AZ-based Ray Cammack Shows’ Ride Safety, Inspections & Prior Accidents

Our roller coaster injury lawyers note that in 2011, after Brian Greenhouse fell to his death from the Hi-Miler roller coaster at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo (Houston Rodeo), questions were raised regarding the adequacy of the safety procedures and inspections used by Ray Cammack Shows (RCS). For one thing, the ride operator wasn’t actually looking at the ride at the time Mr. Greenhouse fell from the roller coaster car. The law mandates that ride operators observe the ride at all times while it’s in motion.

RCS said that it inspects its rides daily for safety. But that inspection process is an automated one, essentially a computerized diagnostic program, apparently designed by RCS. The company manually inspects all its rides during setup and takedown. And it hires an outside consultant to check the rides and safety features periodically. Reportedly in 2011, the outside safety consultant was on site at the Houston Rodeo several times to perform safety checks and inspections. But some riders of the Hi-Miler question whether that’s sufficient. Our roller coaster injury lawyers are inclined to agree with those riders.

RCS has experienced some ride accidents in the past. And several accounts indicate that RCS might not report ride accidents and issues as required. For instance, Houston media exposed that in 2004 RCS failed to report injuries received on the Euro Slide ride at the Houston Rodeo that year.

The roller coaster injury lawyers at Denena & Points wonder if anyone still remembers that in 2010, riders of the Hi-Miler at the Houston Rodeo were stuck on the ride for around 45 minutes because a crank shaft bent and automatically stopped the ride. In another incident from a previous year, a rider’s head hit the bar on the Hi-Miler. The rider suffered a broken cheekbone and broken nose.

In 2002, a 3-year-old boy fell from the Kite Flyer ride operated by RCS at the California State Fair. The boy suffered injuries from his fall but survived. Reportedly, RCS might have been operating the Kite Flyer ride under a 36-inch height requirement when the ride’s manufacturer (Zamperla of Italy) specified a 42-inch height requirement.

Our roller coaster injury lawyers remind you that roller coasters and other exciting, high acceleration rides are never perfectly safe. That’s part of their thrill. It’s also why ride owners and operators have to take extensive precautions to ensure your safety, make regular and careful inspections of the rides, and report ride problems and injuries so that officials will know if certain rides might be unsafe and need to be recalled. News reports over the years indicate the RCS might have chronic problems ensuring rider safety and reporting injuries and accidents.

If you become injured on a ride at the Houston Rodeo this year, contact our roller coaster injury lawyers for a free and confidential legal consultation. Our Board Certified Houston personal injury attorneys have special expertise with such injury cases and more than 12 years of experiencing fighting for the rights of injured clients. You can reach us at 877-307-9500 or through our online contact form on this web page.

It’s time for the annual HLSR, fun rides, & better safety precautions

Houston rodeo accident lawyers share the excitement: yes, it’s almost time for the highly-anticipated Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston’s annual 3-week party. Kicking off with the hugely popular cook-off, the HLSR features long trail rides for dedicated riders, concerts headlining big names, all kinds of Texas foods and drinks to sample and enjoy, the stock show, one of the world’s largest rodeos, and yes, the carnival rides by Ray Cammack Shows.

Our Houston rodeo accident lawyers note that for an annual event of its size, the HLSR enjoys an enviable safety record. The HLSR record might exceed that of the Texas State Fair, another of the state’s huge, highly anticipated, annual funfests.

But you might remember that last year’s HLSR was marred by a tragic, fatal accident that occurred just hours before the event was to close down. Brian Greenhouse, a Houston man, fell 30 feet to his death from the front car of the Hi-Miler roller coaster in 2011. He fell into another man on the way down. Ray Cammack Shows and HLSR continued to maintain that the ride was safe.

Just hours before Greenhouse’s fatal fall, a man and his son complained to the ride operator that the restraint mechanism in the front car unlocked and opened during their ride, leaving the man and his son unrestrained. Days before, a woman with a 6-year-old boy made the dame complaints. She was terrified for herself and her son, but said that the ride operator essentially ignored and dismissed her complaint.

