April 30, 2014 - 10:49 AM
VANCOUVER - The parents of a young woman killed in a hang-gliding accident in B.C.'s Fraser Valley have filed a civil lawsuit against the pilot, his partner and several groups associated with the popular sport.
The suit, filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, seeks damages for the April 28, 2012 death of 28-year-old Lenami Godinez Avila.
She plunged 300 metres during a tandem flight when 51-year-old pilot Jon Orders failed to hook her harness to the glider before take off.
The action claims the defendants breached their duty of care to Godinez Avila and she endured conscious pain, suffering, shock and terror before she died.
In February, Orders was sentenced to five months in jail for criminal negligence causing death — a sentence the victim's father, Miguel Godinez, said did not go far enough.
The civil suit contains allegations that have not been proven in court and the defendants, including Orders, his partner Shaun Wallace and the B.C. and Canadian Hang Gliding and Paragliding Associations, have not yet filed their responses.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014