Sugarloaf

Eight people got seriously injured because of Sugarloaf Chair Lift derailed on Tuesday in Carrabasset Valley at Maine’s tallest ski mountain. Five of the Chair Lifts plunged about 25 feet into the snow down the mountain. According to reports the officials at the resort are unable to explain the cause of the Chair Lift derail but there are no life threatening injuries. The chair lift derail left almost 150 people trapped on the lift for almost two hours in the chilling wind till the rescuers worked to get them down.

According to a spokesman, Ethan Austin at the resort, the wounded skiers were immediately shifted to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Maine. Austin said that the lift was taking skiers up the mountain at its full capacity when the rope got loosened slamming 5 chairs on the snow blanketed ground and suspended the rest of the chairs in the sky. The trapped chairs were brought to the ground through a pulley system.

Austin informed that this is the worst derailment at the resort. In 1975, this ski lift was installed and was upgraded in 1983. The ski lift carries 162 chairs of 140 pounds each and built for two people. The lift is powered by a motor of 250 horsepower. The lift will remain close for the investigation of the derail.