[rohmell]

I hope this is not a repost, I haven't seen it on here before.
I hope it's not AI, that shit is getting harder and harder to differentiate from real shit.

[ptreegrdn]

This is real, details below:

On August 8, 2025, a chairlift collapsed at a resort in Russia’s Kabardino-Balkaria Region. TASS, a Russian News Agency, reported that eight people were injured in the accident. No fatalities were reported. Two people were discharged from the hospital after a check-up. Another, according to TASS, underwent a CT scan that detected a spinal cord injury. At least one person was taken to an intensive care unit and was in serious condition.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry’s directorate for the region received a report of the collapse at 5:45 p.m. local time, TASS reported. Rescuers were dispatched immediately afterwards. 21 people were on board the chairlift, with 13 being evacuated by first responders.

Emergency services told TASS that the “wear and tear” on the chairlift’s cables was believed to be responsible for the failure. In August, investigators opened a criminal case and were working to determine the accident’s cause.

https://tass.com/emergencies/1999975

[William May]

What goes around, comes ar.............HOLY FUCK! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!

[MartyK]

Thanks for article

[kellyhound]

Emergency services told TASS that the “wear and tear” on the chairlift’s cables was believed to be responsible for the failure. In August, investigators opened a criminal case and were working to determine the accident’s cause.

Follow-up technical reports confirmed the catastrophic failure involved cables that had been in operation since they were originally installed in 1968.

Other footage shows the snapping cables violently tossing four passengers directly into the 22-foot-deep waters of Lake Trek, while other victims crashed into nearby trees and rocky ground.

The failure did not happen from a random cable snap mid-line but it occurred due to a catastrophic structural detachment right inside the lower terminal base station seen on the video.

During a routine technical audit, specialists discovered significant structural micro-cracks and damage on the chairlift's primary drive shaft.

This critical component transmits torque to turn the massive bullwheel that pulls the continuous steel cable loop.

Instead of replacing the drive shaft or halting operations to order parts, the chief manager of the chairlift personally attempted an unauthorized, makeshift weld repair on the cracked metal component.

Because the makeshift weld could not withstand the immense tensile stress of the loaded steel lines, the drive shaft completely sheared off under pressure.

The moment the shaft broke, the heavy driving bullwheel completely detached from its mounts.

This sudden release of tension caused the entire cable loop to violently snap backward, flipping the structural steel framing upside down at the base station and instantly derailing the line.

Investigators and the Prosecutor's Office built their criminal case around an established pattern of negligence by the operating company, Excursion Complex 'Zhemchuzhina' (Pearl).

Prior to the crash, russia's federal industrial safety watchdog, Rostechnadzor, conducted an unscheduled inspection of the chairlift and officially flagged nearly 30 separate safety violations. Rostechnadzor demanded an immediate suspension of the ride.

The operating company successfully bypassed the shutdown demand by appealing to a local court, which leniently let them off with a minor 100,000-ruble fine instead of enforcing the closure. The owner kept the 1968 attraction running without fixing the safety gaps.

The manager was prosecuted under Part 2 of Article 238 of the Russian Criminal Code. The specific charge is defined as providing services that do not meet safety requirements for consumer life or health, resulting in the negligent infliction of severe bodily harm.

The defense strategy rested primarily on shifting structural liability, focusing on the infrastructure's extreme age and trying to minimize the legal scope of the casualties.

The defense argued that the manager should not bear sole criminal responsibility for what they characterized as an inevitable metal fatigue failure.

They emphasized that the chairlift had been operating continuously since its original 1968 installation, claiming that invisible structural erosion within the core components made the failure impossible to accurately gauge during routine shifts.

The defense contested the medical classifications assigned to several victims. Specifically, they argued that only one passenger met the stringent statutory threshold for severe bodily harm directly tied to the drive shaft break, while classifying the others as minor to moderate. They used this technicality to argue that the charges should be downgraded to a lesser misdemeanor offense.

The defense pointed out that while Rostechnadzor had flagged 30 violations prior to the crash, a local court had previously chosen to penalize the company with a minor financial fine rather than enforcing a hard operational shutdown. They argued the manager operated within the bounds of what local courts had practically tolerated.

Under paragraph v of Part 2, Article 238 (negligently causing severe injury through unsafe consumer services), the statutory penalty dictates up to 6 years of imprisonment along with heavy state fines and a multi-year ban on holding managerial or operational infrastructure positions.

Rather than waiting for the conclusion of the criminal trial, the civil courts aggressively targeted the parent operating company, Excursion Complex Zhemchuzhina. The City Court ordered the operator to pay millions of rubles in moral and physical damages.

In a highly controversial follow-up ruling, the operator's legal team successfully appealed the payouts at the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.

The court slashed the compensation values for multiple victims, f.e, dropping a traumatized minor's court-ordered payout from 250,000 rubles down to a flat 150,000 rubles.

The main criminal hearings will focus on deciding if the manager will face real prison time, up to 4 years max, for executing the illegal weld repair on the drive shaft.

[Mr.NoCredit]

Lazy and greedy didn’t want to pay for repairs on an over 50 year old machine that carried people. He should get the full amount of jail time and financial responsibility for his negligence.