The cable car collapse case in Kabardino-Balkaria has reached court.

The Nalchik City Court of Kabardino-Balkaria will hear a criminal case against the manager of the cable car, which broke in the summer of 2025, injuring 13 people.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on August 8, 2025, in Nalchik's Atazhukinsky Park, the cable of the cable car broke, carrying 23 people in chairs. Almost half of the people fell - some into the water, some to the ground, and the rest were rescued. As a result of the incident, thirteen people were injured, the most seriously - three adults and two teenagers. In September, the Nalchik City Court upheld the prosecutor's office's claim and ordered the cable car owner to pay three victims more than 3 million rubles, but the republic's Supreme Court halved the award.

According to investigators, while the cable car was providing excursion services to citizens, the drive shaft of the main mechanism broke off, causing the passengers to fall and causing them varying degrees of injury. A total of 13 people were injured in the incident, one of whom suffered serious injury, the press service of the Investigative Committee of Kabardino-Balkaria reported today on its Telegram channel.

According to the Investigative Committee, the incident occurred due to the defendant's improper performance of his duties regarding the operation, maintenance, and repair of the lift. Damage to the cable car mechanism was discovered earlier. In December 2023, during an inspection of the facility's main mechanisms, the accused, instead of replacing the shaft, repaired it himself and continued operating the lift.

The cable car manager is accused of providing services that do not meet consumer safety or health requirements, which negligently resulted in serious bodily harm. 1 .

The indictment against the manager of the passenger chairlift of Zhemchuzhina Excursion Complex LLC has been approved and sent to the Nalchik City Court. The regional prosecutor's office also announced on Telegram that the legal entity operating the chairlift was terminated at the initiative of the investigation.

As a reminder, back in late 2024, Rostekhnadzor specialists concluded that the operation of the chairlift violated safety requirements and posed a risk of harm to people. On December 5 of that year, a representative of Zhemchuzhina LLC acknowledged the claims in court, but explained that most of the violations had been corrected.

At that time, eight months before the accident, the court fined the company 100,000 rubles, and deemed the suspension of the cable car's operations an extreme measure, since "no objective data indicating that the chairlift's operation poses a real threat to the life and health of citizens or the occurrence of an emergency situation was presented to the court."

The "Caucasian Knot" also reported that a lawyer deemed the reduction in compensation for victims of the Nalchik cable car accident to be legal. Determining the amount of compensation, including for moral suffering, is at the discretion of the court. In considering the case of the Nalchik cable car collapse, the court took into account the cable car owner's expenses, including tickets and mobile phones.