Deadly collision

Overheard at Ski Acres on Weds night.<br><br>Young woman: "Wow! You just go straight down the mountain, can you make turns when you go that fast?"<br><br>Young man: "I can make turns, I'm just not scared enough to..." <br><br>If this isn't an argument against the proliferation of long straight and wide groomers that do nothing to encourage speed control, I dont know what is. Wide gentle beginner slopes are great, but IMO a long gentle and winding beginner trail is much better. The best ski acres are designed such that the latter must be negotiated to access the former.

I know Greg Doda very well. <br><br>He is an excellant snowboarder. So being uneducated or young has nothing to do with what happened. He knows slope etiquette. <br><br>The fact that he is getting charged for the accident is ridiculous. Him being convicted or negligible homicide won't help anyone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but sending Greg to jail won't bring Mrs. Donahue back. <br><br>Anyone who implied that Doda may have been drunk, trust me he wasn't. He doesn't drink and ride. Ever. <br><br>He may have been going to fast, but either way, he had nowhere to go on the trail. <br><br>I just feel bad because this trial is just going to prolong everyone's suffering for what was an accident.<br>

Crownsvillegirl wrote:<br>He knows slope etiquette.  <br>The fact that he is getting charged for the accident is ridiculous.<br>He may have been going to fast, but either way, he had nowhere to go on the trail.<br><br>I ask:<br>If someone knows slope ettiquette, has nowhere to go on a tight trail with slower people, why is he travelling at 35+ mph?  It's my understanding that slope ettiquette suggests not skiing or boarding out of control and going at a speed appropriate to the situation.<br><br>If a guy kills someone, whether it is an accident or not, he did commit homicide.  In this case he neglected to use good judgement.  If charging him makes only one person more aware of safe skiing and boarding, and that person is more attentive than s/he might otherwise have been, and avoids killing another person, society has received a huge benefit.<br><br>If you find my logic faulty, please educate me further.

Good point. <br><br>It may save another's life. Thanks for broadening my perspective on that. I was looking at it as just involving Doda, and the woman's family. It involves so many more though. <br><br>Although Greg is a wonderful person with no bad intentions, his mistake being publicized like it is may save another's life.

Here is a bit more about the collision from<br><br> www.planetjh.com/anderson/anderson_2006_02_08_board.html

"Snowboarder charged

By Richard Anderson

2.8.06

Teton County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman charged a 17-year-old snowboarder from Maryland with criminally negligent homicide on Friday, nearly one year after the teen allegedly collided with and killed a woman at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Greg Doda was 16 at the time of crash, Feb. 24, 2005, which according to court records was witnessed by a dozen or more skiers and 'boarders on the slope and riding the Sublette quad lift.

An affidavit filed by Mike Carlson, an investigator with the Teton County Sheriff's Office, includes several accounts from eyewitnesses who said they saw Doda "straightlining" down Laramie Bowl. Some estimated Doda's speed to be as fast as 60 mph when he collided with Heather Donahue, 29. Others described the ferocity of the impact, which resulted in an "explosion" of skis and gear. Donahue was life-flighted to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center where she died of her injuries the following morning. Doda admitted to investigators that he was skiing fast, but he said he was not out of control. He said a clump of trees obscured his view of Donahue and that he could not avoid hitting her.

Weichman charges, however, that Doda's behavior was a "gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise," and that he "failed to perceive the substantial and unjustifiable risk" of riding straight down Laramie Bowl. The charge is a high misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Doda has been summoned to make an initial appearance in Teton County Circuit Court on Feb. 27.

__________

I would be most interested in the testimony in court; particularly that of the expert medical witnesses. What impact velocity would be consistent with the injuries noted at autopsy as well as the testimony about the accident from witnesses.

Larry

Larry

If my calculations are correct, this is my 28th season skiing. All told, I've been hit with significant force twice in addition to a number of minor collisions. On the flip side, I've never run into anyone - though I've certainly had my fair share of close calls. <br><br>Which leads to an additional perspective for the conversation: I don't disagree with much of the content of this thread. I do think, however, there is another side here that has not been discussed - namely, when people that are hit are the cause of the accident. <br><br>In my view, there is nothing inherently wrong with skiing fast at the ski area, provided you are under control, are outside of a slow zone, and are adhering to the common sense principles that comprise ski etiquette. Where this can become problematic is where other skiers/boarders, most often inexperienced, cut across the fall line, enter runs without looking in areas with blocked views, stop on the far side of a roll, etc. I've almost run into many people for these reasons over the years, and I suspect a significant proportion of the accidents I've witnessed were caused in like fashion.<br><br>Clearly I don't suggest this is always the case or that this was the case at Jackson Hole. My point is that I don't know that I agree that assuming fault is a one-way street is the only way to look at the situation. Rather, inexperience and a lack of ski etiquette cuts both ways in my experience. <br><br>For this reason, I don't know that I agree that pricing [more] people out of skiing is a reasonable solution. What is then? That's the brass ring, I guess; Better education? Pass pulling? Hip checks? These all seem reasonable solutions - likely most effectively administered in combination. Taking this a step further, would skills requirements for certain levels of terrain be out of the question? Tyrannical, sure, but no more so than some suggestions here. (I don't necessarily advocate this - I'm just writing out loud for other alternatives to the status quo....)<br><br>Perhaps a good question is whether the rate of accidents per capita has gone up, or whether we're seeing more accidents because there are more people on the slopes. I suspect it's both, skiing trends reflecting trends in national culture the past decade.<br><br><br><br> <br><br><br>