CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The parents of a student who died a year after crashing into a tree during a Dartmouth College skiing class have sued the college in federal court.
Christina Porter, 21, of New York, wasn’t wearing a helmet during the Feb. 3, 2004 accident at the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme. She suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma for six months, then died in January 2005 of complications from injuries suffered in the accident.
Her parents, who cared for her after the accident, filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Feb. 2, seeking more than $20 million in damages.
The college has not filed a formal response yet.
“Christina Porter was a wonderful young woman who is sorely missed by the Dartmouth community,” the college’s general counsel, Robert Donin, said in a statement Monday. “While Dartmouth too mourns her loss, the institution believes that loss was the result of a tragic accident.”
The lawsuit says the college ski instructors sent Porter down a winding, wooded slope by herself, even though she was a beginner. “Instead, the ski class instructors accompanied and supervised all of the other students in the ski class down another main slope of the Skiway, which the instructors told (Porter) was too difficult for her,” the lawsuit said.
The instructors, listed only as John and Jane Does 1-10, could be named later as individual defendants in the lawsuit. None of them was a professional or certified ski instructor, and couldn’t watch Porter because she was on the other side of a stand of trees.
News reports shortly after the accident said Porter hit an icy patch and slid into a wooded area, throwing up her right arm to protect her face before she crashed into a tree.
Her skull was broken into 12 pieces and she suffered a broken arm, traumatic brain injury and other problems, the lawsuit said. She was in a coma for six months and was left a paraplegic, but had recovered somewhat until an infection forced doctors to remove a synthetic skull.
State law protects ski areas from lawsuits by people who are injured on the slopes, because skiing is an inherently risky sport.
But Porter’s parents argue in the lawsuit that because their daughter was taking a college class, the college owed her a duty of care. Dartmouth students are required to take physical education classes to graduate.
“Because decedent was a student enrolled at Dartmouth and registered in Dartmouth’s ski class to fulfill her physical education requirements, Dartmouth was an educational institution, not a ski area operator, at the time of” the accident, the lawsuit says.
At the urging of Porter’s parents, Brent Porter and Mary Salstrom, the college now requires all ski and snowboarding students and instructors to wear helmets during classes at the Dartmouth Skiway, which is open to the public.
Porter was a gifted voice and art student who planned to major in art history and French. She often sketched portraits of her friends on napkins or scraps of paper and was known for her quirky and colorful e-mail messages. She was her parents’ only child.
AP-ES-04-02-07 1400EDT
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