Class-action lawsuit filed over illnesses at water playground
By BEN DOBBIN
Associated Press Writer
September 13, 2005, 1:34 PM EDT
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The agency that oversees New York's parks and recreation sites was the target of a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of an estimated 3,800 people who developed gastrointestinal illnesses after visiting a popular water park in central New York.
A suburban Rochester couple, Tim and Jackie Springer, and their three young children became ill after spending the day at the state-run Sprayground near Geneva in late July. After caring for his children, the father ended up in the hospital with a secondary infection, the lawsuit alleged.
The Springers were named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Office of State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, but "thousands of other people suffered the same fate because the (agency) failed to ensure the water ... was safe," said attorney William Marler.
A class-action lawsuit is "the most effective way of handling this many ill people," said Marler, who specializes in litigation involving food and waterborne illnesses.
His Seattle-based firm has already been contacted by more than 100 people, he said.
The state agency, which maintains 172 parks, 35 historic sites and thousands of campgrounds, beaches, golf courses, trails and other recreation areas, doesn't comment on pending litigation, said spokeswoman Wendy Gibson.
Of some 3,800 people who reported becoming ill this summer after visiting the Sprayground, which has water jets shooting up from a hardtop surface, at least 33 were hospitalized.
The state Health Department shut down the Seneca Lake Park attraction in mid-August after tests found a common waterborne disease known as cryptosporidium in two storage tanks. The highly contagious disease can cause diarrhea, nausea and fever that can last for weeks. It usually goes away without treatment in healthy individuals.
Sprayground was first closed temporarily on Aug. 16 after officials received more than 100 reports of illnesses dating to early July. Once the outbreak was made public, the number of cases rapidly escalated.
