Zachary Thompson

Risk Management Plan

Terrain Park Designs
Zach Thompson

University of Utah

Zachary Thompson
Terrain Park Designs Philosophy
Mission Statement
To design and build terrain parks, within ski areas, engineered to
decrease the risk of serious injury or death to skiers and boarders.
Using a combination of the latest computer design technology and
engineering practices, Terrain Park Designs will build terrain parks
specifically designed to keep riders safe.
Company Philosophy
Terrain Park Designs is a company concerned with the rising number of serious injuries
and deaths in the ski industry due to improperly designed terrain parks. TPD wishes
change this trend with the design and implementation of terrain parks, built to
specifications engineered to reduce the risks outside the realm of rider error.
Goals and Objectives
It is the primary goal of Terrain Park Designs to build fun safe terrain parks for all levels
of riders to enjoy.

Objective 1: Design, using state of the art computer technology

and engineering practices, terrain parks for specific locations,
emphasizing safety and decreased risk of injury.

Objective 2: Using a highly trained team of staff including, but not limited to;
engineers, surveyors, cat drivers, shovelers and other machinery operators, TPD
will build to specifications the designed terrain park.

Objective 3: Upon completion of construction Terrain Park Designs will work

directly with mountain operations to install all safety features including fencing,
netting, flags and signs.

Personal Role at Terrain Park Designs

As the company founder and CEO, I will be faced with many tasks. Like most companies
Terrain Park Designs will start small and grow. Since the first few projects will most
likely be completed with a small staff, I will need to be there to direct our project. As
project director I will be faced with many task ranging from time management to building
features with a snow cat. Working closely with the design team I will make sure that our
terrain parks are built exactly to specifications to insure that both Terrain Park Designs
and its customers are protected. There will also be more corporate duties that I must
attend to as CEO. Since Terrain Park Designs accepts the liability for its product it is
going to need insurance. TPD will most likely need accident insurance for its employees
and staff, product liability insurance to protect the projects, as well as professional
liability for the company. As Terrain Park Designs grows there will be more than one
project going on at once. This growth will place me in more of an overseer of projects
role rather than specific project director. I will work with the ski resorts and project
managers to design and sell the proper parks for specific locations on our customers
mountains.

Zachary Thompson
Risk Identification
Because Terrain Park Designs is designing and building these terrain parks it assumes
most of the liability and thus must look closely into factors and situations that open
Terrain Park Designs and their customers to negligence claims.
Risk Management Goals
Skiing is an inherently dangerous sport, and as such there can be a certain level of risk
each invitee assumes. Since terrain parks have now been defined as part of that assumed
risk, the ski resorts are relatively protected from negligence claims. Recently, however,
there has been a shift that is holding resorts more responsible for negligence concerning
terrain parks. TPD wishes to protects itself and its customers (the ski resorts) from
negligence by implementing the following steps:

Design and engineer all aspects of the terrain park for safety
Create a safe flow of traffic through the park with stop and start zones in safe
areas
Create starting zones that limit top speeds to avoid over-shooting
Design and build features to specific standards laid out by the USTPC
Properly sign and mark all takeoffs and landings
Implement the use of safety net, fencing, signs and warnings in all high risk areas
Post clearly visible warning signs at all terrain park entrances
Clearly mark different levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) of features

Risk of injury due to improperly built features and designed parks.

Skiing is an inherently dangerous sport. There are many variables that cannot be
controlled, some of these may include:
Weather conditions
Visibility
The skill level of invitees
And the location of the mountain
There are also variables than can be controlled to prevent risk of physical injury:
The shape and geometry of features
The starting and landing zones
Recognizing safe areas to stop
Signage
Traffic flow
Spectators
Proper fencing
Unintentional access by people who do not wish to be in the park
People in the park who should not be there
Safe exit routs
Maintenance of the park
Support vehicles in the park
Ski patrol access

