http://www.wftv.com/news/4832756/detail.html

Woman Files Lawsuit After Being Saved From Drowning


NEW LONDON, Conn. -- A woman is suing the town whose police divers saved her from drowning.

Barbara Connors is suing the town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, saying she was rescued too late to prevent serious brain damage.

The Massachusetts woman was in her son-in-law's sport utility vehicle when it jumped a curb, went through a chain-link fence and plunged into the Connecticut River.

Connors was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when divers pulled her from the water.

The son-in-law escaped the sinking vehicle and was picked up by the crew of a passing boat. Connors is also suing him.

Among other things, the suit claims the town failed to provide appropriate guardrails and equipment needed by police divers.

It says the 75-year-old woman has brain damage and must be cared for in a nursing home for the rest of her life.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

If she has brain damage than someone is suing on her behalf. I recommend that the city pick up the bill for her treatment and then drown the lawyer representing her.

I say throw her back in the river and let her fend for herself. Let the lawyer save his client.

She is suing because "the town does not maintain a set of police rescue divers" and it took longer to get to her because they had to come in from another town.

In related news I am suing Maryland for not curing cancer, heart disease, being shot by the jealous husband of an 18 year old blonde he caught me in bed with, or car accidents.

Or whatever else I may die from.

You should pre-sue because you may not get to live to enjoy the rewards. Thats probably the next step in this litigation free-for-all. Pre-emptive lawsuits. If you can use the same pretext to go to war, why not use that logic at home?

You heard it here first.

if she wins my faith in justice will be lost

This is why guiderails are now called guardrails. Guardrails are there to protect you from something dangerous. Lawsuits against the dept of transportation occure quite often because of guardrails (or lack thereof).

People are fucking disgusting

My sentiments exactly.

The whole story (is even worse):

Town Sued Over River Rescue

Woman Trapped In Car Driven Off Point Faults Lack Of Dive Team
August 5, 2005
By CLAUDIA VAN NES, Courant Staff Writer


OLD SAYBROOK -- Barbara Connors, 76, rescued after a car driven by her son-in-law plunged into the Connecticut River last October, is suing a long list of town officials for damages.

"I find it extraordinary the town is being sued in these circumstances," First Selectman Mike Pace, one of the defendants, said at Thursday's selectmen's meeting.

The town's insurance company will represent Pace; park and recreation commission members; Police Chief Ed Mosca; Public Works Director Larry Bonin; Building Inspector Donald Lucas; Town Planner Christine Nelson; and Chester Slododosky, who the suit says was the zoning enforcement officer at the time, but had retired prior to the incident.

Also being sued is Alan Hauser, the son-in-law who lives with Connor's daughter in Old Lyme. Hauser told police he accidentally hit the accelerator of his Ford Explorer, which was running and in gear, causing the vehicle to jump the walk and crash through the chain-link fence that runs along the river at town-owned Saybrook Point.

Hauser had driven his mother-in-law to the Point Oct. 14 to have lunch with her.

In the intent to sue filed by Connor's attorney, Robert Reardon Jr. of New London, late last year, the rescuers were named - police officers and volunteers - but are not included in the actual suit.

Instead, added to the suit are new accusations that the town failed to maintain a rescue dive team and refused to fund a team, causing Connors to spend 29 minutes submerged in the water until divers could get to her.

"There were some very heroic acts going on that day," acknowledged Reardon Thursday. Indeed, at a ceremony in town hall honoring the police, firefighters and others who repeatedly dove without equipment to try to rescue Connors, her family attended and thanked those honored.

But, Reardon contended, divers at the ready would have meant "these people didn't have to risk their lives and my client could have been rescued in a timely manner."

Reardon said Connors, who had been living on her own in Massachusetts, has severe brain damage from the incident and lives with round-the-clock care in a nursing home in Waterford that she is never expected to leave.

The suit also charges the fence should have been stronger, the Point patrolled at lunchtime by police and more signs warning of "unsafe conditions" posted.

Pace told fellow selectmen the suit would be fought "vigorously by the town," which he pointed out not only provided scores of rescuers, but also sustained costs in needed repairs.


------------------------

You can blame lawyers if you want, I would first blame the idiots who somehow always sit on juries.

Is anyone in this case set to gain anything besides the lawyer and the injured woman (who obviously has no need for any more money than is needed to sustain her continued care?).

This just reeks of those accident chasers.

This should be thrown out under a Good Samaritan act.

This woman should be publically ridiculed, and then we need to institute a loser pays system to force idiots like this one to pay all court costs in frivolous lawsuits.

I have nothing particularly important to add, except to say that this is total bullshit...stupid bitch.

I'm guessing it's more her lawyer than anything. I wonder what the extent of her brain damage is though. Is she cabable of rational thought or is she in a vegitative state?

I don't care for the first assertion but will assist in the asphyxiation of any attorney that you see fit.

Alright, let's take it easy on the woman who likely has no idea this is even going on.

I'm really interested about who is actually behind this suit. It's not grandma guacamole brain, that's for sure. And an attorney can't just up and sue on his own. Since the son-in-law is also being sued, I doubt it's the lady's daughter. My guess is one of her other kids is doing this, and that's really awesome to sue your sister's husband because you don't want to have to pay for your mother's elder care. Nice.

Good point...I changed it to make it more true...dang lawyers.

And here I am driving on the roads like a sucker.


As a quirky historical aside, it is my understanding that Hitler was responsible for imposing the first modern Good Samaritan laws as a way to protect German officers in occupied France.


Oh, and drown some lawyers.

Can the city sue this family because their poor driving led to an expensive and dangerous rescue effort?