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Show County plans no charges in fatal avalanche by Dave Adler A March 19 avalanche at the Park City Ski Area that fatally injured a North Carolina woman involved "absolutely no criminal wrongdoing" wrong-doing" or negligence, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Summit County Sheriff's Office after a four-week investigation. Summit County Detective Rob Berry, who headed the investigation, said his office will "not isLue any citations or take any action whatever." what-ever." Summit County Attorney Robert Adkins said, "based on that report, nothing will be filed." Berry said the investigation also found there "was no negligence whatsoever on the part of the Park City Ski Area. Resort officials did everything that could be expected of them. They used sufficient markings and they roped off areas that were out of bounds." The avalanche occurred at 1:40 p.m., just moments after the Ladies' World Cup slalom race ended. It was triggered by a number of skiers who had skied in a restricted, roped-off area just above the ladies' slalom Course;' Said Berry:"" -- -? "We found 12 skiers who admitted to skiing in that area," he said. "There was a great deal of confusion with a big crowd of people unfamiliar with the resort. Some just didn't know which path they were supposed to take to get down the mountain." Berry said the investigation included interviews with 30 or 40 people. "We tried to interview everybody who witnessed the avalanche ava-lanche or saw something in connection with it. We even ran an ad in the Salt Lake Tribune asking people who had any information about it to contact us," he said. Phil Jones, president of the Park City Ski Area, said the county's report "basically squared" with the ski area's investigation. "Just because we rope off areas doesn't mean people will respect it," he said. Marilyn Harrell, 36, of North Carolina, was critically injured in the avalanche. She had been buried under wet, heavy snow for about 20 minutes when ski patrolmen and volunteers found her curled up under an embankment. She had apparently tried to protect herself under a ridge below a ski trail, said Nick Badami, chairman of the board of the ski area. She was taken by helicopter to the Holy Cross Family Health and Emergency Center where a medical team restored her breathing and heartbeat. She had suffered a cardiac arrest and severe hypothermia. Officials reported her body temperature tempera-ture had dropped to 83 degrees. i----&h-was then flown to the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City where she died the next morning. Cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest. Also injured in the avalanche was Robert Beckett, 20, of Murray, Utah. He sustained minor back injuries and was treated at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. He was released on March 21. |