A group of tourists filed a lawsuit against the tour boat operator Lava Ocean Tours Inc., after its vessel ‘Hot Spot’ was hit by a lava bomb during a tour off Hawaii’s Big Island in July 2018, injuring several passengers onboard.
On 16 July 2018, a basketball-size chunk of molten rock, known as a ‘lava bomb’, crashed into the tourist boat, injuring 23 people who were there to watch lava flow off the Big Island.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of six passengers from California and Oregon this week, follows a suit by a 20-year-old Illinois woman who was left with broken bones in her leg and pelvis.
Local media report that the lawsuit was also filed against the captain, Shane Turpin, as he allegedly sailed the ship too close to lava, according to both lawsuits, and there was also inadequate warning of hazards by the responsible company to the passengers.
The plaintiffs are Erin Walsh and William D. Bryan Jr., an Oregon couple, and Californians Dawn Li— on her own behalf and on behalf of her minor son, Christopher Li— Dr. Ka Ming Li, a trauma surgeon and Dawn Li’s husband, and the couple’s adult daughter, Erica Li, Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
After the explosion, the boat returned to its dock at the Wailoa Small Boat Harbor in Hilo, where it was met by emergency medical personnel, first responders and officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement. DOCARE and the US Coast Guard investigated the incident, according to Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources.
https://www.facebook.com/ikaika.marzo/videos/1887564864629374/