Swiss junior downhill champion Werner Elmer has died after colliding with a course maintenance worker during a downhill race, police said.

The 19-year-old Elmer died at the scene of the accident in Verbier, Switzerland on Tuesday afternoon despite immediate intervention by at least four doctors. The injuries to the employee were undisclosed, but he was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital, police said.

Course director Jean-Philippe Rochat said Elmer had been the first of the male competitors down the course and that the employee was still preparing the run when the racer came down.

The race - a combined International Ski Federation and Swiss university competition - was abandoned after the accident.

Elmer was Swiss national junior champion in downhill and super giant slalom. At the world junior championships last year he came fourth in the super-G and fell at the end of the downhill while only four-tenths of a second behind the eventual winner.

The accident happened almost exactly a year after 22-year-old Swiss ski racer Silvano Beltrametti was left paralyzed following a crash during a downhill race at the French resort of Val d'Isere.

[Source: AP]

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