The Wake County Sheriff’s Office in NC has arrested 46-year-old ride operator Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow on three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury after the post-accident investigation discovered that the ride controls had been deliberately tampered with and critical safety devices disabled. More people might still be arrested in the case. Our ride accident injury lawyers note the clear assignment of fault in the NC Vortex ride accident. Tampering with controls has been blamed. Ride accident cases often go through lengthy controversy before there’s a clear assignment of blame.
The ride accident injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC emphasize that ride operator error is one of the top 5 causes of carnival ride accidents. Read more about ride operator error and ride accidents. Usually the error is not deliberate, as the Wake County Sheriff’s office indicates it might have been in the Vortex case.
Some Examples of Accidents Caused by Ride Operator Error
Tokyo Disney, for example, admitted that a May 2012 accident that left a rider hospitalized with severe leg injuries was caused by ride operator error in failing to follow procedures for securing rider safety harnesses and then failing to check whether all riders were properly secured before starting a roller coaster. Tokyo Disney also admitted that it had not properly trained the ride operator.
The ride operator had, against procedure, tried to force down a shoulder harness on an empty seat. That action released all the shoulder harnesses that had been secured on occupied seats. Most riders were able to pull their shoulder harnesses back down and get them to lock shut before the ride proceeded very far. The man who injured his legs jumped out of his seat to try and save himself from more serious bodily injury when the ride started while his shoulder harness was open.
The Danger of Accessible Ride Operating Controls
Our ride accident injury lawyers caution that another common cause of ride accidents involves children, passengers, or others who access exposed operator controls. For instance, a couple of years ago at the Louisiana State Fair, a fatal accident resulted when a young child accessed the controls of a ride on an exposed operations panel.
Many modern rides rely on sophisticated computer operating systems and secured controls to operate. These controls will often automatically bring a ride to a halt if a safety bar or harness releases during the ride or other dangers are detected. But many rides still have controls that consist of simple buttons, levers, and switches on exposed control panels that young children or troublemakers could easily access. And we noted in our first posts about the Vortex ride accident that one of the features of the ride is that the ride operator can choose to vary individual rotations and speeds during the ride.
The ride accident injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC tend to question the wisdom of ever letting ride operators have such deliberate control over in-ride aspects of the ride’s motion. Suppose a ride operator is young and reckless and thinks it would be fun to see what happens if he turns everything up to top speed while madly changing rotations. If nothing else, riders could experience cardiac problems or stroke.
Ride operators might be underpaid, negligently trained as was admitted in the Tokyo Disney case, bored, or too young to be aware of the potentially serious consequences should they neglect their job or get too daring with the controls. And in the Vortex case at the NC State Fair, ride operators and others might have deliberately tampered with controls and disabled safety devices.
While it is appalling to contemplate that someone would deliberately cause such severe and potentially fatal injuries to innocent riders, negligent hiring of ride operators and poor ride design allowing too much manual control of the ride could also be to blame for the injuries on Thursday.
Negligent hiring is sometimes a factor in our 18-wheeler injury accident cases. When employers fail to conduct proper background checks or drug and alcohol screenings and a serious accident results, the employer is to blame along with the truck driver.
Learn More about Who’s at Fault and How to Hold Them Financially Responsible after a Serious Injury Accident Harms You or Your Loved Ones
Contact the experienced ride accident injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC for a free and confidential initial legal consultation. Chad Points and Tony Denena have been helping injured victims and their families make full financial recoveries after serious injury accidents for more than 12 years. We know how to discover and prove negligence against liable parties in complex accident cases. And we could help you too. Watch our video on this page to hear about how we helped one family make a multi-million dollar recovery after a fatal roller coaster accident.
Reach Chad and Tony at 713-807-9500 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free legal consultation. You have no obligation to hire an attorney. And we never charge you attorney’s fees unless we win your case for you, so there’s no financial risk to you.