The managing director was accused of not having issued operating instructions on piste closures and safety measures despite extremely icy conditions. Two snow groomer drivers were charged with failing to close the piste immediately.
The judgments were initially not legally binding. The prosecutor made no statement. The defendants pleaded not guilty during the trial. If convicted, the accused would have faced a prison sentence of up to three years.
28-year-old died on icy slope
The focus of the prosecution was an apparently completely icy, steep slope on the Hintertux Glacier on New Year’s Day 2023. The prosecution accused them of not acting according to the circumstances, which resulted in the death of a 28-year-old Dutch woman. On the day of the fatal skiing accident, in which the woman slipped through a safety net and ultimately crashed into a tree, seven other people were also injured on the same slope. Three winter sports athletes were seriously injured and four others were slightly injured. The accidents occurred within half an hour.
In his verdict, which lasted more than half an hour, Judge Norbert Hofer stated that the acquittal was “in doubt”. One cannot assume that the employees have breached their due diligence, but must also assume that it will be an “extraordinary winter with little snow and difficult weather conditions”. The piste actually only started to ice in the morning before the ski slopes opened, which is why additional and even more precise control trips did not change the situation. “All in all, it was an absolutely exceptional situation,” said Hofer, who argued, among other things, that the safety measures on the steep section, such as the safety net there, were sufficient at the time of the accident.
“Black day for the Gletscherbahn”
At the hearing, the defense attorney spoke of “a black day for the Zillertal Glacier Railway.” However, he pointed out: “On that day, the relatively warm weather conditions at night led to a real metamorphosis of the slope.” In addition, the winter season at that time was an “exceptional winter” with very little snow.
Defendants pleaded not guilty
The first defendant, 68-year-old managing director, pleaded “not guilty” during his interrogation, as did his co-defendants. “Total closures happen very rarely,” he said. And only with “large amounts of fresh snow”. He remembered the momentous day of the accident clearly: “The night and day were exceptionally mild.” However, he himself didn’t even notice the special piste conditions that day. “The employees can close the slopes immediately if there is imminent danger,” he emphasized. However, there are no written instructions regarding the correct official channels.
The third defendant – a 24-year-old snow groomer driver – described the slope as “hard” but not icy when questioned in court. They were “in doubt” as to whether the runway should have been closed immediately, but then they didn’t do so despite the fundamental legal possibility. “Instead, following thinking regarding it for a long time, we informed the operations manager,” he explained. He defended himself several times when asked by Judge Norbert Hofer whether an immediate closure would not have been necessary: ”The section of the piste was worthy of discussion for us, but not clear.”
“It was pure ice”
The second, 34-year-old snow groomer driver and second defendant argued similarly. “During the check rides with the Ski-Doo, I noticed that the slope was a bit slippery,” he said. But he didn’t notice ice sheets and “the bare ice”. The slope has apparently “changed”. “I was surprised myself by what happened in the time leading up to the accidents on the slopes,” explained the accused. From his point of view, the possibility of “immediate blocking” would also have existed.
More than a dozen witnesses – some of whom were seriously injured on the descent, but many of whom reached their destination safely despite driving problems – then described verbosely and sometimes graphically the condition of the steep section of the valley descent on which the fatal accident occurred. “It was pure ice,” said the partner of the friend of the 28-year-old woman who died in the accident.
His girlfriend, in turn, simply stated that the “snow wasn’t that good there.” Other skiers and snowboarders interviewed as witnesses spoke, for example, of an “ice hockey rink with skis” or of a situation in which “I might no longer really control the ride.” The statements also provided information regarding the skiing skills of those who died in the accident. “As far as I know, it was her first winter season on open terrain; previously she had only practiced in indoor ski halls in the Netherlands,” said her friend.
“Ski material was absolutely inadequate”
A “technical ski report” added another aspect that revolved around the fatal accident. “Their ski equipment was absolutely inadequate,” said assessor Werner Margreiter. According to the expert, the icing of the runway was not sufficient as the sole reason for the accident. Nevertheless, he criticized the “barrier and security conditions”: “Immediate dangers should have been better recognized and secured.” The piste had previously been “properly prepared”, but was eventually heavily icy due to climatic conditions. It would have been necessary to react quickly to this.
Expert and meteorologist Karl Gabl also described the weather and snow conditions on the day of the accident. There was a “metamorphosis of the snow” that needs to be taken into account in this case, said Gabl. “There was a foehn wind overnight and into the morning, making January 1 a very mild day,” he said. “The snow on the surface melted and a water skin formed,” said Gabl, outlining the situation. After that, the wind “dropped”, followed by evaporation and finally icing of the section of the slope, said the former President of the Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety, describing the “transformation” of the snow.
