Vacationers to Florida often include visits to the state’s theme and amusement parks on their fun-packed agendas. But, what if you are injured while there? Who can be held responsible, and how do you go about asserting your right to compensation?
A visitor to a Florida theme or amusement park who is injured or killed as a result of negligence or defective park equipment may be entitled to financial damages. The Killino Firm’s Miami, Florida, amusement park injury and accident attorneys have extensive experience with Florida theme and amusement park cases and can provide you with expert assistance in obtaining the compensation to which you are entitled for your theme or amusement park injury or loved one’s death.
Florida Theme and Amusement Park Law
When a Florida tourist sustains an amusement or theme park injury, one or more parties may be held legally responsible under Florida law. The owners of amusement parks, theme parks, water parks, and similar businesses have a duty to keep their business grounds and equipment in a reasonably safe condition for park patrons and to see that rides and other attractions are operated in a proper and safe manner. Companies or individuals responsible for park maintenance also have a duty of reasonable care to keep park patrons safe from injury or death from dangerous conditions on park grounds. Owners and operators of park concession stands owe a duty of reasonable care toward all those to whom they sell food or drink to protect them from injury or death due to spoiled, adulterated, or otherwise unsafe food and drink products.
Owner and Maintenance Company Liability
Tourists who visit amusement, water, and other theme parks may be injured in many ways as a result of the negligence of park owners or maintenance companies. Injuries and deaths caused by patrons’ tripping over obstacles, slipping and falling on icy or otherwise slippery surfaces, or falling from precipices or into holes that were not adequately fenced off may result in the liability of park owners as well as the companies and/or individuals hired to maintain park premises.
Park owners and employees or companies hired to maintain amusement park rides or other attractions may also be found legally responsible for injuries and wrongful deaths caused by negligent maintenance of rides or attractions. Improperly secured bounce houses, rides with loose bolts, and water slides with inadequately maintained safety bars, for example, may result in park owner and maintenance company liability for injuries and deaths determined to have been caused by negligent maintenance.
Owner and Park Employee Liability
Tourists may also be injured or killed due to the negligence of amusement or theme park employees. Fatal and non-fatal drowning injuries, for example, often occur when employees hired to operate and admit patrons to waterslides admit an excessive number of patrons at one time. Patron collisions caused by over-crowding may result in concussions or loss of consciousness and result in drowning injuries to one or more patrons. Both the negligent employee and the park owner or operator, as the employee’s employer, may be held liable for such negligently caused injuries and deaths.
The negligence of ride operators may also lead to the ride operator’s and park owner’s liability for injuries and deaths caused by such negligence. Ride operators who admit children too young or small for a particular ride or attraction, for instance, may be held liable, along with their employers, for injuries and deaths resulting from the operator’s negligent admittance of those children. Park owners may also be held liable for injuries and deaths caused by the negligence of employees who were improperly trained by park owners or who were hired without adequate screening for alcohol or drug addiction, for example.
Liability for Defective Rides and Other Attractions
In some cases, Florida tourists have been injured as a result of defects in an amusement park ride or attraction. Rides with design or manufacturing defects that make a ride unsafe even when properly operated by park employees, for example, can result in patrons’ injuries or deaths. Under Florida’s product liability law, the manufacturers of such rides or other equipment and others involved in the rides’ or equipment’s release to the market (such as wholesalers or retailers) may be held liable for injuries and deaths determined to have been caused by ride or equipment defects.
Liability for Violation of Amusement or Theme Park Regulations
In many cases, a park owner or operator’s violation of an amusement or theme park regulation may be found to have been a cause of a patron’s injury or death. Regulations of Florida parks include those related to patron height requirements on rides, safety inspections of rides and other equipment, and the proper training of ride and attraction operators. A park’s violation of any applicable regulation may be determined to constitute negligence on the part of the park owner or operator and result in liability for injuries determined to have been caused by the violation.
The violation of park or other regulations is not necessary to a finding of liability on the part of park owners, operators, or employees, however. The determination of liability in each case will depend, in large part, upon the particular facts and circumstances of the injury-causing accident.
Obtain Expert Assistance from The Killino Firm, P.C.
The Killino Firm’s Miami, Florida, accident and amusement-park injury lawyers are widely known for their expertise and tenacity in holding all those responsible for clients’ amusement and theme park injuries accountable through legal action. Contact The Killino Firm for experienced and aggressive assistance with your amusement or theme park accident case.
