Canadian skier killed because course was ‘death trap,’ says family’s lawyer
Mom demands independent investigation
The grieving mother of Canadian skier Nik Zoricic said Wednesday an independent investigation into her son’s death in a ski cross crash last month is needed to prevent others from going through the same nightmare as her family.
“Every cell in my body hurts, and knowing it could’ve been prevented is agony,” said Sylvia Zoricic.
The Swiss police are looking into the crash, which happened at a World Cup race in Grindelwald, Switzerland, on March 10.
But the family wants an open and impartial investigation into what their lawyer, Tim Danson, called “egregious negligence” in the 29-yearold’s death.
At a Toronto news conference, Danson went frame by frame through a video of the last seconds of Zoricic’s life and detailed what Danson said were “incomprehensible and stunning” errors by the designers of the Swiss race course.
Originally, Zoricic’s father, Predrag, known to friends and family as Bebe, was to narrate the presentation, but Danson said watching his son’s death would be too hard for the longtime ski instructor.
So Bebe, along with his wife and their daughter Katrina, sat in silence as Danson illustrated how he believed Zoricic’s fatal run was almost inevitable.
“The finish line of this World Cup race was a death trap,” Danson said. “If you miss the finish line by a few feet, the result should be disqualification — not death.”
The family is now asking for independent experts to look into the circumstances surrounding their son’s death, and they’ve vowed not to pursue a lawsuit if their wishes are met.
“As painful as this is, we had to do this for Nik and the ski community at large,” Sylvia Zoricic said. “Something had to be done.”
Danson said multiple sources have approached him anonymously about the safety of the course, but are afraid of retribution if they go public.
“We hope that by taking any litigation off the table people will come forward,” he said. “This is the only way to avoid future tragedies. This is the only way to wake up those who are in a position of au- thority to make changes.”
Danson said repeated questions to the Swiss authorities have been met with silence.
“We don’t know what kind of investigation’s going on and we don’t trust it until we have more information,” Danson said. “Nothing is going to happen unless pressure is brought to bear.”
The body that governs international skiing has no plans for an investigation of its own.
International Ski Federation head Sarah Lewis said they will defer to Swiss officials for the crash investigation, but her group will review the rules and regulations of ski cross and ski cross courses at an upcoming meeting in May.
Racers in ski cross events can reach speeds close to 100 km/h. Skiing authorities have called the crash a “freak accident,” a description the family rejects.
Danson said the design of the course was such that racers were funnelled to the right of the final jump — with only a few feet of space to land before the finish line.
Danson said Zoricic landed on ungroomed snow that never should have been on a World Cup track, hit fencing that was the wrong kind for that part of the track, and then struck a snowbank that the lawyer likened to “a brick wall.”
Zoricic’s father said his son had no time to avoid the crash. “In the air he had maybe a second, a second and a half,” he said. “He didn’t have any choice.”
Each of these design errors, Danson said, contributed to Zoricic’s death, and each of them could have been prevented.
Described by friends and colleagues as a hard-working and dedicated athlete who was “very much loved by his teammates and fellow competitors,” Zoricic started his skiing career as an alpine racer, but later switched to ski cross.