A Clifton Park woman who was left paralyzed from the chest down after she was struck by falling rocks while hiking in July 2017 at Thacher Park has won a $9 million lawsuit. $8.4 million dollars will go to Nancy Ladd Butz, her husband will receive $100,000, and her daughter gets $500,000. The money is coming from New York State.
Butz and her daughter Kelsey were hiking on the Indian Ladder Trail when the rocks fell. Butz spent 18 days in critical condition. The Times Union reports that some top state officials were aware of concerns about the stability of the cliff above the trail and that a state crew from Ithaca spent four days in May 2017 at the park where they found an "abundance of loose material on the escarpment face." Because of so called " time restrictions," the state crew had removed loose rocks only from the parts of the cliff deemed "most hazardous."
Photo: WNYT