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Lawsuit Filed Over Bronx Zoo Skyfari Breakdown


By

John Del Signore

Published Oct 5, 2009

Modified Oct 5, 2009


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By

John Del Signore

Published Oct 5, 2009

Modified Oct 5, 2009


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Two women are suing the Wildlife Conservation Society because they spent five hours stranded on the Bronx Zoo's Skyfari one evening in July 2008. After a strong gust of wind knocked a cable car's wheel off track, stopping all cable car movement, some 37 zoo visitors were left with nothing to do but sit 100 feet above the ground (and lions and gazelles) alone with their thoughts—or, worse, other people. Robin Dean, 26, and her 27-year-old friend, Migdalia Arinegas, both teachers, have filed a lawsuit in Bronx Supreme Court seeking unspecified damages.

Arinegas had her year-old daughter with her and, according to the lawsuit, the experience left them all emotionally scarred. Dean's now on anti-anxiety medication, and she tells the Post, "The part that really tortured me was the rocking and the shaking. I cried a lot." Maybe only a big pile of cash can take some pain away, but aren't Dean and Arinegas a little late to the lawsuit party? Just two days after the epic Skyfail, a pregnant woman and her husband filed a $10 million lawsuit. And earlier this year the zoo shut down Skyfari for good.

Tagged

bronx zoo

gondola

lawsuit

nyc

skyfari

suing

trapped


John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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