Jeffrey Zinne, Billings, Montana man dies after falling from faulty chairlift amid 65 mph winds riding at three-person chairlift at Red Lodge Mountain resort. Questions whether chairlift should have ever be running in strong gusts along with legal culpability.
A snowboarder in Montana has died after falling from a chairlift that was having a mechanical problem at a Billings area ski resort.
Jeffrey Zinne, 37, was riding alone in a three-person chairlift at Red Lodge Mountain resort Monday morning when he fell from an unspecified height.
Zinne, who had been snowboarding Monday prior to his accident, was taken to a Billings hospital where he was pronounced dead early Wednesday from injuries suffered in the fall, according to the county coroner.
The lift had experienced a mechanical problem at the time Zinne fell, said resort spokesperson Troy Hawks, who declined to comment further, stating the circumstances were being investigated.
Weather conditions and the victim’s actions also were being looked at, he added.
More than 100 people who were on the lift at the time were evacuated by ski patrollers who used ropes to lower them to the ground.
Zinne was described as a ‘devoted husband’ to his wife Meghan and ‘caring father’ to his 2-year-old son who by his loved ones who said he had a ‘passion for life, infectious laughter, and kind-hearted nature’.
Meghan has urged Zinne’s loved ones to honor him by taking ‘your most beloved’ and ‘go for a drive to the mountains’, adding: ‘Nye was always our favorite spot’.
To date there had been no report of whether the victim’s family would seek legal damages for negligence for operating a dysfunctional equipment causing a rider’s death, perhaps further exacerbated by wind gusts of 65 mph.
Of note the chairlifts are operated without seat belts or safety bars, this despite being operated 100 ft above the ground, leading to calls to strengthen safety measures.
The accident happened Monday just before noon at the ski area southeast of Billings in the Beartooth Mountains.
The lift, known as the Triple Chair, was stopped after the accident, Hawks said.
Wind gusts of 65 mph were recorded in the area shortly before and after the accident, according to the National Weather Service. It remained unclear why ski operators declined to pause operations in lieu of blustery wind.
Hawks said the Triple Chairlift, which is almost a mile long and was built in 1983, was operating within safety parameters. It will remain shut down until an engineer fully assesses it, he said.
Staff at the ski area inspect its chairlifts daily, Hawks said. A professional inspection is conducted annually as required by Red Lodge Mountain’s insurance carrier and the US Forest Service, which leases land to the ski area, he said.
‘We place a top priority on the safety of all of our lifts and lift operations, and perform daily, weekly, monthly, and annual safety measures to better ensure the safe operation of our lifts,’ the resort said in a statement on social media.
A report via KPAX told of no single entity regulating compliance in Montana, further raising questions of operational safety and standards being enforced.
A GoFundMe for burial costs and provisioning for his wife and child by late Thursday had raised just on $30K.
Fatal lift accidents at ski areas are relatively rare, according to the National Ski Areas Association. Between 1956 and 2024, 35 people died in accidents involving chairlifts and aerial ropeways.
Sixteen of the deaths were linked to mechanical malfunctions, according to data collected by the group.
The latest death during that time period was in 2020, when a man died at Colorado’s Vail resort after his clothing got entangled in part of the chairlift, making him unable to breathe.
