Larry Kirchner serves as President of Halloween Productions, which runs Creepyworld. Creepyworld just garnered national notice because its haunted theme park of pretend fright and horror just turned up a truly frightening horror: an employee found dangling on the end of a noose. Larry Kirchner also authored a Haunted House Safety Checklist that our theme park accident lawyers found on the Web.
The Haunted House Safety Checklist goes into some detail regarding the use of props. Specifically, Larry Kirchner forbids the use of “deadly weapons” which he lists as sticks, pipes, bats, or chains of any kind because of the hazard their wielding can pose to guests and employees alike. He apparently references an actual accident a few years back where “an actor hit a customer with a baseball bat by accident” and caused brain damage.
So we theme park accident lawyers wonder, did it take a customer case of brain damage to lead to the realization that using heavy baseball bats in a public attraction, in the dark, possibly under strobe lights, was not a good idea? Does it take an employee found dangling unconscious in a noose to lead to the realization that the use of real nooses as props is not a good idea? Our theme park accident lawyers notice that nooses were conspicuously absent form Larry Kirchner’s list of deadly weapons in his Haunted House Safety Checklist, even though nooses have been used as deadly weapons for millennia.
The Haunted House Safety Checklist also goes into some detail regarding tripping hazards and communication. We wonder if these concerns factored into the tragic accident at Creepyworld on Thursday. In any event, Larry Kirchner’s Haunted House Safety Checklist might need some additions and modifications in light of the horrific hanging accident that occurred at Creepyworld.