The top bullwheel detached from a chairlift in Spain this morning, injuring more than 15 people. The incident happened at Astún, a resort with 15 lifts located in the Pyrenees. Without a bullwheel retention device, the bullwheel came to rest vertically and the lift rapidly lost tension, causing chairs to contact the ground along the line. The lift de-roped on numerous towers and chairs could be seen mangled with an evacuation underway. The government said three people were seriously injured with helicopters shuttling people to hospitals. Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, posted on X that he was “shocked by the news of the accident at the Astún station” and offered full support to local authorities and the victims.
The lift that failed is a 1989 fixed grip quad called Canal Roya. It was constructed by Spanish manufacturer REAC, which does not have any installations in the United States or Canada.
The incident appears similar to the 1985 Teller lift accident at Keystone, which killed two people and seriously injured 49. That lift was constructed by Yan and an investigation revealed a faulty weld caused the top bullwheel to detach.
Lift Blog 
Its kinda interesting that the Euro manufactures have BW retention devices available and they do install them on NA bound products but not EU equipment because its not in the CEN code.
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But, hey, safety bars on all the chairs.
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Wait wait wait. Is that true? I can’t believe that bullwheel retention isn’t part of the code there. It’s such a small amount of metal needed to do it as well. Look at a Skytrac return, which is basically this terminal that failed but with the bullwheel on top instead of below. Its bullwheel retention device is two small semi-circles of metal bolted on to catch a flange on the bullwheel hub in case of failure. Cheap to do but prevents a disaster like this.
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The Skytrac return on the Kachina Peak lift at Taos is essentially the same as this lift but there is a retaining device, ie a bullwheel hub flange with interlocking plates on the frame.
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BW retention is required in the CEN code, but that only applies to lifts built in 2000 or later. In most countries they are also a mandatory retrofit, but apparently not in Spain.
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Teller was the drive bullwheel that failed, this one is the return.
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Same Concept.
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No difference in results. Both top bullwheels. This one is likely a bearing failure given that the shaft is still visible in the photos, but it doesn’t really matter to the public. I hope the investigation results are made public so we may learn from it.
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Thanks for giving the real reason the YAN failed. So many just bash the man. But in this case it was a poorly executed weld.
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Looks very similar to Teller at Keystone more than 30 years ago, but its almost certainly too early to draw conclusions
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Found the report on RM.net
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsf4-canal-roya-reac-4011.html
The bull wheel has been repainted since these photos where taken, but you can tell its the same lift based on the chair and tower design, their only other FGQ has different chairs.
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Lift was made by REAC, a manufacturer based in Spain, they where the ones who Reinstalled the Yan HSQ a resort called Espot: https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsd4-de-la-roca-yan-lift-engineering-reac-1057.html
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for some reason i always thought it was a reinstall
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Hi Peter,
Very interesting website, thank you. Are you aware of any chairlifts in a National Park?
Also- what is the most common types of lift failures?
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There are chairlifts in 2 national parks, Badger Mtn. in Yosemite National Park and Boston Mills Ski area in Brandywine National Park. Hurricane Ridge National Park has surface lifts in Olympic National Park. There are also lifts in some national parks in Canada.
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Pretty Bizarre to see the Bullwheel shaft sticking out the bottom of the frame. The entire weight of the Bullwheel could be hanging on whatever type of bolted retaining plate they used in event of a bearing failure. Poma and CTEC have return Bullwheels on cantilevered shafts, but the shaft and Bullwheel are on top of the frame. So in theory the Bullwheel would stay in place even without a retainer plate.
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Following the Teller lift accident at Keystone, bullwheel retainers were installed on lifts by Lift Engineering (YAN). An example is the Four Points triple chair at Steamboat. This lift started life in 1983 as the Storm Peak Lift. In 1992 the lift was shortened and renamed Four Points.
Bill Fetcher
Steamboat Springs
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I didn’t know a Bullwheel was called a Bullwheel until reading this article, I was looking to see what the lift failure was. I saw the photo of the Bwheel on its side, and the down facing shaft, and instantly thought to myself, why the **** didn’t they engineer it to be on top?
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Consider that, if the BW was on top of this return structure – and all other things were the same – the BW and rope would not have been captured by the vertical column of the terminal structure.
Instead, the rope would have likely shot downhill like a rubber band and potentially turned the BW into a very dangerous projectile in the process.
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A 20 year old Doppelmayr triple at Mt. Sunapee launched its return bull wheel on Christmas Day 2007. Not great weather and early in the day so there were only 21 people on the lift (of a potential 207!) The only injury was a broken arm for a child who fell a short distance. Everyone else was rope evac’d. None of the towers de-roped – probably because the line was only 10% loaded. It was back in operation in about 3.5 weeks, IIRC.
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North Peak or Spruce? Also, do you have any pictures of that incident?
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North Peak. Spruce is technically a Ribl-Mayr – started by Riblet, completed by Doppelmayr ;-)
Nothing from the day. I have a few after they allowed us patrollers access again after rigging for repairs had begun. If you had no business there, you were to stay away. Lift mechanics were warned not to share pictures from the day.
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Thanks! Would you mind emailing me? I have more questions.
https://liftnerd.wordpress.com/contact/
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https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/2007/12/26/sunapee-ski-lift-malfunction-injures/52697571007/
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the video from Spain: forwarded to me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1385559425739788
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Scary stuff! Correction on the heading, though: a score means 20, so if 30 people were injured, it wasn’t “scores”. -Gustave
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