BALTIMORE, May 11 (UPI) -- A $17 million lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Baltimore against the owner of a water taxi that capsized from a gust of wind in March, killing five passengers.
Three survivors allege negligence and carelessness against the nonprofit Living Classrooms and Baltimore Harbor Shuttle in the legal action.
The Baltimore Sun reported the litigants allege the March 6 accident that capsized the 36-foot pontoon Lady D could have been prevented, had the operators not "wrongfully ordered the vessel to leave Fort McHenry when it was unsafe to do so," and "failed to command the captain to dock the Lady D until conditions were safe."
"This was a predicted storm, not a freak of nature," said Paul Bekman, one of the litigants' lawyers. "All you had to do was look up and see the whole sky was black. That vessel never should have left."
A statement by the defendants said, "We are confident that the court will find that Seaport Taxi, Baltimore Harbor Shuttle and The Living Classrooms Foundation were not responsible for this tragedy and that the sudden and violent weather that day was an act of God."
