An incident involving an elevator at a former Colorado gold mine that led to the dying of a tour information and trapped a bunch of vacationers for hours final 12 months was brought on by “operator error,” authorities mentioned Wednesday.
The Teller County Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t present particulars about what went fallacious in a information launch saying the outcomes of its investigation within the Oct. 10 dying of Patrick Weier, 46, on the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine.
Nonetheless, investigators discovered there have been no gear 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 something strange ” 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 quite a bit that goes on in these little elevators,” he mentioned then. “We just know that the door was broken somehow.”
Twelve adults from a second group have been trapped on the backside of the mine, 1,000 toes beneath 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 downside.
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 youngster 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 informed 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 of reopen once more for this 12 months’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 identified when the mine will reopen.
The mine’s web site, which prominently includes a photograph 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.
