Friday, 10. February 2012

:: Home > General News > Lift money should pay for rescues, say insurers

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
30	31	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	1	2	3	4

Add your event FREE

Today

Polls

20. 10. 09. - 15:00

Lift money should pay for rescues, say insurers

By David Rogers

Insurance bosses have said money from mountain lift tickets should be used to cover rescues.

Michael Sturmlechner from Austrian insurance company Allianz said today (Tues) that one Euro of the cost of each lift ticket be used to pay for mountain rescues by helicopter.

The firm claimed the money collected would bridge the gap between the maximum of 890 Euros that social-insurance funds paid per rescue in only 18 per cent of the 6,000 annual cases in Austria and the thousands of Euros that each rescue actually costs.

Sturmlechner said its proposed SAFE-R (safety area for extensive rescue) programme would automatically deduct one Euro from the price of each lift ticket sold. It added service provider Alpgarant would oversee programme processing.

Alpgarant chief Alexander Bauer said he had approached lift operators about the idea last April and had not come across any significant opposition.

Given the ski areas� need for long-term planning, he added, only a few operators had so far backed the scheme, but more would be before the 2010/2011 ski season.

Sturmlechner said Allianz expected lift operators to cooperate since other solutions faced great obstacles. Coverage of the 73 per cent of winter-sports guests who came from abroad was an aspect of the programme that could be used to help market it, he added.

Most of them had no idea that they could be asked to pay the cost of a mountain rescue or medical emergency, he said.

Under 40 per cent of Austrians who engaged in winter sports had private accident insurance or a letter of protection from car club �AMTC, Sturmlechner said, adding polls showed 90 per cent of Austrians were prepared to pay one Euro more for a lift ticket.

Austrian Times

Write your comment to this article here

Tag cloud:
solutions tickets Sturmlechner operators insurance Alpgarant abroad obstacles money sports lift mountain season rescues cooperate Euro opposition Allianz significant Austrian

Latest News

Set up tax on financial transactions soon, says Katzian
The head of the Association of Private Employees (GPA-djp) has called for a quick introduction of a tax on financial transactions.

P�hringer rejects U-turn on rightist ball
Young Social Democrats (SP�) have appealed to Upper Austrian Governor Josef P�hringer not to attend the Burschenbundball in Linz this Saturday.

FP� under fire after trip to Grozny
The Freedom Party (FP�) has been harshly criticised for meeting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

WKO boss wants pension age hike incentives
Federal Economy Chamber (WKO) President Christoph Leitl has identified attempts to raise the average retirement age as the key issue regarding Austria�s budget.

Woman and child run over in Vienna
A woman and child have died in a road accident in Vienna, Austria. The lorry driver was making a right turn when he drove into a group of pedestrians leaving a 59-year-old and a 12-year-old dead. The mother of the school girl was left with serious injuries.

Schlecker says Austrian jobs are safe
The son of Schlecker founder Anton Schlecker has claimed that the company has no plans to sell its Austrian affiliate.

SP� sees smaller parliament as key signal
The general secretary of the Social Democrats (SP�) has argued his support for a reduction of the size of the parliament.

Austrian food to feature in organic trade fair
Austria is expected to be well represented at next week�s BioFach 2012 international organic trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany. Some 90 companies and organisations from the Austrian organic good sector will feature at the fair from 15 to 18 February.

Brothel for the homeless in Vienna
Homeless people are queueing up for free rooms in an Austrian brothel after owner Peter Laskaris said it would be unfair not to do everything he could during the current cold spell.

Deep-freeze snacks for orangutans in Sch�nbrunn
The lucky orangutans who take up residence in Europe�s oldest zoo have been indulging in a twice weekly take-away. Despite the trees in Sch�nbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria now being completely bare the fury friends have fresh branches and leaves delivered twice a week.