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These are all variables that can be controlled to help prevent risk of injury by designing
terrain parks around safety. The top four variables on this list are perhaps the most
important and largest contributors to physical injury. These four factors are tantamount to
the safety of the terrain park riders. Controlling these is the first step in avoiding lawsuits
stemming from injury.
Risk Evaluation and Treatment
Risk of injury in terrain parks is both frequent and in many cases severe. Because of the
inherent risk involved with freestyle skiing and the uncontrollable factor of invitee skill
level, there will always be a certain level of frequency in terrain parks. An uncontrolled
injury frequency rate, when mixed with improperly built terrain park features, will cause
many severe physical injuries. These severe injuries are generally head trauma or spinal
injuries that often result in lawsuits costing both parties thousands if not millions of
dollars. To prevent this high frequency, high severity trend, TPD will work design its
parks specifically to lower injury severity as well as work to lessen the injury frequency
rate. The following address four of the most imperative steps to reach this goal.
1. Geometry and Shape of the Features
Jumps can be designed for specific air and maneuvers. Aerial jumps are designed
for height and to create backward momentum with very steep takeoffs. Nordic
jumps are designed for distance with negative incline takeoffs. Knowing what
kind of jumping a resort will have in its terrain park is key. Dr. Mont Hubbard,
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis has come up
with a mathematical formula that calculates the Effective Fall Height (EFH),
which is the force that a jumper hits the landing on a given jump. Using this
formula Dr. Hubbard has proposed jumps be built in the step over or
turtleback style to reduce landing impact.
Figure 1) Dr. Hubbards landing angle relative to jumper path diagram.

Zachary Thompson

Figure 2) USTPC proposed design for a turtleback jump.

Using the guidelines set out by Dr. Hubbard and the United States
Terrain Park Council (USTPC), TPD will design all its features around
these concepts.
2. Starting and Landing Zones
The two most common mechanisms of injury in terrain parks are
unintentional inversion and over-jumping the landing. The best
way to reduce inversion is through the solution above. The way

Zachary Thompson
to reduce the risk of over-jumping is to build starting zones
where riders are forced to stop before they drop in to create a
maximum speed that will not allow over jumping
3. Creating Safe Places to Stop
Another factor that leads to injuries in terrain parks are collisions
resulting from riders stopping in unsafe areas. These collisions
can be caused by both terrain park riders, and other ski area
customers who are skiing through the park. To mitigate this risk
TPD will design into the parks safe zones off to the side of traffic
flow for both spectators and riders to stop and watch. These
areas will be marked with signs and fenced off to protect the
viewers with both entrances and exits obvious. The flows of
traffic in and out of these zones will be off to the side and have
visible merging areas.
4. Proper Signage
Proper signage can be the single most powerful tool to protect
ski resorts and the public. Informed riders who understand the
risks they are taking and the difficulty level of the jumps they are
hitting are much less likely to get hurt and much less likely to sue
a resort for negligence. Proper signage guides the public through
the park and also gives ski resorts a defense against
unreasonable negligence suits. Terrain Park Designs will work
directly with the ski patrol and mountain operations to
implement signs in the proper places that are visible and
understandable to the public.

Case Precedents for Injury Due to Negligence

Salvini V. Ski Lifts (Snoqualmie Ski Area)
Perhaps the most well-known and precedent setting legal case
involving terrain park negligence is Salvini. This case addresses three
of the four variables above and how Snoqualmie failed to implement
any of the three.
On February 11, 2004 Kenneth Salvini was night skiing at Snoqualmie
Ski Area. He entered the terrain park, skiing past a sign with a posted
warning about over-jumping terrain features. Salvini then maneuvered
into a jump line with a series of table-top jumps. Upon nearing the
takeoff of the second jump Salvini lost control and overshot the tabletop, landing on his back at the bottom of the jump in the flat. Kenneth
Salvini is now quadriplegic. Experts testified that the landing of the
table-top in question was too short and built incorrectly. Salvini
brought a suit of negligence against SKI LIFTS INC. The jury found that

