7 Injured In Chairlift Accident At Maine's Sugarloaf

Seven people have been injured in a chairlift accident at a Maine ski area that had a similar incident five years ago.

Sugarloaf Mountain Resort spokesman Ethan Austin says the resort believes none of the injuries sustained Saturday are life-threatening.

About 200 people were on the King Pine quad lift around noon Saturday when the lift stopped, then started going in reverse. The lift was stopped and its riders evacuated.

Skier Kieran O'Shaughnessy saw it from the ground. He says two of the chairs swung nearly upside down when the lift stopped. Then it started going backwards.

"It kept on spinning around really fast, and then it was going backwards pretty fast, so everybody in line started telling people to jump off because they were actually pretty low to the ground," he told WBUR's Fred Bever. "So people started jumping off so they wouldn't go into the flywheel."

The resort says the injured have been treated by ski patrol and were being taken off the mountain for treatment by emergency medical responders at the scene.

The cause of the accident is unknown.

Sugarloaf was the site of another chairlift accident in 2010 in which a 35-year-old lift derailed, injuring eight skiers.

With reporting from the Associated Press and WBUR's Fred Bever.