In 2009, another woman, this one with a 4-year-old daughter, had complained after the lap bar had completely released while they were riding in the front car of the Hi-Miler. She complained to ride operators at HLSR, but the operators never reported the problem to the state as required. The woman reported the incident to the Texas Department of Insurance.

Our Houston rodeo accident lawyers just wanted to remind you before HLSR kicks off again that roller coaster accidents, while rare, are often fatal or deeply debilitating on the occasions when they do occur. And traveling amusement ride shows might not be as careful for your safety as you might like. Per passenger mile, roller coasters actually have more fatal accidents than passenger trains, planes, and buses.

So always think twice before you step onto thrilling and potentially deadly amusement rides. Fortunately, the Hi-Miler will not play at this year’s HLSR, but there is no guarantee that it won’t return in future years. And our Houston rodeo accident lawyers suggest that if fate tries to put you into the Hi-Miler’s first car at next year’s HLSR, you might want to wait for the next coaster. And if you suffer harm from a ride accident at the Rodeo, feel free to contact us for a complimentary, no-obligation legal consultation. We’re here to help innocent victims who suffer undeserved harm because of profit-oriented ride owners’ negligence.

Nationwide Carnival Injury Attorney Share 6 Important Roller Coaster Safety Features

Roller coasters are meant to make riders’ hearts beat faster, to give them a thrill, and to make them feel like they are truly living life. However, while they are designed to go fast, drop from great heights, and leave passengers breathless, they must also be designed to keep everyone as safe as possible. Design is only part of the equation though. These thrill rides must be properly maintained and repaired. If a ride is not kept working properly, the safety features designed into the ride simply do not matter.

To get you started, we have provided the information in this article about safety features on roller coasters. What safety features do most roller coasters have to protect riders against accidents and injuries?

• The block system. Many automated coasters run multiple trains and are divided into zones known as blocks. Only one roller coaster train is allowed on a block at any given time. Sensors detect when a train has left a block and another can be allowed on. Sensors can prevent the dispatch of a train, apply braking actions, or prevent lift to keep a train from moving into an occupied block if necessary. By preventing two trains from occupying the same block, the block system often prevents unintended train collisions.

• Brake runs. Many roller coasters employ brake runs to slow a train down at the end of a ride or at certain points during the ride. The trains themselves might not have any brakes of their own, but rely on these specially designed sections of track to run out their kinetic energy and come to a halt or slow down to safe speeds so that excessive g-forces don’t harm passengers’ bodies.

• Sensors. Automated roller coaster train systems employ computerized sensing systems to detect mechanical failures, to control the speeds and positions of trains, and to activate block and braking systems as needed to separate or slow down trains. These computerized systems prevent a number of common train accidents. For example, they can detect signs of mechanical failure and send signals to bring trains to a stop before a mechanical failure results in injury or death.

• Lap bars. Very few roller coasters still use the seat belt system and instead employ the safer padded metal lap bar. The lap bar comes down across seated passengers and locks to prevent dangerous impacts on sudden turns and inversions as well as to prevent the ejection of the rider from the coaster.

• Shoulder Harnesses. More and more coasters are employing the padded, U-shaped shoulder harness that locks down over the rider’s upper body, especially roller coasters that boast high speeds and inversions. Shoulder harnesses are more effective for keeping riders safely in place during inverted loops and particularly treacherous drops.

• Side friction wheels and up stop wheels. Advanced wheel systems employing side guide wheels and wheels beneath the track in addition to the wheels riding the rails help prevent the train from flying off the track on extreme twists, turns, inversions, and speeds. If a roller coaster derails, the consequences can be extremely serious and fatal.

Ironically, new rollercoaster safety systems allow rides to become faster, more sophisticated, and more extreme. Advances in technology, design, and safety has led to the recent development of rides with more exhilarating corkscrew turns, inversions, giga coasters, “4th dimension” coasters, catapult launching mechanisms, and hanging trains. While the rate of rollercoaster accidents has remained low over the years despite this progression, accidents and injuries do still happen – and when they do, they can result in extremely severe injuries and fatalities.

