Parents File Suit in Girl’s Skating Death
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The parents of a Georgia teenager killed in a skating accident last year in Thousand Oaks have filed a $1-million lawsuit against a couple who provided the skates to the girl.
Conrad and Jane Svoboda of Marietta, Ga., filed suit Monday in Ventura County Superior Court, alleging that Robert and Jane Ruffino of Thousand Oaks contributed to the death of daughter Jennifer Svoboda.
Robert Ruffino on Tuesday declined to comment about the case.
Jennifer Svoboda, 15, was visiting friends and family in Thousand Oaks when she decided to go roller-skating on the evening of Aug. 10, 1995.
She rolled down the steep grade of Rosario Drive, lost control, ran through a stop sign and was hit by a car as she crouched down and tried to stop, witnesses said. She was wearing neither a helmet nor protective pads, and was pronounced dead later at Los Robles Regional Medical Center.
The driver, 22-year-old Devlon Carter of Temecula, was neither charged by police nor named in the Svobodas’ lawsuit.
But Jennifer’s parents alleged in the suit that the Ruffinos were negligent in lending Rollerblades with worn brakes to the inexperienced girl and letting her go skating on a steep public road at night.
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