PITTSBURGH (AP) — Surviving relatives of four people killed in flash flooding in Pittsburgh in August 2011 are suing several government and private entities claiming the deaths could have been prevented.
Seventy-two-year-old Mary Saflin was swept away from her vehicle and drowned in the torrential waters, and 45-year-old Kimberly Griffith and her two daughters, 12 and 8, were trapped in their van and died when heavy rains caused a nine-foot wall of water to sweep down a low-lying section of road.
Attorneys Alan Perer and Paul Manion say the lawsuit is being filed against the city, its water and sewer authority, Allegheny County and its sewage authority, PennDOT, an engineering firm and even Chrysler Group LLC, which made the Griffiths' van.
Those entities didn't immediately return emails and calls for comment before business hours.
