San Diego will pay $750K to Naval Academy student struck by lifeguard on Jet Ski

San Diego is paying out $750,000 to a Naval Academy student from Rancho Santa Fe for injuries she suffered when a city lifeguard ran over her with a personal watercraft, more commonly known by the brand name Jet Ski.

The case made waves last year because it painted the city’s lifeguard division as hypocritical for continually blaming reckless personal-watercraft activity on illegal rental companies not providing users safety instructions.

The lawsuit filed by Ali Polidori and her family, which sought $3 million in damages, says lifeguards themselves are a key part of the problem, based on the behavior of one guard in December 2023 at La Jolla Cove.

The suit says the lifeguard ripped open Polidori’s head while going more than 20 mph on a watercraft in La Jolla Cove’s swimming area, where all vessels are banned except those driven by lifeguards.

The lawsuit says the lifeguard, who was responding to an emergency call of another swimmer in distress, was traveling unreasonably and dangerously fast and wasn’t exercising due caution.

A spokesperson for City Attorney Heather Ferbert declined to comment on the settlement, which the City Council approved Tuesday in open session. It was approved in closed session in September.

The attorney for Polidori’s family said Wednesday by email that she hopes the settlement makes a difference.

“The family’s true hope is that the facts brought to light through this lawsuit makes the beloved beaches of San Diego a safer place for swimmers,” said the attorney, Rachel Fiset.

While Lifeguard Chief James Gartland has focused on illegal rentals as the key to problems with personal watercraft, he has never said they are the only problem related to the devices.

Gartland has stressed that crashes are more common when people rent from illegal operators, which typically focus less on explaining safety protocols and how to avoid hazards in the bay.

Lifeguards receive extensive training on how to operate the devices, city officials say.

The Polidori lawsuit is at least the second the city is facing over such watercraft.

The family of a 12-year-old paddleboarder killed in July 2023 on Mission Bay, Savannah Peterson, has sued the city for damages, contending officials knew of the dangers and didn’t do enough to keep people safe.

Peterson was killed by 18-year-old Arsanyous Refat Ghaly, who pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced last fall to 230 days in custody and two years of probation.

No trial date has been scheduled in the Peterson civil case.

Polidori, 20, survived her December 2023 crash but suffered a 5-inch laceration on the back of her head that required seven staples and put her in intensive care for multiple nights. Her lawsuit says she has suffered a loss of confidence and deteriorating mental health.

A former triathlete and diver who graduated from Torrey Pines High School, Polidori was “a shell of her former student-athlete self” when she returned to the U.S. Naval Academy after the crash, the lawsuit says.

She is slated to graduate from the academy in June.

A key question raised by the lawsuit is whether the lifeguard was justified in driving so quickly through a swimming area where swimmers don’t expect there to be fast-moving devices of any kind.

The police report appears inconsistent on this issue.

It says traveling at 20 to 25 mph “does not appear to represent reckless or negligent operation,” adding that “the speed was within the act of operating within due regard for the public.”

But the report also says the lifeguard appears to have violated international navigation rules, particularly by driving the 800-pound device too fast to avoid a crash and by failing to use a proper lookout.