$205M Verdict in Wrongful Death due to Amusement Park Recklessness
Amusement parks should be a source of happiness, joy, and excitement! Usually attended with family or friends, parkgoers search out thrills in the form of spins, drops, speed, and more. While most parks adhere to strict safety standards, when even one park employee overlooks protocol, tragedy can strike. For one family boarding a drop ride, this soon became their worst nightmare. The ride drops into a “haunted mine” where the bones of hapless miners lie partially buried. As the family boarded the ride and chose their seats, one of the children sat on seat #3, where the seatbelt had been buckled due to the seat being empty on the previous run. The ride attendant did not unbuckle it after clearing the last group, and the child didn’t notice when she sat on it. The ride attendant proceeded to check all the seatbelts, not noticing that the child was on top of the seatbelt rather than under it. When he attempted to start the ride, he received an error on seat 3, so he went back in and checked, again not noticing that she was sitting on top of the buckled seatbelt. This happened 4 times, with the ride attendant checking all of the belts, even unbuckling her belt and re-buckling it…with her still on top of it! Another ride attendant came back from break, did another check on several belts, then, deciding there was something wrong with the controls, overrode the alert and released the ride.
With nothing to restrain her, the little girl flew out of her seat and plunged 110 ft to the bottom of the “mine shaft.” Her uncle looked over to check the kids and make sure they were enjoying the ride when he saw her seat was empty. He then saw her body on the ground and he and others attempted to remove their own restraints to go to her aid, but the restraints were locked and would not release. They rode back up and alerted the ride attendants what had happened, at which time the attendants called management, rather than 911. The family was traumatized and distraught, and that poor little girl died alone at the bottom of the pit, in the dark, surrounded by fake skeletons and old mining equipment.
The family knew this never should have happened and reached out to Dan Caplis of Dan Caplis Law to help them. Mr. Caplis filed a wrongful death suit against both the park and the ride designer. There were flaws on both sides…poor adherence to the park ride operations protocol by the ride attendants, and the bad design allowing operators to override a safety alert. Mr. Caplis acquired video, allowing him to piece together the timeline leading up to the tragedy, and came to Focus Graphics to create several videos – an animated version, a version with a timer overlay from when they boarded the ride, and another with a timer going to illustrate how long it was from the time that the ride departed, when it was believed she fell out, and the time that they alerted management. Focus Graphics also created a Fatal Injury Summary to show all the severe injuries she had sustained in the fall in one comprehensive exhibit. After only 7 hours of deliberation, the jury found in favor of the plaintiffs for $205 million – $82 million in damages and $123 million in punitives. They also assigned 1% of the $82 million in damages to the two ride operators, while the park and ride designers shared the other 99%.
“This was our first time using Focus Graphics, and they exceeded our very high expectations. We hired Sean Claggett as a consultant, and he’s a strong proponent of using visuals to help tell the story. The quality of the Focus Graphic visuals was obviously outstanding. But even more important to us was the fact that everyone there was very available and responsive. Including during trial, when they were available deep into the night if necessary. They understand the demands of litigation, and we felt like they were in the trenches with us. They also had a lot of great ideas because they’ve been involved in so many big cases, and they’ve seen what works best. We were able to use the videos to drive home how long this little girl was alone at the bottom of the mine shaft, and the injury summary made it very clear what killed her and how completely preventable this was. The jury was very careful, thorough, and deliberate in the message it sent with this record-breaking verdict. And the world is already safer because of it.”
~Dan Caplis, Esq., Denver, CO | Dan Caplis Law
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