Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial: Terry Sanderson says Utah crash left him a ‘self-imposed recluse’

The Oscar-winning actor and Goop founder denies a man’s accusation that she crashed into him on a run at an exclusive ski resort in Park City in 2016.

Gwyneth Paltrow testifies during her trial in Park City, Utah. Picture: Getty

The retired optometrist who is suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 collision at a luxury Utah ski resort took the stand on Monday, saying he was slammed into from behind and sent “absolutely flying.”

Terry Sanderson, 76, alleges that Paltrow, 50, left him with four broken ribs and post-concussion symptoms that changed his personality and strained his relationship with his family after colliding into him at an exclusive resort in Park City.

He is seeking more than $US300,000 in damages. Paltrow, who alleges that it was Sanderson who collided with her from behind, has countersued for $1 and legal fees.

Sanderson’s lawyers have said that Paltrow was involved in a hit-and-run, leaving him alone, then denying that she caused the crash.

A Utah judge dismissed some of the claims in April 2022 – including the $US3.1 million in damages – with Sanderson now seeking $300,000 from Paltrow for claims of negligently causing injury.

Both Sanderson and Paltrow agree that they ran into each other on the ski run, but each alleges that the other is at fault for the crash.

Terry Sanderson, the Utah man suing Gwyneth Paltrow, leaves the courtroom following her testimony. Picture: AFP

In his initial filing, Sanderson accused Paltrow of skiing into him from behind “knocking him down, landing on top of him, and causing him to suffer a concussion, brain injury, and four broken ribs”. He described the crash as a “ski and run,” which caused him to endure “pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, and disfigurement,” as well as “anxiety, depression, and other health problems”.

Sanderson, who took the stand on Monday, said the incident had left him a “self-imposed recluse” who gets confused and feels unsafe.

Describing the moments leading up to and following the collision in February 2016, Sanderson said: “I just remember everything was great and then I heard something I’ve never heard at a ski resort. And that was a bloodcurdling scream.”

He attempted to recreate the scream before continuing with his account.

Sanderson said the collision was a “serious smack” and that he had “never been hit that hard”.

“I got hit in my back so hard,” he said. “It felt like it was perfectly centred and the fists and the poles were right there at the bottom of my shoulder blades. A serious, serious smack.”

Speaking in court, Terry Sanderson recreates the "blood-curdling scream" he claims to have heard before he and Gwyneth Paltrow collided on a Utah ski slope

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“And I’m flying,” he told the court. “All I saw was a whole lot of snow. I didn’t see the sky but I was flying. I had no control.”

Asked by his lawyer Kristen VanOrman what the last thing he remembered was, he said he felt as though his subconscious was “going into protection mode” and remembered a man in a Deer Valley Resort ski suit approach him who instead of offering help, angrily blamed him for the collision.

Sanderson denied that his lawsuit was an attempt to exploit Paltrow’s fame and wealth. “I’m not into celebrity worship,” he said.

Asked if he thought it was “cool” to have collided with a celebrity, he said: “Absolutely not. That is not who I am. No.”

Sanderson was shown a message he had sent to his three daughters telling them about the incident which had the subject line “I’m famous ... At what cost?”. In the email, Sanderson wrote that it was ”cool” he had collided with a celebrity.

“My head was scrambled,” he said. “All I was trying to do is desperately communicate with my kids before they heard from somebody else I got crushed. I didn’t pick my words well.”

The defence called Eric Christiansen, Paltrow’s son Moses’s ski instructor at the time of the incident, to the stand on Monday.

The instructor walked the jury through his story, while Paltrow’s legal team played multiple animations depicting Christiansen’s versions of events at the time of the collision.

Animations shown to the courtroom during Eric Christiansen’s testimony.

Christiansen, who did not witness the crash, described the ski run as being relatively empty. He said that he observed Sanderson making “large radius turns, edge to edge, quite dynamic” from one side to the other of the run. These slalom turns, he said, intersect at the centre of the run and wedge the skier into the line of traffic.

He says that Paltrow was making safer, short radius turns that kept her away from the traffic.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow sits in court during an objection by her attorney during her trial. Picture: Getty

After the collision, the instructor said he helped disentangle Paltrow and Sanderson, who were “entwined with each other”.

“Paltrow was on top,” he said.

In his incident report, he wrote that Sanderson was the party at fault. According to the law in Utah, the individual who is downhill has the right of way when skiing. The central question of the trial is who was further downhill when they hit each other.

During cross-examination, Sanderson’s lawyers emphasised that Sanderson did not witness the crash. Christiansen denied falsifying the reporting on Paltrow’s behalf.