‘Dangerous’ Canopy Stands Over Brooklyn Playground: Lawsuit

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A heavy canvas-and-metal sail stretched taut over a Brooklyn Bridge Park toddlers’ playground snapped free in high winds and permanently injured a woman who stood underneath, a new lawsuit contends.

Petra Rocio Estevez, of Brooklyn, filed suit Wednesday against Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and architectural firm HNTB — producers of the notorious Squibb Bridge — for injuries she says she suffered at the Peninsula Picnic Park, according to court documents.

“The shade sail structure remained in a broken, unsecured and defective condition, constituting a danger to the life and limb,” the lawsuit contends.

“[Estevez] was injured, suffered great physical pain and was rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled.”

According to the suit, Estevez was struck with a metal fastener when strong gusts of winds on April 30, 2021, wrenched the canvas free.

One sail has since been detached from its metal pole foundations but, as of Wednesday afternoon, the second remained over a Pier 5 playground.

A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation did not respond to Patch’s requests for comment.

The sails in question were designed by HNTB New York Architecture, the same firm that designed the often-closed pedestrian bridge near Pier 1, according to the lawsuit and city records.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation filed suit against HNTB and engineer Ted Zoli in 2016 for installing an “inherently flawed” structure in the park, court records show.

Estevez and her attorneys at law firm Friedman and Sanchez filed their civil suit in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court, records show.

Neither Emil Sanchez, Estevez’s attorney, nor an HNTB press representative chose to comment on this article.

(Photos by Kathleen Culliton.)