Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add additional information from a Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board report.

The wife of a skier who died after falling from a chairlift at Breckenridge Ski Resort is suing the resort and Vail Resorts over her husband’s death, according to documents filed in Summit County court last week.

John Perucco, 60, of Elgin, Illinois died March 17, 2023, after falling from the Zendo Chair at Breckenridge Ski Resort. The complaint filed in the lawsuit Friday, March 14, states that Perucco was an expert skier who volunteered as a ski patroller for more than 18 years.

The day of his death, Perucco used his Epic Pass to ski with a friend when he loaded the Zendo Chair just before 9:20 a.m., the lawsuit states.

“Before making it to the first pole, Mr. Perucco slid off the chair due to unsafe snow and ice accumulation on the seat,” and fell about 25 feet onto hard-pack snow, suffering critical injuries, according to the lawsuit. He died while being transported to the hospital.

When Perucco loaded the chair, there was an “unreasonable amount of snow and ice accumulation” that caused him to slip off the chair when he tried to clear it with his hand, according to the lawsuit.

“At all times material to this case, Mr. Perucco had surrendered himself to the care and custody of Defendants while riding on the Zendo Chairlift,” the attorneys representing Perucco’s wife wrote in the complaint. “He had given up his freedom of movement and actions, and there was nothing he could do to cause or prevent this tragedy.”

According to past Summit Daily News reports, the investigation determined the “male had fallen off of the chairlift as he was attempting to remove snow from the seat surface,” according to the Sheriff’s Office, which added that the safety restraint bar was in the up position.

Breckenridge Ski Patrol opted to transport Perucco via a toboggan rather than arrange for an airlift to the hospital, the lawsuit states. The ski resort stopped the lift after Perucco’s fall, before starting it again to unload other customers, according to the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit states that the ski resort then closed the lift to conduct an internal investigation into whether a chairlift malfunction caused the fall before reopening it after determining no malfunction had occurred.

The ski resort notified the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board of the fall around 11:30 a.m., more than two hours after the fall, the lawsuit states. Because of the delay in reporting it to the tramway safety board, the board was “unable to perform a complete, independent, on-scene investigation into the cause of the fall,” according to the lawsuit.

The tramway safety board report on the incident states that the board was “unable to conduct a complete on-scene investigation,” but because the ski resort determined that the fall was not the result of a lift malfunction, it did not violate state regulations to reopen the lift.

The Colorado Ski Safety Act outlines the rights, responsibilities and liabilities of skiers and ski area operators, and the Passenger Tramway Safety Act creates the framework for how chairlifts are supposed to be operated in the state, according to the lawsuit. 

Attorneys representing Perucco’s wife wrote in the lawsuit that Vail Resorts, which owns Breckenridge Ski Resort, and the ski resort were negligent and violated Tramway Safety Board rules, resulting in Perucco’s death, because they failed to clear the “dangerous conditions” on the lift or prevent Perucco from riding the chair.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks economic damages for medical expenses, loss of financial support, funeral and burial expenses and other losses as well as non-economic damages for grief, pain and suffering and emotional distress, according to the complaint.

A spokesperson for Breckenridge Ski Resort and Vail Resorts did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday, March 20.

The attorneys representing Perucco’s wife also did not immediately return a request for comment.