A mother was killed and her two daughters injured when they fell 25 feet from a chairlift at Ski Granby Ranch in Grand County, Colorado, on Thursday morning.Officials say it's not yet clear why the 40-year-old and her girls - aged nine and 12 - fell from the lift, in full view of horrified witnesses. The chair remained attached to the cable, they said.

All three were taken to a local hospital, where the mother died - becoming the first chairlift fatality in Colorado in 14 years, officials told the Denver Post.
colorado ski lift
Accident: A mother was killed and her daughters injured when they fell from a ski lift at Ski Granby Ranch in Grand County, Colorado, around 10am. Pictured: one of the ranch's ski lifts
Emergency services were called in at about 10am after the victims - who have not yet been named, but were said to be visiting from Texas - tumbled from the Quick Draw Express Lift. The mother died in Middle Park Medical Center, where one of her daughters remains in stable condition.

The other daughter was airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado. Her condition has not been announced. Slope officials shut down the lift temporarily to make sure there were no problems with it.

It has not yet been announced how high up the mountain the victims were when they fell from the lift, but Schelly Olson, spokeswoman for the incident command, said they were the only ones on that chair.

But she said many saw the horrific accident: 'People on the chairs in front. People on the chairs in back. People on the hill.'

Chairlift deaths in the US are very rare - only 12 people have died due to malfunctions between 1973 and October this year.

Only three people have died due to falls between 1973 and October.

The last chairlift fall death in Colorado was believed to have occurred in 2002, the Denver Post said.