Quebec coroner recommends better training at ski hills after six-year-old’s death

A group of skiers make their way through the mountains near Terrace, B.C., in this undated photo. (Colin/Adobe Stock)

A Quebec coroner is asking the province’s ski industry to review its training and safety practices after a six-year-old girl died after being dragged by a T-bar lift during a ski lesson in January.

Coroner Julie-Kim Godin released her report this month into the Jan. 29 death of Lily Leblanc at the Val-St-Come ski resort in Quebec’s Lanaudiere region.

The report says the girl was riding the T-bar with another student when her instructor, who was riding another bar behind her, asked them to get off because another student had fallen.

Leblanc tried to get off but fell, and the hood of her coat got caught in the T-bar, resulting in her being dragged some 540 metres and asphyxiated.

Godin said several factors contributed to the death, including that the child wasn’t riding with an adult and was told to get off the moving lift, likely because the instructor had been taught to keep their group together at all times.

The report also found the employees operating the lift failed to follow basic safety principles by restarting the T-bar _ after initially stopping it _ without checking to make sure the young girl was safe.