I want £200k for breaking leg at indoor ski slope
AN ALTERNATIVE therapist is suing for £200,000 after breaking her leg at an indoor ski centre.
Theresa Bates, 62, claims she fell during a lesson because there were “too many” novice skiers at the “overcrowded” slope at Milton Keynes’ Snozone skiing centre.
A travellator serving the training slope broke down leading to overrunning lessons and hazardous drifts of man-made snow, she said.
The former City worker, of Hornchurch, Essex, had plates inserted in her leg as a result of the break, leaving her on crutches for six months and badly affecting her work.
Suing the centre’s operator, Snozone (Holdings) Ltd for £200,000, Mrs Bates said the slope was so busy that an accident was “reasonably foreseeable” and more should have been done to protect her.
Lawyers for Snozone deny any negligence and the claim of overcrowding. They say Mrs Bates had knowingly taken the risk of participating in a snow sport, with the “inherent risk” that involves. Outlining her case in court documents, Mrs Bates’s barrister Robert Smith said: “There were generally too many individuals upon the slope undertaking skiing and/or snowboarding activities
“Such overcrowding issues presented a foreseeable risk of injury which materialised.” According to Snozone’s defence to the claim, the slope had not reached its 100-person capacity on that day.
The case reached Central London County Court as lawyers worked out details of the full trial, set to begin later this year.