Nationwide roller coaster accident attorneys

Roller coaster accidents and injuries are rare, but they do happen. In some cases, injuries can be serious enough to leave the victim with significant hospital bills, ongoing health issues, lost wages, and other damages. In other cases, a family might lose a loved one in a fatal rollercoaster accident. 
 
If you have suffered harm due to a roller coaster accident – and you feel that the amusement park or another person was at fault for that accident – you may wish to speak with an experienced rollercoaster accident attorney. Tony Denena and Chad Points can help you identify the precise causes of your accident and determine who’s liable for your injuries. Tony and Chad are among the very few lawyers in the United States who have actual experience helping roller coaster accident victims obtain compensation for their harm. Contact the law firm of Denena & Points for a free and confidential consultation regarding your amusement park injury or loss. Take action and let us help today.

The insurance companies for carnivals hire lawyers specializing in this area of the law to defend cases brought against them by injured people. These cases are complex. For these two reasons you CANNOT handle a claim arising from an injury at a carnival on your own. At a bare minimum, download your FREE copy of our book, Danger in the Park: Your Guide to Keeping Your Kids Safe on a Roller Coaster. I know we explicitly state in other areas on our website that you may not need a lawyer for your injury claim. That principle does not apply to a carnival or amusement park case. Download the book and read it. Read all the information on this website. Then call us at 713-807-9500.

ASTM proposes voluntary standards to govern amusement railway trains

Amusement ride accident lawyers note a promising development in the area of amusement park ride safety. ASTM International, a global leader in the development of voluntary safety compliance standards, has begun an initiative to develop standards to govern amusement railway trains.

You might not know that many of the harmless looking amusement train rides you see at transportation museums, zoos, carnivals, and other places are not yet governed by a cohesive set of safety standards. Many of these railway rides are assembled and run by train enthusiasts and hobbyists who may be exacting on matters of scale and historical detail, but who might not be well versed in the safety requirements for running the trains for other peoples’ amusement.

If you worry that “voluntary” standards sound like they won’t do much to ensure your safety on the trains, consider that throughout the amusement ride industry, many of the already existing safety standards are voluntary ones. But owners and operators seek to comply with the voluntary standards to avoid the costly liabilities associated with failures to comply. Accidents from amusement rides of all types are surprising rare. But when they do occur, amusement ride accidents tend to be particularly serious, causing gruesome and deadly injuries.

ASTM seeks to address the problems and dangers posed by a lack of cohesive standards governing amusement railway trains. Accidents on such amusement railway rides are relatively rare, but they can be fatal. ASTM’s subcommittee on Special Rides and Attractions is focusing on the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards in two major categories affecting amusement railway rides.

1. Practice for Amusement Ride Steam Locomotives (ASTM wk31185), and
2. Practice for Amusement Railway Ride Tracks, Devices, and Facilities (ASTM wk 35400).

The standards intend to provide owners and operators of amusement railway rides with a handy reference that they can use to operate, maintain, and inspect their railway rides. A generally accepted and followed body of standards could allow the train system owners and operators to better ensure the safety of their employees and guests.

The final ASTM standards will cover roadways, rails, rail joints, ties, turnouts and other equipment related to the operation of the amusement railway rides. ASTM wk35400 will apply to the design, manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance, and inspection of “permanently installed amusement railway ride tracks and their associated devices and facilities.”

ASTM has invited all interested parties to help participate in the development of the two amusement railway ride standards. The owners and operators of amusement railway rides will be the primary users of the standards. Their employees and guests will be the primary beneficiaries of the standards.

Good standards could help avert such needless tragedies as occurred at the Texas Transportation Museum in San Antonio when a worker was killed during operation of one of the amusement railway rides. But even with the best, most comprehensive standards, human error and mechanical failure can still lead to sudden accidents.

If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one to an amusement ride accident and you have questions, contact our amusement ride accident lawyers for a free consultation. We have answers and solutions that could help you obtain just financial compensation for your injuries and cope with the aftermath of a devastating accident.

On New York City elevators & dangerous places you don’t want to be

Our Houston elevator accident attorneys have read of a recent spate of horrifying and deadly incidents in New York City elevators. These gruesome tales come at a time when many Texans traditionally head up to New York City to take in the holiday festivities, shopping, and decoration for which the city is noted.

