Injured skier wins holiday compensation
Lynn Birch injured her knee on her French package holiday A woman from Sheffield who suffered a serious knee injury whilst skiing on holiday in France won £15,000 compensation in a case against holiday company First Choice, in 2006. 51-year-old […]
Lynn Birch injured her knee on her French package holiday
A woman from Sheffield who suffered a serious knee injury whilst skiing on holiday in France won £15,000 compensation in a case against holiday company First Choice, in 2006.
51-year-old Lynn Birch had a serious fall during her package holiday in 2002 at the resort of Serre Chevalier. The package deal included hire of ski equipment and skiing lessons. However, Mrs Birch found herself out of her depth when her intermediate class was taken to two maximum difficulty black runs.
Mrs Birch, who had previous experience of skiing, was faced with a choice between two black ski runs, one of which was a steep mogul run. Having no experience of the difficulty of the slope, and having allegedly received no instruction from her tutor, Mrs Birch claimed she had no choice but to ski down the mogul run upon which she fell twice, the second time injuring her knee.
Months of pain and treatment
Mrs Birch received treatment at the ski resort and extensive physiotherapy back home in Sheffield, but doctors decided she must undergo an operation on her anterior cruciate ligament, with further physiotherapy. Mrs Birch, who suffered pain for months after the accident, said “What started off as a dream holiday unfortunately turned into a nightmare,”
First Choice stated that their ski instructor was fully qualified, and that they had “acted reasonably in choosing the ski school,” (Yorkshire Post, 2006). The case was decided on the basis of correspondence between the company and the ski instructor, who asserted he was careful to only take the groups to slopes which matched their ability.
However, when it emerged that the ski instructor would be unable to attend the hearing, First Choice decided “to try and settle the claim on the best possible terms,”