Merrimac, Dec 18 (THAINDIAN NEWS) There was an unfortunate accident at the Devil’s Head Resort. An emergency brake failed on Thursday night and this led the chairlift cable to roll backwards and cause an accident. Many chairs slammed into the lift’s base station due to the brake fail.

According to reports, 14 people were injured and three of them are said to be in a serious state. According to Sauk County Chief Deputy Chip Meister, the malfunction happened around 7 pm on Thursday evening. There are many witnesses to this accident and some of them recounted that some of the stuck victims jumped from the lift, some from a height of 20 feet, to escape the uproar and the chaos at the lift’s base terminal.

Some reports said that the 14 injured were taken to the 2 nearby hospitals, Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital and St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo. The injuries ranged form minor to serious. Technicians with the resort were finally able to get the lift to stop. The accident happened at 7pm, and the emergency responders managed to evacuate the stuck victims, on the lift by 9 p.m. local time. Investigators are planning to track down the cause of the malfunction in the daylight.

Sauk County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chip Meister said on Friday morning that none of the injuries was critical, and the most serious injury was a broken leg. Mother of one of the victim’s, Laura Beutel of Belleville said in an e-mail that her daughter was waiting to get on the lift and saw it “reverse quickly.” Beutel said her daughter, who she declined to name, told her sparks were flying, she smelled smoke and “people were jumping off from 40 feet up.”