A. In order to safeguard life, health, property and the welfare of this state, it is the policy of New Mexico to protect its citizens and visitors from unnecessary hazards in the operation of ski lifts and passenger aerial tramways and to require liability insurance to be carried by operators of ski lifts and tramways. The primary responsibility for the safety of operation, maintenance, repair and inspection of ski lifts and tramways rests with the operators of such devices. The primary responsibility for the safety of the individual skier while engaging in the sport of skiing rests with the skier himself. The state, through the Ski Safety Act, recognizes these responsibilities and duties on the part of the ski area operator and the skier.
B. It is recognized that there are inherent risks in the sport of skiing, which should be understood by each skier and which are essentially impossible to eliminate by the ski area operator. It is the purpose of the Ski Safety Act to define those areas of responsibility and affirmative acts for which ski area operators shall be liable for loss, damage or injury and those risks which the skier or passenger expressly assumes and for which there can be no recovery.
History: 1953 Comp., § 12-16-2, enacted by Laws 1969, ch. 218, § 2; recompiled as 1953 Comp., § 12-28-2, by Laws 1972, ch. 51, § 9; 1979, ch. 279, § 2; 1997, ch. 211, § 1.
ANNOTATIONSThe 1997 amendment, effective June 20, 1997, designated the existing paragraphs as Subsections A and B, respectively, and inserted "or passenger" following "skier" near the end of Subsection B.
Duties for ski operators. — Section 24-15-7 NMSA 1978, not this section, sets out the specific duties for ski operators in a skiing area. Barba v. Taos Ski Valley, Inc., 1998 Colo. J. C.A.R. 2324 (10th Cir. 1998), decision without published opinion, 145 F.3d 1345 (10th Cir. 1998).