Bill makes rope ducking a criminal offence in Washington
On April 6, the Washington State house passed Bill 5186, which made it illegal to cross from a ski area to a roped-off out of bounds area. Anyone found ducking the rope will not only end up with a penalty of US$1,000, the act will also lead to a criminal
record. The bill was passed with 43 votes in favour, while five votes were casted in opposition.
Crystal Mountain’s president and general manager, John Kircher, along with Paul Baugher of Northwest Avalanche, brought the bill to the Senate. The initiative was taken out of concern for skiers and snowboarders going into areas that had been sealed off
for avalanche control measures.
During a public hearing, Kircher said, “I had about 500 closure violations in avalanche terrain in the last three years ... about a third of those were very dangerous, and people were very lucky.”
People often ignored the warnings and the prevailing risk to ski and ride in areas sealed off because of avalanche risk. Initially, committing such an offence just earned them a lecture from the ski patrol or their season pass getting pulled. The punishment
was apparently not effective enough to keep the skiers and snowboarders from repeating the violation.
However, with the latest bill, a ski patrol is not the only thing that would be waiting for them at the bottom of their run. Now the cops will be getting involved and charging the person for criminal offence. The intention of this severe punishment is to
discourage people from intentionally ride a roped-off area, putting themselves and others in danger.
Through the bill, the resort owners and avalanche institutes want to let the people know that they are extremely serious now and will not tolerate any breach in off-limits slopes. Riding and skiing in the off-limit areas often lead to accidents and injuries.
This leads to costly expenses on rescuing the injured individuals and payment of unnecessary lawsuits. The resort owners want to avoid these extra expenses, so are determined to keep the people away from the roped-off areas.
A Crystal Mountain local and split-boarder, Kyle Miller, admitted that the new bill would definitely help to discourage the people from riding in closed avalanche terrain. However, he feared that the new law may also lead to undue punishments because of
the blanket statement of the bill. Commenting on the new law, he said, “Poaching an avi-loaded chute while skiers are on a groomed run below is one thing, but fining someone $1,000 when they don't put anyone else's life in danger is rather harsh.”
The State house of Washington must have taken everything into consideration before passing the bill. It cannot be argued that the new law will definitely help to stop the people from putting their lives, as well as the lives of others, in danger.
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