This article was in my hometown paper this morning ( The New London Day):

I am so upset by this I can not describe it to you, how can someone blame a whole town for what was clearly and "accident" and the fact she lived does that not have any bearing? I think the daughter is making a huge mistake by this lawsuit, but it is her time and money. I wonder what her home life is like since she has also named her husband in the lawsuit. The line that upsets me the most is when the lawyer says, "We live in a litigious society", he is right, it may sound harsh and obnoxious but the lawyer is right. Everyone is so ready to sue you for anything they feel they were wronged by. My gosh, if you think back when you were on the playground in grade school, and the name calling, making fun and of course, singling the weakest person out in Dodgeball, would we still have that now? Most likely, not the child will go home tell mom and dad so and so was mean to mean on the playground, and then the parents turn around and sue the school for not protecting their child. I am not talking bullying, that is wrong, I am talking about regular kid behavior. Our society is all about no#1 the person who sues first and I find that so very sad.

When emergency crews rescued Barbara Connors from the chilly waters of the Connecticut River in October 2004 after she'd been trapped underwater in a car for a half hour, her family called them heroes and later attended a ceremony honoring them.

Police and firefighters repeatedly dived down to the Ford Explorer in which Connors was trapped that afternoon on Oct. 14 to free the then-75-year-old woman. Even after 20 minutes, when it seemed all hope was lost, they agreed to keep up the rescue effort. They finally found the vehicle, sunk in 10 feet of water, and rescued Connors after breaking the back window of the Explorer. Though Connors, who had been in the water 29 minutes, had no pulse when they got her on land, emergency workers were able to resuscitate her.

Within a year of that dramatic and courageous rescue, however, Connors' family sued the town, in part because it claimed rescuers didn't act quickly enough to save Connors. It named several local officials as defendants, including the first selectman and chief of police.

Today, the town remains mired in the complex and lengthy legal battle, which revolves around accusations by Connors' family that Saybrook Point was unsafe for cars and that the town should have had a trained dive team ready for such emergencies.

The lawsuit is being directed by Connors' daughter, Karen Hauser of Old Lyme, because Connors now lives in a Waterford nursing home and suffers from dementia, a condition her family has said in court papers is the result of the accident. Connors, they said, suffered brain damage because she was underwater for so long.

On the day of the accident Hauser's husband, Alan Hauser, now 72, was driving the Explorer and had taken Connors to Saybrook Point for lunch. Alan Hauser is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, meaning his wife is also suing him for her mother's injuries.

After the lawsuit was first filed, residents and officials here were stunned that the family could sue the municipality whose officials worked so valiantly to save Connors.

Robert Reardon, the New London attorney who represents Connors, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he is well aware that locals are offended by the lawsuit and feel it smacks of ungratefulness.
That sentiment, he said, is unfair to Connors and her family.

“We still think they are heroes and we have always complimented them,” Reardon said of Connors' rescuers. “We never sued any of the divers, policemen or firefighters who took part in the rescue.”

Nonetheless, the case has been featured on Web sites that track so-called “frivolous lawsuits.”
First Selectman Michael Pace said he cannot comment on the legal action because it is pending litigation.

“What can I say, we live in a litigious society,” he said.
Reached by telephone at his Rose Lane home in Old Lyme, Alan Hauser said he and his wife would not comment.

The family sued the town, and several of its officials, Reardon said, because it believes the accident would never have happened if the town had installed proper safeguards at Saybrook Point, a 2.3-acre waterfront park that underwent improvements in 2001. He also has said Connors would not have spent so much time underwater if the town had a trained dive team among its rescue units.

“This was an accident waiting to happen and it would not have happened if they had designed the project correctly,” Reardon said.

Alan Hauser is named as a defendant in the legal action because he carried the liability insurance on the Explorer. He and Karen Hauser remain married, though Alan Hauser has retained his own attorney.

Reardon said it's common for spouses and family members to sue each other following car accidents in order to collect insurance.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the architects and engineers who redesigned Saybrook Point.

About a year ago Connors' family offered to settle the lawsuit for $1 million. The town rejected their proposal.

It was raining the day Alan Hauser took his mother-in-law to lunch at Saybrook Point. She had never seen the park before and Hauser wanted to show her the river and the views of Old Lyme from the Old Saybrook side, Hauser said in a deposition he gave in the case.

They picked up turkey sandwiches at a deli on Main Street and drove down to the point. Hauser pulled into a parking space near the water's edge, where a sidewalk and chain link fence separated the parking lot from the water.

Hauser was in the midst of pointing out bird nesting areas to Connors when the Explorer, he said, suddenly lunged forward.

In statements after the accident, police said, Hauser indicated he left the Explorer in gear and had his foot on the brake when his foot slipped off the pedal, hitting the gas. The vehicle lunged forward and Hauser tried to hit the brake, but hit the gas pedal again instead, police have said.
The SUV, Hauser said in his deposition, “surged forward.” It went over the sidewalk and through the fence, splitting the chain metal “like it was a sheet of paper.”

The vehicle's windshield shattered and the Explorer sailed out over the river, landing upright on the water on its tires, Hauser, a retired engineer, said in his deposition.

The crew of a nearby research vessel saw the accident and several of its members jumped into an inflatable boat and hurried over to the Explorer, which was still upright. They were able to get Hauser out of the vehicle, but the Explorer rolled and sank before they could rescue Connors. A 19-year-old crewmember was the first to begin diving to try and find the vehicle in the dark, cold waters.

Hauser was uninjured in the accident. In his deposition, he said he doesn't recall his foot slipping off the brake pedal and said the Explorer seemed to surge forward on its own.

“... The car is running. My foot is on the brake. The car suddenly surged. And we were in the water,” Hauser said. “It was a continuous movement for no apparent reason.”

In the lawsuit, filed in August 2005, Connors' family argues that when it redesigned Saybrook Point the town should have installed concrete barriers between the parking areas and the water's edge. The failure to do so, they said, created a hazardous situation at the park and was negligent.

“The town designed an unsafe condition,” Reardon said. Connors' family, he said, want to make sure a similar accident doesn't happen to someone else.

Lawyers for the town last year asked the judge overseeing the case to dismiss most of the claims in the lawsuit. The judge agreed with part of the request, striking from the lawsuit the allegations that the town was negligent for not having a dive rescue team. But the judge let stand the claims related to deficiencies at the park.

James Williams, the attorney representing the town, said he is preparing a motion for “summary judgment” on the remaining issues in the case. The motion will seek a decision in the town's favor based on the legal concept that the town and its officials are entitled to government immunity, he said.

“I feel strongly we will prevail on that,” Williams said.