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Consumer Concerns and Advice Recent UpdatesJune 18, 2008 June 13, 2008 June 11, 2008 May 27, 2008 May 20, 2008 Archives
May, 2008 Web ResourcesChalat Hatten & Koupal PC
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Posted by: Linda Chalat
Engineers and an aeronautics professor from the University of California, Davis, testified that the jump was improperly designed and featured a short landing area, Connelly said, adding that ski jumps are supposed to be sloped so that energy from a vertical jump is transferred into a skier's forward motion on landing. Other snowboarders were injured on the same jump in the weeks before Salvini's accident, including a snowboarder who broke his back. A week after Salvini was injured, 19-year-old Peter Melrose of Bellevue died going off a different jump at the same terrain park. Evidence of 15 earlier accidents was admitted into evidence but nothing was done by ski operators to fix or close the dangerous jumps. The full jury award was for about $31 million, but the amount was decreased to $14 million after calculating "the comparative fault" of Salvini and "the inherent risk of the sport." Before he was injured, Salvini, now a quadriplegic, was captain of the wrestling team at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where he graduated in engineering technology. His mother is now his full-time caregiver. According to testimony, over the course of his life, Salvini's medical needs are estimated to cost between $23 million and $26 million. |
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The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation. | |
Kenny Salvini, of Lake Tapps, was 23 years old when he went off the jump at the Central Terrain Park. During the trial, testimony indicated that the man who built the jump "eyeballed it with a Sno-Cat" rather than engineering a design.