By Eric Francis, Standard Correspondent
KILLINGTON – The Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration is looking into the Saturday death of a gondola mechanic at Killington Resort.
A worker at the Killington Ski Resort discovered a fatally injured gondola mechanic Saturday afternoon where the victim had been working.
Jeffrey K. Chalk, 53, of Pittsford was found unresponsive on the concrete floor below a catwalk in the North Brook Terminal of Killington’s Skyeship Gondola at about 4 p.m., according to Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Robert Patten.
Chalk, a longtime employee of the Killington Ski Resort, was aided by emergency medical personnel on the mountain and then transported to the Rutland Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 5:33 p.m.
Detective Patten said initial indications at the scene suggest that Chalk was working alone when he fell approximately 13 feet from the catwalk and sustained a serious head injury when he struck his head on the cement floor.
Detective Patten said that, in addition to the joint investigation being carried out by state police and the medical examiner, VOSHA had been notified of the mishap and will be looking into the circumstances of the workplace death.
“(VOSHA) has opened an investigation. No other information will be provided until the investigation is completed,” said VOSHA Director Stephen Monahan on Wednesday morning.
Vermont’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Burlington conducted an autopsy this week in an effort to determine the cause and manner of Chalk’s death. The results have not yet been publicly released.
This article first appeared in the January 12, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.