"In terms of amusement parks specifically, you can be looking at negligent maintenance [of a ride], negligent construction of a ride or negligent operation of it," Gowen says. "Those are usually the three areas that give rise to liability. I know there's been some attention because of the accident in Wildwood [where an 11-year-old died after falling out of a Ferris wheel]. It struck me that it's difficult to tell if she stood up or took hold of the guard—there's a question about whether there's a guard to keep people restrained."Gowen has been involved in an amusement park lawsuit—he had a client who suffered severe injuries to her leg when a paratrooper ride broke and the gondola she was in fell 30 feet, landing on the girl's legs. The jury in that case awarded the victim more than a million dollars for her injuries.
"Unfortunately, a child can stand up and fall out [of some rides]," Gowen says. "I don't know what happened in the Wildwood case. If there was no bar across her to lock her in or keep her in, that's a problem. Another area of problems is that these rides get set up in the traveling carnie environment. They're set up and taken down quickly and you have to be conscious of how well they're being put together when they're slapped up quickly. There should be good, safe practices in terms of design and maintenance, so people going out to have a good time don't wind up dead or injured."
Unfortunately, some injuries caused by amusement park accidents are catastrophic. In extreme cases, such as with the Ferris wheel accident in New York, the victim dies from her injuries. Even people who survive their accident may suffer life-changing injury.
"The case that I described involving the paratrooper ride involved severe leg injuries," Gowen says. "She suffered fractures of four bones and her foot was nearly amputated. It was held on by one artery. They were able to reattach it, but the young girl has a life-long lack of circulation in her leg. If someone falls off a ride, there can be head and spinal injuries. If a high-speed ride stops too suddenly, it can cause a mild to moderate brain injury. That's not to say that it always does, but it can. There is a wide range of things that can happen on these rides. The more racy the ride is, the more risk there is of some injury, because they take things as close to the line as they can."
Depending on the state the amusement park is in, legal responsibilities to guests can vary. Gowen says that in Pennsylvania, which is similar to other states, guests at an amusement park are considered business invitees because they have paid the price of admission and are in the park as invitees. Amusement parks therefore have a duty to protect guests from hazards about which they knew or should have known.
Lawsuits against amusement park owners and operators can be complex, and there is no guarantee that just because someone is injured at a park, that the owner or operator will offer fair compensation for the injuries.
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Gowen says that where possible, it is better to be safe than sorry. If a ride does not look as though it's been well maintained, it is a good idea to stay off it. He notes, however, that it isn't always possible to tell.
"With the paratrooper ride, riders couldn't tell there was anything wrong," Gowen says. "It involved a fatigue failure on the part of a pin the size of something that would hold an airplane wing on. It was about an inch in diameter, but it wore down in the middle to a pencil point. That was from rubbing inside the house because not enough grease and oil got in there, so the pin narrowed and weakened and then it broke. Unfortunately, it happened to our client."