Family of boy who broke neck at Silver Falls files suit
The parents of a 10-year-old Portland boy who broke his neck after falling 60 feet at Silver Falls State Park are suing the state for damages up to $875,000.
Wilson Pelot was hiking with his father and older brother on Jan. 19, 2014, when he leaned against a broken railing and tumbled from the trail and down a cliff, landing in the spray of Lower South Falls.
The railing was marked with cautionary tape — and park officials said at the time they were planning to fix it — but the lawsuit filed on Feb. 18 alleges the state failed to "adequately warn visitors of the danger the railing posed."
"No reasonable adult park user, let alone a reasonable 10-year-old, would have understood the length of tape to mean that the railing was unable to bear weight of any significance."
After the fall, Wilson Pelot was taken to Oregon Health & Science University with a fractured wrist, punctures in his lung, spleen trauma, a gash on his skull that required eight staples, a spinal fracture and severe abrasions and lacerations on his back.
The family is seeking $45,000 for past medical costs, $30,000 for future medical costs and up to $800,000 for physical and emotional suffering that the lawsuit says includes Wilson Pelot's "nightmares and compulsive thoughts of his own death."
The state has responded with a counter-suit alleging that Wilson Pelot's family, and not the park, is negligent.
The suit, filed April 16, says Liam Pelot and Allison Pelot were negligent of failing to properly supervise their children or take reasonable care to protect their son from apparent dangers.
The suit also says that the state didn't charge a fee for access to the lands, and is therefore immune from liability.
The family's lawsuit says they paid a $5 day-use fee and $57 to reserve a cabin for the night.
A $5 parking fee is typically changed to anyone visiting Silver Falls in a vehicle.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for seven years and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801.