Suit: Rafting company downplayed danger
Man killed in Roaring Fork “Slaughterhouse” rapids
The widow of a man killed during a commercial rafting trip down the Roaring Fork River has sued an Aspen Rafting company claiming its employees misrepresented the risk of running rapids called “Slaughterhouse” before her husband tumbled off their raft twice before dying.
Allison Parker of Maryland brought the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Denver against Aspen Whitewater Rafting. The lawsuit claims the rafting company’s bad advice and reckless conduct caused her husband James Abromitis, 58, to be twice ejected from their raft and “flushed downriver to his death.”
Parker’s attorney Alan Feldman of Aspen is seeking damages exceeding $75,000, plus a triple penalty as a result of fraud against Aspen Whitewater.
Jim Ingram, owner of Aspen Whitewater Rafting, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday morning.
The accident happened on June 15, 2016, the week that Parker and Abromitis visited Aspen on vacation for the Food & Wine Classic. Abromitis read Aspen Whitewater’s description of the Slaughterhouse rafting trip as being suitable for “a gung-ho” beginner. Experience is “not required,” the website said.
The rafting company’s website contradicted a leading guidebook on Colorado rivers that said Slaughterhouse was only for expert rafters.
One of Aspen Whitewater’s competitor’s advertises Slaughterhouse as “Extreme — Advanced … Technical paddling and physical ability are a must — experienced rafters only!”
The section of river is regarded as a continuous Class IV river, requiring precise boat handling in turbulent water.
Aspen Whitewater also failed to warn Abromitis that Slaughterhouse was running at very high water flow levels at the time when “large and dangerous hydraulics form and certain rapids become long, continuous and begin to flow one into the next. The risk of flush drownings becomes significant,” the lawsuit says.
At higher flows Slaughterhouse “increases to a Class V river, in which swims are dangerous, and rescue is often difficult even for experts … extensive experience, and practiced rescue skills are essential,” according to the Safety Code of American Whitewater, the lawsuit says.
On the day the Maryland couple took the trip, the river was running at more than 2,000 cubic feet per second. Normally, other rafting companies won’t go when the river flow reaches 2,000 cubic feet per second.
“As the raft approached the ‘James Bond’ rapid, the raft guide instructed the customers to paddle toward, and then into, a hydraulic at the top of the rapid. The guide’s decision initiated a deadly and foreseeable chain of events,” the lawsuit says.
The raft became caught in a hole large enough to it around and around until Abromitis was thrown from the raft, which carried six adults. He was spun in circles under the raft until he eventually was flushed out downstream, the lawsuit says. He was carried several hundred feet through the frigid, violent rapid until he was washed up into a small eddy, the lawsuit says.
“Video taken by a reporter on the raft shows him to be in shock, hypothermic, and in a state of acute distress,” the lawsuit says. The AW Safety Guide warns that cold water immersion is especially dangerous, a “frequent killer.”
Instead of the guide pulling Abromitis out of the water and into the boat, two customers struggled to pull him into the raft. When they finally succeeded, the raft had floated to the next “frequent killer.” A large tree and fallen into the river, cre ating an impassible obstruction that capsized the raft, which went vertical on its side. Rushing water pinned it up against the tree. The guide saved himself by climbing onto the tree, but he did not help anyone else, the lawsuit says.
“His customers were all thrown into the river, including James Abromitis who had been in the raft less than 10 seconds before being thrown back into the river again,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Abromitis was flushed down river through the next rapid while the raft guide stood on the tree watching him disappear. James Abromitis died minutes later from drowning and cardiac arrest, with high water and cold water identified as contributing factors.”
Although Abromitis signed a recreational activity waiver on the Aspen Whitewater shuttle bus ride to the river, it failed to mention the unique hazards of high water and fraudulently characterized the Slaughterhouse Rapid, the lawsuit says.
“As the direct and proximate result of the acts and omissions of Aspen Whitewater, James Abromitis suffered a tragic, prolonged, and avoidable wrongful death,” the lawsuit says.