KC-based employees of Swiss chocolate company injured in chairlift accident in Alps
Two Kansas City-based employees of a Swiss chocolate company were seriously injured in a chairlift accident Thursday in the Swiss Alps, a company official said Monday.
The accident occurred shortly after 10 p.m. when a four-seat armchair of the Stoos-Fronalpstock chairlift in the Charenstöckli area fell about 30 feet, according to a media release from the Schwyz Cantonal Police. The area is about an hour and a half south of Zurich, Switzerland.
“We can confirm that two Kansas City-based employees of Lindt & Sprüngli (North America) Inc. were amongst those injured in the chair lift accident in Stoos-Fronalpstock (Switzerland),” Cindy Calvert, senior manager for human resources said in an email.
Lindt & Sprüngli, the Switzerland-based maker of Lindt and Ghirardelli chocolates, bought Kansas City-based Russell Stover Inc. for about $1.6 billion in 2014.
The two employees are under medical care, Calvert said. They are not Russell Stover employees.
“We are in close contact with the medical team and the families of our employees and wish for a quick and full recovery,” she said. ”Our thoughts are with our employees and their families.”
The company declined to release any further information, including the names and roles of the injured employees, out of respect for the privacy of their employees and their families.
A total of four people, including the two Kansas City-based employees, were injured in the accident.
They included a 33-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man who suffered life-threatening injuries. Two men between the ages of 33 and 38 suffered serious injuries.
Six others who were on two other chairlifts were rescued unharmed, according to police.
At the time of the accident, the group was descending after a company event when a chair struck the tensioned winch rope of a snow groomer, according to police.
All members of the group are employees of the Lindt & Sprüngli food group based in Zurich and had dinner on the Fronalpstock mountain, according to news website Nau.ch.
Four rescue helicopters, the Schwyz ambulance service, the Stoos Fire Department and the Schwyz Cantonal Police responded to the accident, police said.
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 11:47 AM.
