Queenstown, New Zealand – NZSki, operator of New Zealand’s Coronet Peak ski area, on Tuesday entered a guilty plea in Queenstown District Court to a health and safety charge stemming from a chairlift accident that injured two riders last year.

According to the results of a six-month investigation by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, a couple from Auckland were both injured in the August 2, 2012 incident in which they fell from the top terminal of the Coronet Express chairlift. Although it was the couple’s first time on a chairlift, lift operator Kjell Mattheus Formgren showed the two foot passengers where to board the lift but did not explain the lift’s operation. The pair, who were not skiing or snowboarding, arrived at the top station but operator Tara Wade did not heed the bottom operator’s instructions to slow the lift upon their arrival, and was not standing near the lift’s controls. After the couple had gone around the top terminal’s bullwheel they jumped nearly 10 feet from the chair, landing upon jagged blocks of ice below.

The female victim fractured her distal left tibia and fibula at the ankle, requiring surgery.

Two charges were filed against NZSki under the country’s Health and Safety in Employment Act. With Tuesday’s guilty plea to one charge — that the company failed to take all practicable steps to ensure no hazards arose, and harmed people who had paid to participate in an activity — the second charge was dropped.

Judge David Holderness has indicated that NZSki could face fines ranging from NZ$40,000 to $250,000.