One suit alleges Orange County and City of Newburgh failed to provide protection at this boat launch, where a mother drove herself and three children to their deaths in March

ALBANY – Lawsuits filed against governmental units following two tragic incidents that claimed a total of 12 lives are “frivolous” and prove there should be tort reform, according to Thomas Stebbins, executive director of Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.

The father of three children who died when their mother plunged her minivan into the Hudson River at Newburgh is suing the city and Orange County for $40 million, claiming there weren’t enough protections to prevent her from driving into the river, killing herself and her children.

There are three lawsuits pending following a deadly wrong-way crash in which a Long Island woman was driving drunk and drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester, killing eight people including herself.

Now, Stebbins’ group which is a coalition of businesses, corporations and individuals fighting for tort reform, said Jean Pierre’s lawsuit, tragic as the incident was, is wrong.

“For him to then sue the City of Newburgh to get $40 million really a tragic case of lawsuit abuse,” he said. “If successful and he got $40 million, the residents of Newburgh would pay almost $1,500 per person to settle that lawsuit.”

Lawsuits in both of these Hudson Valley tragedies are examples of what Stebbins calls “the overly litigious climate in New York.”