Woman sues hotel over dolphin blow

[MORTARDUDE]

Woman sues hotel over dolphin blow




OKAYAMA -- A woman has sued a hotel for injuries she sustained during a swimming pool attraction enabling guests to "come in contact with dolphins."

The woman, 37, from Okayama, whose name is being withheld, and her relatives stayed at the Taiji Seaside Ichinoyu Hotel at the southern tip of the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture in July last year.

While she was swimming in the hotel's pool, one of three dolphins smashed into her back, breaking several bones in her ribcage and back, the suit says. She sought medical treatment from doctors for some 6 months after the accident.

The woman now demands in the suit that the hotel pay some 2.8 million yen in damages as she insists that she still suffers from numbness in her lower back. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 7, 2003)