Comments on: OSHA Fines Mammoth Resort for Patrol Deaths

By: skier at mammoth that day

skier at mammoth that day — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:25:43 +0000

after being in operation 40 years and dealing with this fumarole all of those years without incident, this punishment seems overbearing. the amount of snow on the mountain that day was unfathomable. The danger of avalanche was palpable, although apparently safe. There was no true confined space. the patrollers didn’t fall into the fumerole. In fact I don’t think it’s possible for a person to enter if if they tried. They were standing on the snow…..just like everybody does. In this instance, unbeknown to them, the snow was being melted down below, but the snow on top was solid and supportive. they had no way of knowing, neither did Mammoth Mountain, the it was actually rotten below. this had never happened in 40 years. So the enclosed space they fell into was a temporary snow cave that no-one knew existed. Expecting Mammoth Mtn could to have prepared for a situation they didn’t know existed is pretty tough.
The ski run signs are about 15 feet high, then from there they can be raised if the snow gets that high. That day I noticed that the ski run signs had been raised to their max height, and were now at or below snow levels. the signs were being dug out by mountain staff. Ie. a permanent fence is not feasible at the location of the fumerole. a temp fence is used and moved by patrollers whenever it snows so the fence is visible again. it was while attempting to relocate the fence that this incident happened. What else could mammoth have done? That said, I knew one of the patrollers and the family of another. This incident was devastating locally. NO-one believes that Mammoth Mtn has taken it lightly at all.

By: OSHA Training Pro

OSHA Training Pro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:20:19 +0000

Just because a company gets cited by OSHA does not means the citations are correct, many times the employer can contest the citations and get them thrown out, due to improper citing by the compliance officer. See this for more info on this process

By: OSHAPro

OSHAPro — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:27:18 +0000

Just because a company is issued OSHA (or Cal-OSHA in this case) citations does not mean they are (or are not) in compliance with OSHA reg’s. Sometimes OSHA issues citations incorrectly, or they may not have all the info. More info about OSHA citations and appeals process can be obtained online at http://www.osha30hourtraining.com if you are interested.

By: Dave C

Dave C — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:40:52 +0000

Assuming the existence of the fumarole was well known, $50K seems like a paltry expense for an operation the scale of Mammoth. Likely as not, they will spend more money fighting the fine as the fine itself. Its also likely that this is a proposed fine, not the actual fine (which will likely end up lower).

Personally, I think the fine is too small. $17K per fatality? Death at work is tragic – its even more so when the civil penalties for fatal employer negligence is so low.

Whatever the final penalty, here’s hoping Mamoth gets a clue about confined space safety as mentioned in the first comment.

By: Mark Worley

Mark Worley — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 02:52:25 +0000

While I don’t know all the details of the accident, it did occur during a period of extremely heavy snowfall which may have significantly altered the area immediately surrounding the accident site. Perhaps more forethought by the Mammoth ski patrol should have gone into preparing for this eventuality, yet it seems to me that a cold beaurocracy like OSHA took things too far by fining the patrol. Compassion and beaurocracy don’t mix apparently.