A sledding accident over the weekend at Colorado’s Copper Mountain Ski Resort left two Fairbury, Illinois, high schoolers dead.
The pair of Prairie Central High School students, Dylan Bazell and Drew Fehr, were at the ski resort for spring break.
The duo rode a single plastic sled in tandem off a snowbank at the end of a half-pipe at the resort and were launched high. The sled then fell to the hard ice, with the riders suffering blunt force trauma.
When the Summit County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene at 8:35 p.m. local time Sunday, the two student-athletes were pronounced dead.
Both boys played on their school’s basketball and football teams.
Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons offered condolences to the friends and families of the two students.
Paula Crane, superintendent of Prairie Central Community Unit School District Number 8, wrote to the community, “We are committed to doing everything we can to help our students and staff with the grieving and healing process.”
The ski resort also offered condolences but reiterated safety rules at the resort regarding sleds. The resort noted that the half-pipe used was roped off and that the incident occurred well after the ski lift closed for the day at 4 p.m.
“Sledding is strictly prohibited here at Copper Mountain. There are designated zones in some of our milder terrain, but on-mountain, after we close, there’s no sledding allowed,” Copper Mountain Ski Resort President Dustin Lyman told KUSA, a Denver NBC affiliate.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.