Family settles lawsuit with whitewater rafting company
The family of a 17-year-old girl who died while rafting at Ohiopyle State Park has settled a lawsuit against the whitewater rafting company from which she rented gear.
Mountain Streams Outfitters of Ohiopyle was ordered to pay $250,000 for wrongful death and survival action to Ray and Carol Lewis. The Lewises’ daughter, Kathy, drowned when the 12-foot-raft she was riding in hit a rock and she fell out on July 9, 1996. Reports at the time indicated the raft hit rough rapids along the lower Youghiogheny River.
Lewis was one of five in the raft. She was thrown from the boat, and the current pulled off her buckled life jacket.
Fayette County Judge John F. Wagner Jr. approved the settlement.
Under the agreement, the Lewises will get $130,594.39 of the $250,000 awarded. The remaining $119,405.61 goes to legal fees and expenses for their attorneys at the firm of Swensen Perer and Kontes.
The suit was filed in court in 1998.
Lewis’ death was one of several in the area of Dimple Rock, a large, underwater rock with an underneath cavity the size of a small mini-van.
In 2000, three people died at Dimple Rock, including 16-year-old Andrea Yealy, who got stuck underneath the rock. Willie Pate, 46, and Stewart Hill, 63, also died in that area.
Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly held a November 2000 inquest into their deaths, at which jurors recommended that officials at Ohiopyle consider filling in the underside of Dimple Rock. It has not been to date. It was agreed that the rock would not be destroyed for fear that it could make the area more dangerous.
The jury also recommended that officials post warning signs in the area of Dimple Rock so that rafters are aware of the dangers and can take an alternate route. Jurors also suggested that a more stringent warning video be played for rafters before they journey down the Youghiogheny River.
Both suggestions were implemented.
There haven’t been any drownings on the river for the past two summers.