An incident involving an elevator at a former Colorado gold mine that led to the loss of life of a tour information and trapped a bunch of vacationers for hours final yr was brought on by “operator error,” authorities mentioned Wednesday.
The Teller County Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t present particulars about what went incorrect in a information launch saying the outcomes of its investigation within the Oct. 10 loss of life of Patrick Weier, 46, on the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine.
Nevertheless, investigators discovered there have been no tools malfunctions and that the mine met state laws, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned in a information launch.
The incident occurred because the elevator was descending into the mine within the mountains close to Colorado Springs.
At round 500 toes down, the individual working the elevator from the floor “felt one thing unusual ” and stopped it, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell mentioned on the time.
The elevator was nonetheless operable, and people on board when the incident occurred have been introduced again up inside 20 minutes, he mentioned.
A door on the elevator was damaged when it was raised.
“We don’t know if the door malfunctioned or not or if one thing else occurred.
There’s rather a lot that goes on in these little elevators,” he mentioned then. “We simply know that the door was damaged in some way.”
Twelve adults from a second group have been trapped on the backside of the mine, 1,000 toes under floor, whereas engineers made positive the elevator could possibly be used.
Quickly after the incident, Mikesell mentioned Weier had died due to an issue with the elevator, not a medical drawback.
The case has been dominated an accident and has been closed, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned in its replace.
It didn’t clarify what occurred to Weier or how he died.
He had a younger little one and was from the close by city of Victor, Colorado.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace, Lt. Renee Bunting, declined to offer extra particulars and advised a reporter to file a information request to get extra info.
The mine, which was about to shut for the season when the accident occurred, will be capable to reopen once more for this yr’s vacationer season, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
State mining regulators had ordered the mine to stay closed and never conduct any excursions till it could possibly be decided whether or not the mine was in compliance with laws.
It’s not recognized when the mine will reopen.
The mine’s web site, which prominently includes a picture of Weier and a hyperlink to a fundraiser for his son, nonetheless mentioned it was closed indefinitely on Thursday and nobody answered the phone there.
