Downhill driver's death: Was the route's lax security to blame?

The tragic accident happened in Nakiska , which has been a popular training location for various ski nations for years. As several media reports, the accident occurred on Monday morning, shortly before the end of the French team training and therefore immediately before the start of the Italian team's session, in which two South Tyroleans, Werner Heel and Alexander Prast, were also there (Fill, Innerhofer and Paris are training separately in Copper Mountain, Colorado).

Poisson is said to have lost control in the lower part of the course, where the athletes were traveling at speeds of over 100 km/h. According to reports, he slipped into the B-nets at the side of the track, but they were unable to catch him, which is probably why he crashed head-on into a tree and died instantly.

Route security too lax?

After the sad certainty of the death of the 35-year-old father, there was speculation as to how this terrible accident could have happened. In its online edition, the Swiss tabloid “Blick” quotes a “foreign official who is currently in Copper Mountain (Colorado)”: “I know from my own experience that security is particularly critical in Nakiska because there Some B-nets are only a meter in front of the forest.” For the sake of clarity: In World Cup races and on some training slopes, including in Copper Mountain, the much more resistant A-nets are used to secure the route, in Nakiska only less resistant B-nets are used.

Ski world shocked

Matteo Marsaglia, who trains in Nakiska together with Heel, Prast, Battilani and Bosca, described the scenario to “Gazzetta dello Sport” as follows: “We were about to start our training. Luckily, one of our coaches saw the scene while we athletes were at the start. We were stopped immediately, it was immediately clear that more had happened.”

Peter Fill and Christof Innerhofer, who are currently training in Copper Mountain, reacted with shock to the accident. Fill wrote on Facebook: “I still can’t believe it, I have no words.” Innerhofer: “We are shocked. It's incredibly tragic what happened. One of us left us in a brutal way.”

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Downhill driver's death: Was the route's lax security to blame?

After the death of downhill skier David Poisson, the ski world is in shock: the Frenchman had a fatal accident on Monday during a training run in Canada. The two South Tyroleans Werner Heel and Alexander Prast are currently training on the same slope.

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