International experts to investigate Gudauri ski-lift accident
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"We will do everything to ensure the maximum safety of our citizens and tourists, to protect the international reputation that our country has built, including through its ski resorts”, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said.
PM Kvirikashvili was referring to today’s ski-lift accident in Georgia’s winter resort of Gudauri that has left 11 with minor and moderate injuries, including citizens of Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Sweden.
Kvirikashvili said he is being updated with information pertaining to the condition of those who have been injured.
From the outset, all relevant agencies were mobilized to assist the injured and they were given first aid on the ground. Several have been transported by helicopter and mobile intensive care ambulances to Tbilisi, where they are receiving medical treatment”, PM Kvirikashvili said.
An investigation of the incident has been launched. Moreover, Kvirikashvili said, a group of independent international technical experts will soon arrive in Georgia to study the situation in detail, produce an unbiased report and those responsible will be punished severely.
Georgian Minister of Economy Dimitri Kumsishvili said the representatives of the Austrian company that has installed the ski-lifts in Gudauri are on their way to Georgia. Photo by the Ministry of Economy's press office
We are in constant communication with the families of those affected. Each family has a focal person who makes sure the families have everything they need and do not lack any care”, Georgian Minister of Economy Dimitri Kumsishvili said.
The Austrian Doppelmayr Garaventa group – a ski-lift producer that has 14,400 ski-lifts installed worldwide - has been asked to send experts to determine the reasons behind the malfunction.
The Head of the National Tourism Administration of the Economy Ministry Giorgi Chogovadze announced that all other ski-lifts in Gudauri continue to work as the relevant documents are available proving they are safe.
A ski-lift accident in Georgia’s eastern Gudauri resort has left 8 people with minor injuries, the Mountain Resorts Development Company of Georgia has reported. No fatalities have been recorded. One of the eight injured has already been discharged from hospital, the Georgian Health Minister David Sergeenko told the media.
An adventure tourism school has opened in Georgia’s Gudauri ski resort offering locals the chance to improve their knowledge about the mountain and mountain safety.
Snowboarders, skiers and winter enthusiasts across Georgia and from foreign countries are invited to hit the slopes in Georgia’s winter resorts of Gudauri, Bakuriani, Svaneti and Goderdzi.
Georgia’s leading ski resort Gudauri has been identified by an international cultural website as one of the ten Must-Try Ski Resorts You Had No Idea Existed.
Only six out of 11 of those injured remain in hospitals in the capital of Tbilisi. One of the Russian tourists injured in yesterday’s accident, Oleg Vitrov, immediately returned to Gudauri after he was discharged from the Ghudushauri hospital. Those who still remain in hospital are under state care.
International experts have arrived in Georgia’s winter resort of Gudauri to investigate the ski-lift accident that injured 11 on Friday.
“Rescuers worked professionally and fast”
Rustam Ibragimov, a Russian tourist and witness of the Gudauri ski-lift accident last week, has published a post on his Facebook page, in which he speaks about his own experience of the accident, trying to correct recently published misinformation.
International experts invited by the government of Georgia have completed their inspection in the country’s mountainous Gudauri ski resort, to determine the reasons of the ski-lift accident on March 16 which left 11 people with minor and moderate injuries.