Subject:  2 women file suits in tour boat disaster |
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Date Posted: 10/ 8/05 6:24pm
2 Trenton women file suits in tour boat disaster
October 8, 2005
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Beginning a likely rush of litigation, two Trenton women who told their lawyer they swam past the dead bodies of their friends to escape the capsized tour boat Ethan Allen sued the boat's operator and captain Friday in Detroit.
Geoffrey Fieger's law firm filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Detroit on behalf of the two survivors -- Margaret Kidon, 65, and Barbara Bommarito, 73. They were among a group of 47 senior citizens from the region who were on the boat on New York's Lake George when it capsized on Sunday, killing 20 people. All but one of the deceased were from southeast Michigan.
News of the filings came Friday as New York Gov. George Pataki pledged stricter safety standards and the boat's captain, Richard Paris, acknowledged the Ethan Allen was carrying more passengers than usual when it capsized.
The lawsuits claim damages in excess of $75,000, accusing Shoreline Cruises Inc., which owns the boat, and Paris of gross negligence. The lawsuits seek compensation for pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical care and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"These people are literally haunted every day by the memory of gulping in water and diesel fuel and having to swim past their friends who lay motionless in the water," said their lawyer, Ven Johnson of Southfield. "They have to justify to themselves every single day why God spared them and not their friends who were sitting in the seats next to them."
Johnson said the women were sitting in the front of the boat when it capsized. He said they initially were unable to get out of the boat because windows blocked their escape, but they swam toward the back of the boat and got out.
Johnson said Kidon and Bommarito continue to have severe upper respiratory problems from swallowing diesel fuel and water. He said Bommarito, a retired widow, spent three days in a New York hospital and Kidon was treated and released from a hospital there before returning to Trenton.
Kidon, an assistant senior citizens program coordinator for the City of Trenton, is still receiving treatment at a Downriver hospital, Johnson said.
The suits say Paris wasn't accompanied by a crew member as required by New York regulations and that passengers didn't receive a briefing before the trip about what to do in an emergency. They also say the defendants failed to determine if the boat was seaworthy or overcrowded.
Federal investigators are trying to determine whether the boat was overcrowded or rendered unstable by modifications, and whether human factors or a wake from another boat could have contributed to the incident.
Paris broke his silence on Friday, telling the Associated Press he typically dealt with smaller groups of 30-35 people on board the Ethan Allen. He declined to elaborate.
But Shoreline's spokesman, Drew Ferguson, said Friday the boat was approved for carrying up to 50 people when it was inspected in May 2005. He has also said passengers were provided with safety instructions.
Also on Friday, Pataki proposed making New York's boating laws stricter. Pataki said the state would impose a weight standard of 174 pounds per passenger when calculating capacity for tour boats.
The Ethan Allen was under a per-passenger weight standard of 140 pounds.
Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490 or ashenf@freepress.com.
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