A woman suffered serious but apparently non-life-threatening injuries on a water park ride at King’s Dominion amusement park in Doswell, Virginia on July 5.
According to local media reports, the woman is receiving treatment in Richmond for a broken foot, collar bone and shoulder after riding the Tornado at Soak City in King’s Dominion.
Her husband reported on Facebook that his wife was knocked unconscious after she landed on her head when the tube the were riding flipped. He blasted King’s Dominion, claiming that he struggled to keep his wife’s head above water and yelled for help while lifeguards were standing by doing nothing.
King’s Dominion released a statement that lifeguards and medical staff responded right away and that safety is their top priority. The park’s representatives also noted that the ride is closed while the accident is being investigated.
The Tornado is a raft ride that takes riders down a slide and a 65 foot tall funnel.
Our View
Our personal injury attorneys in Virginia and North Carolina hope that the woman in this amusement park accident has a quick and total recovery. Amusement parks in the US attract approximately 335 million visitors who take more than 1.5 billion rides per year. The likelihood of an accident is only 1 in 16 million, but when accidents happen, they can be very serious.
According to the director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, most rides in the US are safe, but enough accidents are happening each year that a better oversight system should be in place at the national level. However, he noted recently that the amusement park industry has a strong lobby in Washington DC and has been effective in limiting federal oversight.
One of the problems with amusement park rides is that they draw such heavy traffic in the busy season that problems are not always noticed. And not all of the problems with rides are mechanical. Some rides that feature rafts could suffer from underinflation problems that increase the chance of an accident.
A person who suffers a serious injury at an amusement park should know that they have legal options. The park is obligated to operate its attractions safely. If you are injured on one of its rides, you could be entitled to financial compensation in a personal injury lawsuit. In the above case, the injured woman is facing months of physical and mental recovery, and will likely be out of work for much of that time. An experienced personal injury attorney can help the injured to obtain a personal injury settlement to help them through this difficult period.
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