 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
 | |
| Industry | Aerial lift manufacturer |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1965 Carson City, Nevada, United States |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Fate | Bankrupt |
| Headquarters | Carson City, Nevada, United States |
Key people | Jan K. Kunczynski Les Okreglak |
| Products | Ski lifts, Rails (Funicular, Monorail) |
Yan Lift, incorporated as Lift Engineering & Mfg. Co., was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the company built at least 200 fixed-grip chairlifts,[citation needed] as well as 31 high-speed quads.[1] The company's lifts have been involved in the deaths of five people and the injury of at least 70, the worst record of any ski-lift maker operating in North America.
The firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal incident in 1985. After a series of equipment failures, Yan Lifts were outlawed in certain states including California and Colorado. The company later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996 after multiple other incidents resulting in 3 deaths.[2] Eventually, Yan Lifts manufactured new track and cables for the Angels Flight funicular, but the company, now called YanTrak, went out of business in 2001 after a major accident.[3][4]
The last detachable chairlift made fully designed and built by Yan, La Roca, located at Espot Esquí, closed in 2019 after failure leading to one of the chairs falling off the line occurred.[5][6]
Only one Lift Engineering Detachable remains, found at the Nazhvan Forest Park in Iran. It uses the safer Pol-X-West grips which retrofit traditional coil springs instead of the rubber ones.
- ^ Landsman, Peter (March 15, 2016). "Yan High Speed Quad Retrofits 20 Years Later". Lift Blog. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- ^ TCSP. "History of Yanek Kunczynski". www.coloradoskihistory.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ^ "Uncontrolled Movement, Collision, and Passenger Fatality on the Angels Flight Railway in Los Angeles, California February 1, 2001" (PDF). October 22, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2011. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
- ^ Mandell, Jason (August 18, 2003). "No AngelHow Did an Engineer With a History of Fatal Accidents Get Hired to Build the Bunker Hill Railway?". Los Angeles Downtown News - The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- ^ M, Ivan (February 3, 2019). "Espot está cerrada y sin fecha de apertura por un fallo en un telesilla". Nevasport.com (in Spanish). Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- ^ "TSD 4 Roca". Remontees Mecaniques. February 23, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2020.