Fallow up to Harvey’s and others posts about lawsuit in skiing industry

If you have the time, please take the time to read this.


Recently the topic has been brought up about a certain person who is suing a resort and his school, for major bucks because of an injury that accord on a field trip. For those of you who don’t know, this person was on a field trip, and was snowboarding at a resort where he was riding in a terrain park. When in the park, he landed wrong off a man made obstacle, where he injured his spine when he came down wrong on a landing. Now this kid is a quadriplegic, and for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a person who is paralyzed from the neck down, never do have control of his lower body again.

Now on Newschoolers.com this has been a “popular” topic, being that it has the possibility of ending terrain parks indefinitely. Now many individuals on this site are in my mind quite “fired up” about the whole thing. Comments are being made about how this kid needs to be killed, or “the kids a bitch for suing a ski area” or how group mailings should be sent to this kid, to say how we as a whole (newschoolers.com members) don’t like what he is doing to our sport. Now I’m not saying I perticurly agree or disagree with this whole topic in general, but I think that this is taking things too far.

I don’t think a lot of you realize what this kid has to live with for the rest of his life. Now the incident accord when this person was 17 years old. Now the average male lives to be about 78 years old I recall so lets say that he has 61 years to live, being quadriplegic. 61 YEARS without the use of anything from the neck down. THAT’S LIVING HELL. Another thing that people are grumbling about is the so-called “excessive amount” that this person is suing for. Lets say he is suing for 10 million dollars. Now lets break that down, that’s 10,000,000 divided by 61 years, which is roughly 164,000 dollars a year. WOA that’s a lot of money…or is it? Remember folks he is quadriplegic, so he needs attention all of the time. He is going to be in and out of the hospital for the rest of his life, and will never be able to hold a job. That’s NO income. And help does not come cheap, everything costs money.

People say that this kid should not be awarded any money because of how the ticket and terrain park say “Ride at your own Risk.” This KID was under 18 so he is just that, a kid. He is not an adult, which means that he does not always understand the consequences of what he is doing. You could argue that because there was no one there to stop him, (teacher, ski patrol, park ranger) that it is the mountain’s fault. Remember that this is a kid, so automatically someone else is at fault, no matter what. He is under age and can’t take responsibility for himself.

Now the real reason I write this is because I myself almost experienced the same thing. Last year, while racing downhill at the Norba Nationals in Mount snow VT, I basically broke my neck. (I say basically because technically I didn’t, I had a spinal fracture something or other, I still don’t know what I really did but it was as if I had broken my neck) I was very lucky, just under a week in the hospital, and just over a month in a neck brace. Because of my young age I recuperated quickly and did not show any long-term effects that sometimes go along with an injury like so. (Just for reference, my week in the hospital ran up a 30,000+ dollar bill, which does not include physical therapy, fallow up MRI’s and x rays, and other post hospital expenses) Now when it happened, I had paralysis in my arms for a short period.(not able to move my arms)

Now I have been close to what this kid has experienced, and you know what, I support he actions completely. What I am saying is don’t dish shit out until you personally have been there. You all say this and that, but that’s just because you’re so self centered and never think about others for a second. Lay off the kid, I’m sure if you were him you would be looking forward to “Hope you get better” vibes instead of the “die you stupid #*$&%” that you all have been sending.

That’s it for now.
Matt Rihm