{"id":95491,"date":"2019-02-22T16:14:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T23:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/people-trampled-at-skijoring-event-in-2017-file-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2019-02-22T16:14:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T23:14:47","slug":"people-trampled-at-skijoring-event-in-2017-file-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/people-trampled-at-skijoring-event-in-2017-file-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"People trampled at skijoring event in 2017 file lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A horse was spooked and trampled three people during Silverton\u2019s skijoring race in 2017. Two women were taken away by ambulance, including one who had a gash to the back of her head and one who had an injured hip.<\/span>Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Three people trampled by a horse at a 2017 skijoring event in Silverton have filed a lawsuit blaming the drone operator and event coordinator for their injuries.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, Glenn and Christina \u201cTina\u201d Hood of Bayfield and Sandra and James Petta of Bradenton, Florida, are seeking monetary damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and expenses resulting from an injury.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Matthew Crossett, the drone pilot and former employee of Fast Forward Media LLC; and The San Juan County Historical Society, doing business as Skijoring Silverton; and Skijoring America, a Montana-based nonprofit. The lawsuit accuses Crossett of irresponsible drone operation and event organizers of providing negligent safety measures.<\/p>\n

The Hoods and Pettas claim that on Feb. 18, 2017, Crossett, who lived in Durango at the time, flew a drone too close to a horse at the starting gate of a skijoring course on Blair Street in Silverton. The buzzing sound and sudden movement spooked the horse<\/a> and \u201cas a result, this horse darted into the crowd of spectators who were watching at the starting gate and trampled plaintiffs Tina Hood, James Petta and Sandra Petta,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims that Skijoring Silverton and Skijoring America \u201cdid not provide sufficient protective barriers between the course and the spectators to ensure the safety of those watching.\u201d It also claims that the defendants failed \u201cto take reasonable steps to protect against dangerous conditions and to provide a safe and secure viewing environment for the plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango attorney James McDonough, who represents the plaintiffs, said his clients \u201csuffered some serious injuries.\u201d The plaintiffs tried to work with the defendants to resolve the case, he said, but they\u2019ve reached an impasse that may require a judge and jury to become involved.<\/p>\n

The threat of a lawsuit resulted in Silverton Skijoring canceling its 2018 event because of insurance issues.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are seeking more than $100,000 in damages, according to court records. McDonough said his clients want the defendants to address safety hazards in what he called \u201cone of the most dangerous sports on snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skijoring America declined to comment, as none of the current board members were serving when the incident happened. The San Juan County Historical Society said Thursday it hadn\u2019t yet been notified of the lawsuit and declined to comment. Efforts to reach Crossett for comment were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

No criminal charges were filed<\/a> in 2017. The San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office and 6th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office reviewed the case and concluded the pilot\u2019s actions did not meet criteria for criminal charges.<\/p>\n

In the days after the incident, San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad said he reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has rules for flying drones over crowds. The Durango Herald <\/em>has submitted multiple Freedom of Information Act requests with the FAA seeking information about possible charges, but the federal agency has repeatedly denied those requests, saying it remains an ongoing investigation. The Herald<\/em>submitted a new request last week, but as of Thursday, The FAA said it was still processing the request.<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plaintiffs say a drone spooked horses, event organizers didn\u2019t protect spectators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[488,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-civil","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95491"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}