A 10-YEAR-OLD Mullingar girl has survived after falling almost 10 metres from a ski lift onto a frozen slope in the Austrian resort of Westendorf.
Emily O’Rourke suffered hairline fractures to her pelvis and bruising after slipping from the lift which she had been in with a friend and an unknown German couple at 11.30am on Sunday.
Other skiers reported seeing Emily clinging onto the German man in the lift before slipping from his grasp and hitting the slope. She was rushed to hospital by helicopter, where doctors say she was lucky to have survived the fall with relatively minor injuries.
The couple with whom she shared the lift are being sought by police after they refused to stay at the scene and clear up the circumstances of the incident. “It was a freak accident but she’s doing well now. All the scans are back and there’s no real damage, so she’ll be coming home on Saturday,” said Emily’s father, Frank O’Rourke, from her bedside last night.
Staff at the slope, Skiwelt Wilder Kaiser, said the lift arrived at the peak with the security bar open. The man, reportedly in his early 50s, said the security bar failed to close.
Asked to remain at the scene, the couple declined, reportedly saying they had only a half-day ski pass. They refused a request to leave personal details with staff and are being sought by police.
“It’s tragic and terrible behaviour: with people like that in our society, it’s no wonder what happens,” Hansjörg Kogler, manager of the ski-lift company, told a local newspaper. “It’s shocking there’s so little responsibility when one sees a child fall from a lift and only want to get the most out of one’s ski pass.”
However, Frank O’Rourke said: “The people involved I think did a tremendous amount to help as much as they could, but after the fall didn’t want to get involved any further and wanted to leave. Unfortunately they didn’t leave their names. If we met them we’d only like to thank them and get clarification of what happened.”