Lake Mead cruise operator sued Named in wrongful death of Calif. woman

Tuesday, April 27, 1999 | 10:42 a.m.

The company that operates the Desert Princess paddlewheel boat on Lake Mead has been named in a District Court suit over the death of a California woman.

Barbara Banks, a Clark County resident who is special administrator to the estate of California resident Sally Fourmy, and surviving children Patrick and Christian Fourmy, named Travel Systems Inc. in the suit filed earlier this month.

The suit says Sally Fourmy took a cruise on the popular tourist attraction on Nov. 29 and fell 15 feet down a staircase that had not been barricaded. The victim slammed her head against a refrigerator in the fall.

A woman traveling with Fourmy pleaded with the boat's operators to turn back to the dock or have a speedboat return her after the accident, but the operators balked, the suit says. The boat eventually returned to the dock ahead of schedule and a Flight for Life helicopter airlifted Fourmy to University Medical Center, where the suit says she died of her injuries.

The suit seeks unspecified wrongful death, punitive and exemplary damages. The suit also leaves open the possibility of naming the boat's manufacturer as a defendant.

Rod Fair, president of Lake Mead Cruises, which operates the Desert Princess for Travel Systems Inc., said the claim that the boat would not turn back immediately is "totally false."

Fair said the boat turned back when it was discovered the woman was seriously injured and boat personnel were in radio and cellular telephone contact with the National Park Service immediately.

A boat-to-boat transfer of the victim would have been more dangerous than returning to the dock, considering the woman's condition, Fair said, and the emergency helicopter was dispatched right away.

"It was an unfortunate accident and our employees felt terribly about it," Fair said.

Some employees, he said, needed counseling to cope with the trauma of the incident.