POLICE IN the Italian Alps are checking ski passes, viewing security videos and questioning holidaymakers in the hunt for a mystery skier who came down the slopes too fast on Christmas morning and collided with a man (51), leaving him dying from a head injury in front of his 12-year-old daughter.
Arthur Lantschner, a cook from Collepietra in Alto Adige, was skiing with his daughter at the Obereggen resort near Bolzano when a man described by police as tall, in his 30s and dressed in a blue ski suit collided at speed with him from behind, possibly striking Mr Lantschner’s head with an elbow.
The two men fell into the snow before the unidentified man got back on to his skies and fled, leaving Mr Lantschner suffering from a cranial trauma which prompted cardiac arrest. A helicopter was called after a nearby skier spotted Mr Lantschner’s daughter standing in shock in the snow, but her father was dead when he arrived at Bolzano hospital.
“The mystery skier was not masked, we have a rough description of him and we are appealing to all holiday skiers to help us track him down,” said Davido Perasso, of the Bolzano carabinieri paramilitary police.
Carabinieri were combing the three exit points at the foot of the 32 slopes that make up the resort, which is popular with Italians and Germans. Video footage from bank cashpoints in the area is being studied and hotel managers are being questioned. “The problem is that there are 18,000 hotel beds in the area,” said Mr Perasso.
Mr Lantschner had taken advantage of blue skies and compact snow on Christmas morning to take his daughter skiing, choosing a medium-rated slope at Obereggen.
“With few other skiers around, the hit-and-run skier still managed to strike Lantschner in the dead centre of the slope,” said Thomas Ondertoller, a resort official.
Records from the resort being studied by police show there were 600 other ski pass holders spread across Obereggen’s 60 miles of slopes at 11.15am, the time the incident was reported.
“The weekly and monthly passes have names and photos on them, so we have that information, but day passes are anonymous,” said Mr Ondertoller.
Mr Lantschner was known to staff at the Bolzano hospital who tried to save his life. He had worked there as head cook. – (Guardian service)