Georgia Invites Int. Experts to Clarify Reasons of Gudauri Ski-Lift Accident
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, March 19
(TBILISI) - The Government of Georgia has invited the experts from the World leading Bureau Veritas international agency to specify exact reasons of the ski-lift incident in the country’s eastern mountain resort Gudauri, which left 11 people with minor or medium injuries on March 16.
The international experts will work with their colleagues from the Austrian Doppelmayr Garaventa group, a ski-lift producer which installed the ropeway in Gudauri in 2007.
The Georgian government has vowed “touch punishment” of those, who could trigger the incident and created a threat to Georgia’s international image as a popular holiday-making location.
Out of the eleven injured, who are the citizens of Georgia, Ukraine, Russia and Sweden, six have already been discharged from hospital as they suffered from minor injuries.
The Georgian Health Minister David Sergeenko has announced that a Swedish woman, who is pregnant, will leave the hospital soon as her pregnancy is not at any risk and her condition is satisfactory.
Only one, a Ukrainian woman with multiple fractions, was operated on, and as the doctors told the media her condition is “absolutely satisfactory.”
“One of the injured who has already left the hospital asked us to take him back to Gudauri so that he would not lose the ski day. He is in Gudauri now and is enjoying his time”, Georgian Economy Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili said.
Thanking the Ghudushauri and MediClubGeorgia hospitals in capital Tbilisi for doing everything to ensure the rapid recovery of those injured, Kumsishvili said all the other ski-lifts in Gudauri are operating without issue.
He claimed that despite the accident all the injured promised to visit Georgia and enjoy its slopes again next year.
An investigation into incident has been launched to find the exact reason for the ski-lift malfunction. It is speculated that the culprit may have been a voltage fluctuation or brake issue.
However, the Energo Pro Georgia, a company which provides the resort with electricity, excludes any power-related flaw which could cause the malfunction, when the ski lift started moving reverse and throwing the people away.
The experts of the Doppelmayr Garaventa group, which is working with more than 40 countries with 14,400 ski-lifts installed worldwide, claims that they had conducted all works with “full protection” of international standards.
Some of the Georgian media speculates that the accident could also be “deliberately planned” by those who want to discredit the country.