1. You might have read of Suzanne Hart, the Y&R advertising executive whose leg became trapped by a fast moving elevator at her office building on Madison Avenue on Wednesday. The elevator began moving with its doors still open. It jerked Ms. Hart upward by her trapped leg. She died crushed between floors after the elevator began moving at a high rate of speed. The elevator became stuck between floors, and horrified elevator occupants had to be rescued.

Occupants of the elevator have been evaluated for psychological trauma since witnessing the terrible and gruesome accident occur right before their eyes. Records show that the elevator that killed Ms. Hart was serviced only hours before her death. Our Houston elevator accident attorneys notice that some reports are blaming the elevator malfunction on recent electrical rewiring and a power surge.

2. Transel Elevator, the company that serviced the elevator that killed Ms. Hart, is also being called to account for a 2009 elevator accident that left 92-year-old Anne Landle with head injuries. She is also unable to walk unaided since the accident. Elevator doors slammed shut on Ms. Landle as she was stepping into an elevator at a Park Avenue office building. The force of the doors slamming together against her threw Ms. Landle forward onto the marble floor of the elevator. She hit the hard floor headfirst and lay in a gathering pool of her own blood until help arrived.

3. This past Saturday, news reports detailed a calculated and horrifying murder in a Brooklyn, NY elevator. Jerome Isaac, dressed as an exterminator, doused Deloris Gillespie, a former employer, with highly combustible liquid as she began to step out of an elevator in her apartment building. Then he tossed a Molotov cocktail inside the elevator and left her to burn to death as he took the stairs out of the building. Police say he turned himself in on Sunday after setting his own apartment alight. Isaac faces murder and arson charges.

4. On Christmas Day of last year, Deborah Jordan got caught in a faulty elevator that dragged her up 8 floors, crushing her arm and leg against the wall of the elevator shaft in the process. A repairman had mistakenly disabled a safety switch that would have prevented the elevator from moving while its doors were still open. He had called up the elevator without making necessary safety checks to see if it was in use. The repairman has been charged with assault and reckless endangerment. Mr. Jordan now faces a life of pain and disability because of the repairman’s error.

New York City is a vertical city. It depends upon elevators for its daily activities. Workers, visitors, and residents would find it almost impossible to avoid using elevators on a frequent basis. Each year, dozens of elevator accidents occur, some causing horrific and lifelong debilitating injuries. Relatively few deaths occur from New York City elevator accidents, but when they do, they tend to make the news because of their spectacular and gruesome nature.

But New York City isn’t the only place they relies on elevators. Modern cities all over the nation and all over the world increasingly feature high-rise hotels, luxury residential towers, and office buildings. Our Houston elevator accident attorneys face the prospect of taking elevators on an almost daily basis. Poor elevator maintenance, faulty wiring, damaged cables, less than thorough inspections, and repairmen’s errors are only some of the possible causes of the occasional elevator accident.

If you have the misfortune to suffer one of the relatively rare elevator accidents in our Houston area, you might face long-term medical care needs, permanent disabilities, and enormous expenses from the accident. But proving fault in an elevator accident requires a careful investigation and a highly technical presentation of evidence.

You’ll need the help of a Houston elevator accident attorney to obtain the full financial compensation you need and deserve from your accident. Contact us today for a free legal consultation and let us explain how we could help you win your claim. We could walk you through your various legal options based upon the specific facts and circumstances of your accident. Let us help you recover; call today.

On Negligence: How Did a Child Activate a Louisiana State Fair Ride?

4-year-old Sheldon Lewis received critical injuries when a ride that he and others were exiting suddenly re-activated and trapped him underneath. According to witnesses, another small child had simply pressed a button to activate the Twin Rings Demolition Derby ride at the Louisiana State Fair in Shreveport.
This “on” button, which could be activated by a young child, was on the operator control panel, negligently left unmanned but still energized at the time of the Louisiana State Fair ride accident. Outraged parents and others (like our carnival ride accident lawyers) are questioning how this could happen.
Young Sheldon Lewis had accompanied his Head Start group from Coushatta to the Louisiana State Fair for a day of carefree fun. But unfortunate Sheldon Lewis ended up hospitalized in critical condition instead because of ride operator negligence. He remained trapped under the Twin Rings Demolition Derby ride for about half an hour before firefighters could cut him free from the heavy machine.

The Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s office says that a mechanical or electrical malfunction did not cause the accident and injury. (Nope. A young child curiously pressing an easily accessible “on” button on an active ride control panel, negligently left unmanned and unsupervised, caused the accident and injury.) The Fire Marshal’s office isn’t saying yet whether Lowery Carnival, the ride operator, took proper safety precautions in operating the Twin Rings Demolition Derby ride.
But the Fire Marshals probably don’t need to state the obvious. Leaving the control panel of an easily-activated piece of heavy ride equipment accessible, energized, and unmanned while a passel of curious, fun-loving and mischievous young children were about clearly shows a lack of proper safety precautions.
Indeed, it’s just plain negligent to leave unmanned and easily accessible an operator control panel for a heavy piece of machinery that a small and curious child can start up simply by pressing a single button. And witness accounts indicate that a small child simply pressed one button to activate the ride and cause the dangerous injury and mayhem that ensued. Sheldon Lewis remains in the hospital with his severe injuries, but that mere press of a button clearly could have resulted in fatal injuries to those exiting the ride at the time of the accident.
A news report quotes Ken Martin, an amusement park ride safety expert, as questioning why the fairly new Twin Rings Demolition Derby ride did not have a “dead man’s switch,” or why the ride remained energized while the operator left the panel unmanned. We carnival ride accident lawyers think that those are certainly fair questions.
Ken Martin says that rides have had the “dead man’s switch” (an operator presence switch) for several years, and that some rides even require that the operator be seated on a pressure plate before the ride can be activated. Moser manufactured the Twin Rings Demolition Derby ride at the Louisiana State Fair in 2007.
State Fair manager Chris Giordano seems to be responding to this query in a statement that says they can’t modify the ride by adding a pressure plate without the manufacturer’s permission. His concern might relate to manufacturer’s warranty requirements.
Amusement park rides require yearly inspections and additional inspections prior to opening a fair or other event. In addition, manufacturers issue service bulletins (recalls) periodically relating to their products that require repairs or modifications to the machines because of safety concerns. Had the State Fair wished to modify the Twin Rings Demolition Derby ride by adding a “dead man’s switch” as a safety precaution, our carnival ride accident lawyers suspect that Moser would have given them permission if they had requested it.

Negligence in a Dangling Noose In Fenton, MO’s Aptly Named Creepyworld

Halloween week news headlines have been reporting a horrific hanging accident involving a teenage actress found dangling from a noose by a fellow employee at the aptly named Creepyworld in Fenton, MO. Creepyworld touts itself as the world’s largest Halloween haunted house attraction. It requires a staff of around 150 people to operate the attraction.

Creepyworld maintains silence on the issue of how the teenage actress, working at Creepyworld, became entangled in the noose. News accounts report that the noose served as a prop used for visual effect. The visual effect of a young coworker dangling unconscious at the place of employ does not bear imagining.

It’s unclear from the news reports if the young actress’s job involved working in the area of the noose. Reports say that another employee, charged with the job of checking on employee safety, found the young woman dangling unconscious in the noose. That Creepyworld has special employees tasked with the job of checking on each other’s safety perhaps tells a lot about unsafe working conditions at the haunted theme park attraction.

Whatever the details of the incident, and however the actress became hung in the noose, the fact remains that leaving a working noose dangling in a public attraction just screams of negligence. At a haunted house attraction, people wander in the dark. They run from imagined terrors. Young people can be expected to prank each other using available props.

People who pay to enter the premises of a haunted house or any public theme park attraction operate under the sometimes unfounded assumption that every precaution has been taken for their safety and that the premises are safe for use.

Leaving a working noose dangling at a public attraction that people, predominantly children, tour in the dark in an atmosphere of fear is not just negligent, it’s grossly negligent. It’s unconscionable.

