When Are Amusement Parks Liable for Injuries?

Amusement parks, water parks and theme parks offer thrills and rides that people of all ages enjoy, but there is always the potential for accidents, injuries, or even death to occur.

Amusement parks have a responsibility to keep visitors safe from any potential dangers.

This responsibility includes ensuring that rides are properly maintained, staffing and security are adequate, and any potential danger is warned of in the form of signs and verbal caution.

If an amusement park fails to maintain equipment or adequately warn visitors of danger, the park could be held responsible for injuries that occur.

In this blog we discuss how an amusement park accident can result in legal action.

Amusement Park Injuries

A variety of injuries could occur at an amusement park, ranging from minor accidents that may not require emergency medical care, to major accidents that can cause life-long disability or even death.

Examples of amusement park accidents include:

• Slip-and-fall accidents
• Food poisoning
• Drowning in pools, ponds and other standing water at the park
• Injuries from defective or malfunctioning rides
• Wrongful death from defective or malfunctioning rides

Serious Amusement Park Ride Accidents

Rides are often highly technical pieces of machinery, operated by a hopefully experienced staff that can understand when things are going wrong.

Recent amusement park accidents include: 

• August 2022: A roller coaster accident at LegoLand Germany injured 34 people.
• July 2022: A woman in Tennessee was killed after falling from a chairlift ride at Anakeesta Theme Park in Gatlinburg.
• July 2022: A Danish teenager was killed in a roller coaster accident at the Tivoli Friheden Theme Park in Denmark.
• July 2022: An employee at Silver Dollar City near Branson, MO was killed during the maintenance and testing of a roller coaster.

When is an Amusement Park Liable for Injuries?

There are multiple instances in which amusement park owners and ride operators are held liable for visitor injuries.

Premises Liability

According to premises liability laws, an amusement park owner has a legal responsibility to enforce safety rules, keep customers safe, and effectively warn of any inherent risk.

If a property owner fails to protect customers’ safety, they could face a premises liability lawsuit (which operates the same way as a personal injury lawsuit).

Premises liability law states that amusement park management must make reasonable efforts to protect visitors from likely danger.

If there is evidence that the property owner did not consider how to avoid injury to visitors, the injury could fall under the amusement park’s liability.

Premises liability law often does not afford the right to sue for trespassers or those entering an off limits area in an amusement park.

Learn more about premises liability here.

Product Liability

Also involved with amusement park injuries are product liability laws, which enforce a legal duty to maintain and upkeep the mechanical aspects of rides.

Product liability lawsuits can be filed against both amusement park owners and/or a ride manufacturer, safety harness manufacturer, etc.

Product liability cases generally contain evidence such as:

• Recent safety inspections
• What safety instructions or safety rules are given to patrons
• Whether a certain ride can be considered a defective ride due to malfunction
• If there was rider non compliance with safety rules
• If a ride was inherently dangerous

Legal Action Taken for Amusement Park Deaths

As mentioned previously, amusement parks may be liable for any injuries or deaths that occur on their property.

Wrongful death lawsuits can be filed on behalf of amusement park accident victims.

Some recent amusement park accidents have resulted in legal action being taken on the behalf of the victims:

• July 2022: The family of an 11-year-old boy who was killed on the “Raging River Ride” at Adventureland amusement park in Altoona, Iowa have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the park failed to properly maintain and repair its rides.
• April 2022: A 14-year-old boy was killed at a Florida amusement park in March 2022 when a safety harness failed and allowed the teen to fall from a tower-style ride. The family of the teen has filed a lawsuit against the park, ride manufacturers and other defendants.

What To Do if You Are Injured at an Amusement Park

If you’re injured at an amusement park, take the following steps to ensure both that you’re safe and take the proper steps to support a personal injury lawsuit if necessary:

1. Seek medical care immediately: alert amusement park staff and get proper medical care by staff or outside authorities as soon as possible.
2. Report the incident to the amusement park: make sure they have the incident “on file” and management is aware of what happened and how.
3. Gather relevant evidence at the scene of the incident: take photos or videos if possible and gather contact information of any witnesses.

Contact a Personal Injury Law Firm

When a person is injured in an accident at an amusement park, they might not be aware of their legal rights to file a claim against those responsible for their injuries.

A personal injury lawyer can help secure compensation for injuries and other damages incurred from an accident.

Though hiring a lawyer can be expensive, many personal injury lawyers (including TorHoerman Law) accept cases on a contingency fee basis.

This means that injured people do not have to pay legal fees unless they win in court.

If you’ve been injured at an amusement park, contact TorHoerman Law for a free consultation.

We understand how confusing and overwhelming the legal process following an accident can be, and we can help you secure the compensation you’re owed for any medical bills, lost income and any other damages.

Using our chatbot for a free consultation, we ensure that any sensitive or confidential information relating to your case will be kept secure.