The Legal Implication of a Skiing Accident should always be considered

Many thousands of people enjoy holidaying on the ski slopes, choosing to ski in the mountains of France and Italy each year.  The vast majority of tourists will have a wonderful experience and plan to return another year; unfortunately for some holidaymakers, their holiday ends with a broken limb or severe bruising and for others their skiing holiday ends with a major accident, putting them in hospital and sometimes involving life-changing injuries.  Something in the region of 10,000 skiers or snowboarders have accidents that warrant medical attention.  One of the main causes of accidents is skiing into another person; other accidents arise because of equipment failure or incidents involving lifts.   Snowboarding carries a higher risk of accident compared to skiing.

There are steps that anyone can take to avoid an avoidable accident, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) points out that the first thing to consider is, if you have not taken a winter sports holiday for a while, is whether you are fit enough to ski on the type of slope you may have been familiar with in the past.  A skier’s fitness can have a bearing on their personal safety on the slopes in this demanding sport.

Other things such as ensuring the safety equipment is in good order and you are actually wearing it; adequate preparation before tackling a slope; not skiing alone just in case you get into difficulties and never skiing off-piste unless you are thoroughly experienced.

Should the worst happen and there is an accident, always accept medical assistance however inconvenient it may be, do not brush off a collision thinking that you have a minor injury; it is easy to think that you have got away without too much harm but there can be long term repercussions which are not recognised at the time of the accident.  It is better to be safe than sorry and have your injury properly investigated as it may be harder to demonstrate a long term injury that was largely ignored at the time.  In the future there may unexpected consequences arising from an accident; the need for reduced working hours or special equipment, it is only then that it becomes apparent that financial compensation is justified. In recent years we have seen the disastrous consequences of public figures that declined assistance.

Accidents may not be just bad luck, equipment failures may be the result of negligence and an injured party may be entitled to receive some compensation for their injury.  Particularly if you have an accident that requires hospitalisation and it was no fault of your own the sooner you take some action to obtain compensation, the better whilst the events are fresh in the memory.  Ideally you should have legal representation by lawyers in the country in which you were injured, however, that may pose a problem in that you may not speak the language and organising meetings could be a problem.  Giambrone has offices in Italy and France as well as the UK which makes the whole problem a little bit easier to manage.  Our Avvocati and Avocats, the Italian and French equivalent of solicitors, can assist should you wish to claim compensation for injuries sustained due to the negligence of a third party, they liaise with the lawyers in whichever UK office is best for you.

To obtain more information about claiming compensation please click here