Indeed, a working noose should never, ever be left dangling anywhere. That’s just a recipe for injury, death, and disaster. It’s hard to imagine how harm could be avoided. However that unfortunate young actress came to be entangled in the noose, the owners and operators of Creepyworld remain at fault for the clear and present danger offered by that noose. They must have known-certainly they should have known- that the noose posed an unreasonable risk of harmful injury to employees and visitors to the haunted theme park attraction.

Theme parks like to create a believable illusion of authenticity. Real nooses and real hangings pass far beyond the bounds of acceptable authenticity. And we don’t know the details on how the hanging occurred. Creepyworld might be far creepier than visitors ever imagined.

Sea Dragon Center Mast: Are Recall Notices Sometimes Too Burdensome?

Let’s Take a Closer Look at the Sea Dragon Center Mast Design: Are Recall Notices Sometimes Too Burdensome Upon Owners of Products Containing Defects?

You can see the technical service bulletin (recall) from Chance Rides, the manufacturer of the Sea Dragon pirate ship ride, by clicking on this link. The recall notice should open up in a separate window. Chance Rides issued the recall for the center mast of the pirate ship ride.

You’ll notice that the recall, like recalls generally, places the burden on the owner of the item to jump through a few hoops to get the product defect fixed. Specifically, to comply with the recall, the owner of the Sea Dragon ride must:

1. Take the affected mast parts apart;
2. Carefully inspect the parts for wear;
3. Measure the pin holes;
4. Order the Mast Hinge Rework Kit;
5. Install the Rework Kit;
6. Use only qualified personnel capable of understanding the parts and their functions to do the rework install (the recall does not specify how one is to determine if a worker is “qualified” for this task);
7. Grind down the original hinge weld if it’s cracked and re-weld it;
8. Fix and reinstall the mast;
9. Perform all of the above within 30 days of the recall; and
10. Inspect the mast annually thereafter.

The recall further specifies that the center mast is only thematic décor, and is not necessary equipment for the ride. (In other words, if a Sea Dragon owner finds all of this reworking and re-welding too burdensome, that owner can simply remove the center mast from the ride.) I confess that had I been a Sea Dragon owner, after reading this recall bulletin, I probably would have taken the easy way out and simply removed the center mast permanently from the ride. Because this recall is only 1 of 8 that Chance Rides seems to have issued for the Sea Dragon. Those 8 service bulletins stand in addition to another 8 that they issued for all of their rides. (Look at the list here.)

And these 16 service bulletins are only for the Sea Dragon from Chance Rides. If I owned a whole amusement park, I would probably own many rides from several different manufacturers, all of which might be sending me periodic recall notices. So I might be just plain weary of fixing defective products. And if a service bulletin stated that I could safely operate a ride without the decorative piece that formed the subject of the recall, I would probably just take that piece right off the ride.

I doubt that there’s a single rider whose inclination to ride the Sea Dragon would be much affected by the presence or absence of the decorative center mast. If you enjoy such pendulum pirate ship rides, you’re probably looking for the thrills of acceleration through changing G forces, not a particular decorative touch.

If you own a car, you may have received a recall on your auto at one time or another. At least on a car recall, you don’t have to do the fix yourself or at your own expense. But you still have to take time out of schedule to drop your car off at the dealer. You may have to rearrange plans to account for the time your car spends being fixed, and you may have to arrange for other transportation for a time. Anyway you look at it, it’s pretty inconvenient.

Of course, it’s infinitely better that the manufacturer of a defective product notify you and tell you how to get it fixed than if he simply lets the matter go. Without a recall notice to tell you to fix the defect, you might go merrily on your way until the product defect injures or kills you. So while I could wish that recalls were less burdensome or inconvenient at times, I am definitely all for issuing recalls to product owners whenever a defect is found. If I unwittingly own a defective product, I want to know about it before it harms me.

Negligence in the Wreck of the Sea Dragon Pirate Ship in Wildwood, NJ

We amusement park accident injury lawyers tend to focus on safety. We want to help innocent people recover just compensation when they’ve been injured on their planned days of fun at a theme park. It just seems so unfair that you should receive injuries or trauma at a place that’s supposed to be fun, exciting and safe for the whole family.

