NPS pays out $5M for not having a sign up
Posted: November 12, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentAmazing that trees and waterfalls don’t come equipped with warning signs
A Kentucky doctor and her son have reached a $5M settlement with the National Park Service over the deaths of her 8 year old son and spouse. The Spouse and son were crossing a creek in Haleakala National Park above Makahiku Falls. Makahiku Falls is a 184 feet drop. As they were crossing a flash flood occurred washing the two over the falls. Their bodies were never found.
The family opted to hike off the trail past the overlook. In that hike they decided to cross the stream. Normally there is an electronic sign up that warns of flash floods, however on this day the sign was not working.
- If you put up a sign, make sure it works or is visible even if it does not work.
- If you put up a sign, make sure it is there.
The defendant’s attorney claimed that crossing the stream on rocks the plaintiff’s should not have known about flash floods.
Remember this is your money, taxpayer money that paid someone because they did not know about flash floods. Or they thought since the sign was not on, things were safe. Two different ways to look at this case.
Recreation Law 
Yet another lawsuit that gives attorneys a bad name. So many Plaintiffs' lawyers do work that helps to protect the public, but these few that sue when a group acts on their own stupidity and get paid for it make us look bad.
Regardless of a sign, hiking off trail should create an assumption of the risk, and even more so when crossing water above a waterfall. This is a tragic accident, but accident does not always equal payday for someone.
I feel sorry for the surviving spouse/parent, and I doubt that the money will do anything to remove the guilty feelings associated with the decisions they made that day.
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