Ridgewood December 7, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3 Court finds staff negligent; awards $10 million verdict by John Koster Ridgewood’s insurers are considering an appeal of the Superior Court’s $10 million verdict in the July 15, 2008 death of a 13-year-old South Korean boy. The court found the village guilty of negligence in the death of the teen who drowned at Graydon Pool on his first day in Ridgewood. Soo Hyeon Park and his parents were staying with friends in Ridgewood after their arrival from South Korea at the time of his death. The Joint Insurance Fund is considering whether to appeal the verdict, according to Village Manager Kenneth Gabbert, who expressed his sympathy for the surviving family members. Park drowned after his family saw him struggling in the water and frantically tried to urge the lifeguards to rescue the boy. The Koreans said the lifeguards should have dived for Soo Hyeon immediately. The pool reportedly employed one Korean-speaking lifeguard at the time of the boy’s death, but that lifeguard was not on duty at the time of the drowning. The incident was the second drowning reported at Graydon. The previous drowning, which took place many years before, had occurred when a teenaged boy had been trespassing at Graydon late at night after the pool was closed for the day. Park, in contrast, was swimming when the pool was fully occupied with fellow swimmers. At the time, nine lifeguards were on duty, and other staffers were present. Attorney Neil Weiner told the court that, after the Ridgewood Mayor Keith Killion advised Valley Hospital Director Audrey Meyer that the proper venue for any proposal for a revised plan for a hospital expansion is now the Ridgewood Planning Board. Last week, the council voted to memorialize its Nov. 22 decision against the introduction of an enabling ordinance for Valley expansion proposal. Meyer offered to work with the council on a revised plan, but Mayor Killion said the planning board -- which had previously accepted the renovation concept and then forwarded it to the Ridgewood Village Council -- is now the body to approach. The council decided two weeks ago not to introduce an ordinance for a change in the master plan that would have been necessary to implement the hospital’s proposed renovation. Residents who live near the hospital had embraced, applauded, and thanked the council. The expansion had been criticized by objectors not only for the amount of Mayor: Valley must now work with planners traffic, noise, and dust it would bring to the residential neighborhood and the school area near the hospital, but because the number of beds would be almost unchanged. The protracted hearings, first on the proposal before the planning board and then on the neighborhood objections and charges of “spot zoning,” had left council members visibly exhausted, though both sides in the controversy were praised for their civility. Valley Hospital had proposed the renewal project to modernize the hospital and to provide single-patient rooms. Some residents of Ridgewood and the surrounding communities supported the expansion. The plan as ruled on by the council, would have allowed Valley Hospital to expand to more than one million square feet, and would have placed a 94-foot building 40 feet from the boundary with the Benjamin Franklin Middle School. J. KOSTER drowning was reported by the boy’s parents and friends, the lifeguards searched the perimeter of the pool rather than diving to rescue the boy or retrieve his body. Some lifeguards reportedly searched the parking lot rather than the pool as if they were looking for a missing person rather than a drowning victim. People in the Korean community cited a language barrier as a key cause of the drowning because the newly arrived Koreans appeared to have a hard time making themselves understood. One of the boy’s relatives attempted to rescue the boy, but had failed to locate him. Park’s body was not recovered until 40 minutes after he submerged for the last time, reportedly near an underwater drain. A helicopter rushed him for emergency treatment, but he could not be resuscitated. The South Korean family charged that Ridgewood provided negligent supervision at the pool and that the Ridgewood lifeguards had responded negligently to Park’s struggles and ultimate drowning. The case was considered by a jury for almost a month of testimony and two-and-ahalf hours of deliberation in the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack before a verdict was announced.