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Salvini contributed to his own negligence 45% and the resort 55% and
awarded the plaintiff $14 million dollars.
This case had several factors that contributed to Salvinis injury. The
jump in question, experts testified, was improperly built, with the
landing being too long, the takeoff to steep and the starting zone not
clearly marked. Had steps been taken to fix these variables, it would
be very likely that Kenneth Salvini would not have become a
quadriplegic.
Harshman V. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
Harshman was a case that the ski industry needed to win, and I agree
with the outcome. There needed to be a standard of protection for the
resorts if they took the correct precautions to keep their terrain parks
safe, which Jackson Hole did. In 2000 the terrain park world was a
much different place. Today there are now new ideas that can lower
the frequency and severity of accidents like Harshman.
On February 28, 2000, sixteen-year-old Adam Harshman was fatally
injured when he over jumped a table-top jump in the Jackson Hole
terrain park. The terrain park contained man-made features and jumps,
including the table-top style jump Harshman was injured on. The
jump had been altered the night before by the terrain park crew and
tested the same morning without any issue before being opened to the
public. Several people hit the jump before Harshmans accident. His
family filed claims of negligence and wrongful death against both
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (referred to as JHMR) and the United
States, the owners of the property. The claims against the United
States were dismissed on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction. The court
ruled summary judgment in favor of JHMR and dismissed the case.
This case was not settled in the favor of the plaintiff. Jackson Hole
Mountain Resort took the proper steps to protect themselves from
negligence by testing the jump before hand. It was also argued that
Harshman was 100% responsible for his injuries. Yes the jump was
safe, and yes Jackson Hole took the correct precautions, however, had
they implemented the steps that Terrain Park Designs suggests the
outcome would have been much different. The starting zone in the
park was not marked, nor was it obvious where the start was. This lead
to Harshmans excessive speed. There was also no posted sign
informing the public that the jump had been changed the night before.
The change was a more inclined takeoff. This combined with the
unknown speed factor; both increased the likelihood of and accident
(frequency) as well as the severity.
Dunbar V. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

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Dunbar is a case dealing with the proper signage and fencing within a
terrain park. The Plaintiff, Camie Dunbar, was skiing at JHMR when she
decided to go to the terrain park with another friend. Upon entering the
terrain park she and her companion decided they did not want to risk
hitting any of the features and ask a park crewmember how to exit.
They were told they could take their skis off and hike back out of the
park or ski down a cat track out of the park. Dunbar and company
skied down said rout and ended up falling approximately 12 feet into a
half pipe. Dunbar received major injuries to her pelvis, her companion
was uninjured. The plaintiff argued that JHMR was negligent because
they failed to warn her about the location of the half pipe. The lower
court dismissed the case, however, the appellate court reversed
judgment in favor of the plaintiff, stating that Jackson Hole had a duty
to warn and protect people from falling into a half pipe that was
deemed not an inherent risk of skiing.
Dunbar is a great example of how fencing and proper signage can
prevent injuries and subsequently lawsuit costs. Had JHMR placed signs
warning Dunbar that she was approaching the half pipe, as well as
fenced off the area around the edge, Dunbar would not have received
her injuries and JHMR would not have had to pay the legal costs
involved.
Safety in terrain parks is something that benefits everyone. That is why
TPD is committed to designing safe, functional and fun terrain parks for
people of all ages and abilities to enjoy.

Bibliography
Kenneth Salvini v. Ski Lifts INC d/b/a Summit at Snoqualmie, No. 602110-I.
Estate of Harshman v. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, No. 02-8046.
Dunbar v. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, 392 F. 3d 1145 - Court of
Appeals, 10th Circuit 2004

Zachary Thompson
Hubbard, Mont. "Creating Standards for Winter Terrain Parks." Colorado
School of Mines. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jun 2012.
USTPC." US Terrain Park Council (USTPC). USTPC, n.d. Web. 19 June
2012. <http://usterrainparkcouncil.org/index.html>.