busesKetchikan buses beryllium parked extracurricular nan Ketchikan Gateway Borough attraction facility. (Eric Stone/KRBD)

A 91-year-old cruise-ship tourer is suing nan Ketchikan Gateway Borough for negligence aft his mobility scooter tipped complete connected a nationalist bus. 

The complaint was revenge successful national tribunal successful Alaska connected May 8. It says that Donald Gillingham of Montana and his woman were connected a cruise that docked successful Ketchikan successful September. Gillingham has constricted mobility, truthful they rented a motorized scooter and boarded a nationalist bus. 

The title states that nan aged man’s mobility scooter tipped complete erstwhile nan autobus made a near turn. It besides says that Gillingham sustained superior injuries from nan fall, though he wasn’t alert of nan severity astatine nan time. It wasn’t until he returned to nan cruise vessel and was later evaluated astatine Bartlett Regional Hospital successful Juneau that he recovered he’d allegedly sustained 3 surgery ribs and a punctured lung. 

Ketchikan’s nationalist buses person soul straps to unafraid mobility scooters. Gillingham’s attorneys declare that because nan straps aren’t mandatory, nan driver didn’t require him to usage them. The title claims nan borough owes a work of attraction to its passengers, which it neglected by not transporting Gillingham safely.

Gillinghams’ attorneys, Mark and Jon Choate declined to remark connected nan lawsuit successful an email.

Ketchikan Borough Manager Ruben Duran besides stated successful an email that he’s alert of a imaginable lawsuit, but hadn’t been served immoderate notice.

The title accuses nan borough of 1 count of negligence and 1 count of nonaccomplishment of consortium. The nonaccomplishment of consortium is simply a complaint revenge connected behalf of Gillingham’s wife, Patricia Gillingham, and alleges that nan beingness and affectional trauma her hubby suffered has eroded nan value of their marriage.