands to dangle his body from the cable and made his way across 10 meters to reach Adel’s chair. He pulled Adel back up onto the chair and back to safety. This man saved our son and if it weren’t for him, we cannot imagine what could have happened if he hadn’t.
This man might not be there next time this happens to another child.
A child might die on the slopes because of the blatant failure of Faraya Mzaar to provide basic safety measures to all skiers, of all ages.
In light of all this, my husband and I have decided to write this appeal and demand change.
An appeal for all of us to mobilize and ask Faraya Mzaar to inform us of the measures they will be taking to prevent such life-threatening accidents to happen to anyone.
We know that the lift controller was fired, and that Ammar, the hero who saved our son, was a Faraya Mzaar employee. As far as they are concerned, they probably think they got away with this.
Wrong.
We are asking all those who are directly, or indirectly, affected by this story to sign a petition urging Faraya Mzaar to stop taking their customers for granted and start providing them with the basic safety requirements.
From our experience, the way this shocking accident happened is a disgrace to safety and Faraya Mzaar’s staff is untrained and unequipped to handle a situation like this.
We hope this appeal will mobilize everyone and allow us to pressure Faraya Mzaar in finding solutions and communicating them publicly to all their customers.
Check the petition on the link below
http://www.change.org/petitions/faraya-mzaar-ski-resort-safety-appeal
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