Lawsuit Filed in LSC Tragedy

It was bound to happen: The first — but presumably not the last — wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the owner of Low Speed Chase, the Sydney 38 that was lost at the Southeast Farallon on April 14 during the Full Crew Farallones Race. Five out of eight crewmembers perished in the accident. Corey Busch, father of 26-year-old Alexis Busch, filed the suit against James Bradford on Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court seeking unspecified damages.  

The suit claims crewmembers should have known that seas "tall enough, steep enough and powerful enough to capsize and wreck their vessel were likely to be rolling onto the four-fathom shoal over which they were steering," and that Bradford and skipper Alan Cahill, who did not survive, were guilty of "outrageous conduct." 

"This is kind of between me and the survivors and their families," Bradford told the Chronicle yesterday. "And I know about the lawsuit, but don’t really know much about it. But I consider them all still my friends."