COUNTY BLAMED IN DEATH BOATER'S WIDOW FILES CLAIM.Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer CASTAIC - The widow of one of four men killed in January in a high-speed boating crash on Castaic Lake Castaic Lake is a lake on Castaic Creek formed by Castaic Dam, in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, near the town of Castaic. The 323,700 acre foot lake (399,000,000 m³) is the terminus of the West Branch of the California Aqueduct, though some comes from the 154 mi² has filed a $10 million wrongful death claim Wrongful death is a claim in common law jurisdictions against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. against Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County government. In a two-page claim filed Thursday, Janet Lane and her son Christopher Prescott said speeding was allowed on the county-owned lake where Kenneth Lane Kenneth D. Lane is an American physicist and professor of physics at Boston University. Lane is best known for his role in the development of extended technicolor models of physics beyond the Standard Model. Lane received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. was killed. ``We believe that the evidence will establish that high-performance boating companies regularly went to the lake and tested boats at excessive speeds,'' said Jonathan Cole, an attorney representing Janet Lane. ``It was a regular activity. They had a pattern and a practice.'' County Counsel Lloyd Pellman was unavailable for comment Monday, and so far the claim hasn't been assigned to a county investigator. Kenneth Lane, 41, of La Canada Flintridge was one of four men who died Jan. 11 while testing a twin-hulled catamaran catamaran (kăt'əmərăn`), watercraft made up of two connected hulls or a single hull with two parallel keels. Originally used by the natives of Polynesia, the catamaran design was adopted by Western boat builders in the 19th cent. built by High Torque Marine based in Agua Dulce Agua Dulce is Spanish for "sweet water". It also refers to various locations: In Mexico:
Company owner Steve Coulombe, 38, and employee Nelson Brinkman, 30, of Phelan, also were killed in the crash, as was Chuck Wiseman, 47, a friend and customer of Coulombe. Authorities said the 30-foot prototype was traveling about 90 to 120 mph - about three times the 35-mph speed limit - when it flipped and sank in about 250 feet of water. ``They were actually allowed to run their boats at 80 to 100 mph with no restrictions whatsoever,'' Cole said. ``There were no seats on the boat when he flipped it. It was allowed to be on the lake without proper equipment.'' Though Lane's body was recovered shortly after the accident, it took specialized divers Several; any number more than two; different. Divers is a collective term used to group a number of unspecified people, objects, or acts. It is used frequently to describe property, as in divers parcels of land. with advanced equipment a week to find the other bodies. ``My client ... obviously suffered greatly ... and is now trying to put her life back together,'' Cole said. The crash has prompted a change in law enforcement procedures at the lake, and now the county's park police, instead of county lifeguards, cite boaters for violations. The new procedure marks a change in long-standing policy at the county's water recreation areas, where lifeguards were directed in a 1990 internal memo from a top parks official to hold back on citations and concentrate on educating the public on safety concerns. ``They certainly turned a blind eye because boats were allowed to be tested,'' Cole added. ``They actually, in essence, encouraged it.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (ran in SAC Sac: see Sac and Fox. SAC - 1. An early system on the Datatron 200 series. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. edition only) A sheriff's deputy takes notes on a boating crash in which four men were killed on Jan. 11 at Castaic Lake. The widow of one has filed a claim against county government. David Crane/Staff Photographer |
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