MassTort.org

A half-dozen years ago, a woman died after falling from a Zamperla Hawk ride at Rockin’ Raceway in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  I posted quite a number of entries about the case, all of which are here.  It turned out that the microswitches that would prevent the ride from operating when the restraints weren’t locked in had been bypassed.  The park owner was convicted of reckless homicide, the jury concluding, necessarily, that he had performed that bypass.

The decedent’s family filed suit against the ride manufacturer, Zamperla, alleging design defect.  (The park and park owner were originally in the suit, but voluntarily nonsuited, I would guess because they were judgment-proof.)  The defendant moved for summary judgment on the basis that the criminal misconduct by the park owner was, as a matter of law, unforeseeable.  The trial court agreed, and now, the intermediate appellate court in Tennessee has affirmed [PDF].

The opinion is quite interesting, and presents a very nice instance of the challenges presented by third-party misconduct in the context of product design. The plaintiffs contended that the design should have been harder to bypass, and I assume that such a design is feasible (it’s fairly easy to imagine such a thing).  But, the court concluded, a park bypassing such critical safety mechanisms was, as a matter of law, unforeseeable.  As such, the court concluded that summary judgment was appropriate on the claim of defect.

Definitely worth a read.

Not at all surprising that Lindsay Zeno’s parents brought suit, and no real news in the article.  My previous post on the accident is here.

A 21-year old woman died at the Dixie Landin’ amusement park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday.  She fell out of the park’s “Xtreme” spinning coaster.  The local paper reports (not surprisingly) that the focus is on the restraints, and an area TV channel reports that a local teen alleges that the coaster had restraint issues a few days prior.  One story reports that witnesses said that the shoulder restraints came undone, which is a little puzzling, since photos and the ride company’s website indicate lap bars.

The ride is, according to the park’s website, its newest addition.  It’s a Maurer Sohne spinning coaster, relocated, per RCDB, from a park in the Netherlands.  A March 2007 service bulletin addresses how to inspect and maintain the restraint.  The coaster is about 50 feet tall; coverage suggests that the young woman fell about 30 feet.  Photos show the ride with significant banking on a number of the curves; with a spinning car, the forces can vary a lot on those curves.

The family of Greyson Yoe, who died when he was electrocuted in line for a bumper car ride at the Lake County Fair, proved fault but will receive no additional compensation in their suit against the state agency that oversees amusement rides.  The News-Herald has more, and here’s my recent post on the case (referencing a whole bunch more writings I’ve done in the past).

The LA Times has the story.  So far as I can tell, the actual report is not out there — at least I haven’t found it in a fairly brief search.  But I’ve put in a request with Cal/OSHA for it and will post it if I receive it.

Essentially, the report apparently says that Intamin didn’t do a good job telling Knott’s how frequently to check the cable, and that Knott’s didn’t check it frequently enough in any case.

No real details, but here’s the story.

(I wish I could have come up with another ‘T’ word for the title.)

I’m buried in end-of-semester stuff, so I can’t post much about it, but it is certainly worth noting that a trial started yesterday in a suit alleging personal injuries from Disney’s Tower of Terror ride.  The plaintiff alleges that he suffered a stroke as a result of the ride.

As the linked post notes, it’s unusual for two reasons: first, very few amusement park cases (especially against Disney) go to trial; and second, the suit doesn’t allege that anything went wrong — it just alleges that the ride is defectively designed.

Day on Torts has been posting excerpt from the author’s forthcoming book on the leading cases in Tennessee on a variety of subjects.  Today’s is on the subject of liability for amusement operators.

Details, such as they are, are here.  The story suggests that witnesses saw the teacups actually scraping against each other, which would, if true, be a big problem, but also pretty tough to have happen.

Details are sparse, but this story has most of what I’ve seen.  From the description and the rides page at the venue’s website, it seems likely to be a Zamperla Mini Teacup (here’s the page from Zamperla’s site).  The boy was evidently found on the floor with head injuries, which sounds consistent with falling or otherwise getting out of the ride.

The story also notes that the venue hadn’t informed the state regulatory agency within four hours of the accident, as Indiana law apparently requires.

Update: This story indicates that the venue’s permits lapsed in December, and had thus not been inspected in a timely way under state law.  There’s still no word on how the injuries occurred, so it’s impossible to tell if there’s a connection between the failure to have the rides inspected and the injuries.  Additionally, another story indicates a park maintenance worker allegedly reported safety concerns to the state regulators, concerns that were not followed up on.