The cable car in Nalchik's park has been suspended following an accident.

A court suspended the Nalchik cable car for 90 days, ruling it unsafe for visitors after 12 people were injured when a cable broke.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on August 8, 12 people were injured when a cable car broke in Nalchik, one of whom was seriously injured. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article on providing unsafe services resulting in serious bodily harm. In September, the Nalchik City Court upheld the prosecutor's office's claim and ordered the cable car owner to pay three victims over 3 million rubles. In October, compensation of 2 million rubles was awarded to one of the victims.

The court recognized the cable car's danger only after the accident.

The Nalchik City Court suspended the cable car operated by Zhemchuzhina Excursion Complex LLC for 90 days. The company was found guilty of violating industrial safety requirements for hazardous industrial facilities, the newspaper Gazeta Yuga reported on November 2.

The court concluded that Zhemchuzhina Excursion Complex LLC committed an administrative offense "that poses a public danger and creates a threat to the lives and health of a large number of people during the operation of the cable car, since the operation of hazardous industrial facilities can lead to emergency situations that can result in loss of life and significant material damage," according to a publication on the court's website.

A penalty in the form of administrative suspension of operations was imposed.

The judge qualified the actions of Zhemchuzhina Excursion Complex LLC under Part 1 of Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ("Violation of industrial safety requirements for hazardous industrial facilities"; for legal entities, this carries a fine of 200,000 to 300,000 rubles or administrative suspension of operations for a period of up to 90 days).

"By a ruling of the Nalchik City Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Zhemchuzhina Excursion Complex LLC was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 1 of Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and sentenced to administrative suspension of the operations of a hazardous industrial facility: cable car No. A34-00614-0002 for a period of 90 (ninety) days," the court stated.

According to the case materials, violations of mandatory rules and regulations were discovered during an unscheduled on-site inspection on October 17, 2025. The violations include damaged "moving and rotating parts" of the cable car, a damaged overspeed monitoring device, an emergency drive, a derailment prevention device, a partially dismantled load-bearing traction rope, and a missing cable car operating manual, the publication notes.

Rostekhnadzor demanded that the cable car be suspended back in 2024

As a reminder, at the end of 2024, Rostekhnadzor specialists inspected the cable car and concluded that its operation violated safety requirements. The agency demanded that the cable car be suspended for 90 days until the identified violations were rectified, according to documents available to the "Caucasian Knot."

On December 5, 2024, the Nalchik City Court heard Rostekhnadzor's claim. The agency's representative insisted in court that the use of the cable car poses a threat to people. A representative of Zhemchuzhina Excursion Complex LLC acknowledged the claims in court and explained that most of the violations had been corrected.

The court imposed a fine of 100,000 rubles, and considered the suspension of the cable car's operations an extreme measure. "The court was not presented with objective data indicating that the operation of the chairlift poses a real threat to the life and health of citizens or the occurrence of an emergency situation, and therefore there are no grounds for imposing a penalty in the form of suspension of operations," the court ruled in December 2024.

The "Caucasian Knot" wrote about another recent cable car accident in Kabardino-Balkaria: on September 12, as a result of a cable car cable break on Mount Elbrus, three people died and several were injured.

The case of the deaths was The director and chief engineer of the company servicing the cable car were detained and arrested. They were charged on September 29.

In October, the prosecutor's office filed lawsuits on behalf of the sons of the two deceased men. One of the victims is seeking 10 million rubles in compensation for the death of his father, and the other is seeking 15 million rubles.