Sliding death under investigation

The death of a young Kamloops man, 24-year old Nick Guido, as a result of a sliding accident at Sun Peaks Resort in the early hours of Sunday, November 25 will be reviewed by the BC Coroner.

Preliminary reports from the BC Coroner’s office suggest that Guido, along with others, was sliding on an improvised sliding device on the Village Platter’s Sunbeam run when he struck a metal tower. First responders from Sun Peaks Fire and Rescue were first on the scene after the call for help.

“Sun Peaks Fire and Rescue responded to a 9-1-1 (First Responders) call around 1:15 a.m. on Sunday morning,” said Chief Bill Stoner. “Our crews attended the incident near the platter lift at Sun Peaks and transferred the injured patient to BC Ambulance for transport to Royal Inland Hospital.”

Barb McLintock, spokeswoman for the BC Coroner’s Service, confirmed that despite the best efforts by first responders and BC Ambulance, Guido passed away as a result of severe head injuries.

“Basically what we know at this stage is that he went sliding after hours around 1 a.m. on an improvised toboggan of some kind, lost control and slid head first into a metal pylon and succumbed to his injuries several hours later,” said McLintock. “Simple toxicology tests at the hospital confirmed that alcohol could have been a possible contributing factor in this incident, possibly affecting his judgment or coordination at the time.”

Lucy and Peter Guido, long-time operators of Sun Peaks’ Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, are distant relatives of the deceased.

Sun Peaks’ mayor Al Raine said while this incident is shocking to the small community and condolences are in order to the family, people should be reminded that ski runs are not designed for tobogganing of any kind especially late at night.

“Ski runs are built for the express purpose of skiing and snowboarding during daylight hours and are much too steep and fast for this type of thing,” said Raine. “It’s a very sad incident and as a community our thoughts and feelings go out to this young man’s family.”

The BC Coroner’s service was still investigating this incident at press time and it’s anticipated that a complete coroner’s report will be concluded in the near future.