French prosecutors rule out legal action over Schumacher ski accident
Michael Schumacher's skiing accident was not due to safety breaches by the French Alps ski station or faulty material, French prosecutors announced on Monday. They will take no legal action over the accident, which left the Formula One champion in a coma, although his family still has the right to take civil action.
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"There were no breaches by anybody. The accident occurred in an off-piste zone," in the Meribel ski resort said prosecutor Patrick Quincy. "The signals, markers and the information about the limits conformed to current French laws."
Schumacher was going at what has been described as normal speed for a "good skier" when he hit a rock, which caused him to crash into another boulder 10.4 metres away, prosecutors said.
Both rocks were more than four metres from the marked trail and it is unclear why he chose to go off-piste.
He has been in a medically induced coma in Grenoble University Hospital since the 29 December accident.
The drugs used to keep him in a coma were being reduced with a view to bringing him back to consciousness, his spokesperson said on 30 January.
His family said Thursday he was "still in a waking up process" which could take a long time.
German daily Bild said on Friday that Schumacher had overcome a lung infection after reporting two days earlier that he had contracted pneumonia.
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