I wanted to discuss the pirate ship center mast accident at the amusement park in Wildwood, NJ. The park has the name of Morey’s Mariner’s Landing Pier. It’s a name which does not roll easily off of my tongue, but which you may recognize from a fatal Ferris wheel accident earlier in the summer.

You may have ridden a pirate ship ride similar to the Sea Dragon at Morey’s Mariner’s Landing Pier. The ride is just a big, huge pendulum, with a vast arc that creates some thrilling zero gee sensations as you reach the top of the pendulum swing. During a Friday night ride in Wildwood, NJ, the center mast of the Sea Dragon detached and toppled from its post. The fall injured four riders, sending one young man to the hospital. We’re lucky no one was killed or more seriously injured in the pirate ship center mast accident. That center post was a big, steel, top-heavy structure. (I guess it remains a big, steel structure, but in its current fallen state it is no longer top heavy.) Reports of the accident (as is usual for accidents still under investigation) say that the cause of the center mast toppling remains a mystery.

Well, let me hazard a guess here: the cause of the pirate ship center mast accident was negligence. Like maybe a failure by Morey’s Mariner’s Landing Pier to properly maintain and repair the center post’s anchoring pieces. I’ll confess that I’m making an educated guess here. I did a little research and found that the ride’s manufacturer, Chance Rides, issued a service warning bulletin (essentially a “recall”) back in 2001. The bulletin warned that the anchoring mechanisms on the center mast could become worn and the bolt-anchoring holes enlarged over time. This could lead to the center mast falling and injuring people.

Amusement park accident injury lawyers could look at Chance Rides’ negligence in manufacturing a defective product, or at the negligence of Morey’s Mariner’s Landing Pier for failing to maintain and repair the center mast anchors. It’s possible that the Wildwood, NJ park heeded the manufacturer’s warnings and repaired the anchor system, and that the center mast fell for some other reason. A thorough investigation of the pirate ship center mast accident should get to the heart of the matter.

I look forward to seeing the investigation results out of Wildwood, NJ. I know that if my clients had been injured in this accident, I would already be examining the facts and circumstances of the event. Indeed, I would be looking at them in minute detail, with an eye to drawing up a case that would hammer the negligent parties for their roles in injuring innocent park guests. That’s what we amusement park accident injury lawyers do best.

We’ve added a few updates to the Sea Dragon accident saga. In particular, I’ve had some further thoughts on the recall notice that you can read here.

Raging Waters Indeed

You may have heard about the accidental release of excessive amounts of chlorine into wave pool water at the Sacramento, CA Raging Waters water park. What amounted to a chlorine gas attack sent 20 people (including 9 children) to local hospitals with burning eyes and respiratory tracts. A defect in a pump mechanism that supplies the pool with necessary chlorine disinfectants is the culprit in the chlorine gas attack. Investigators say that one of the 2 pumps that circulate water through the filtration system broke. But an electrical problem in the pump that injects chlorine into the pool caused it to keep pumping chlorine into the system. When chlorine overwhelms the water into which it’s injected, the excess chlorine that the water capacity can’t absorb becomes airborne as chlorine gas.

Chlorine gas has been used as a weapon of war since WWI. When you’ve gone to the local water park to escape the heat of a raging summer sun, you definitely don’t want to see a chlorine gas cloud hanging above your head. Yet that’s exactly what happened in Sacramento. Water park employees and guests were trapped between a raging summer sun on one hand and raging waters emitting poisonous gas on the other hand. They quickly made wise choices and evacuated the pool in haste.

News reports indicate that this particular water park has a pretty clean history regarding accidents and safety violations. But defective equipment can cause accidents at any time. Poorly trained employees can also cause accidents and injuries. The water parks and amusement parks that seek to draw crowds to spend their money at these venues have an affirmative duty to ensure the safety of those they’ve lured to their grounds with promises of fun and excitement.

If a water park or amusement park has injured you or your loved ones by neglecting this duty of care, you can come to us for experienced legal help. We have a solid track record of helping clients in need because of high profile amusement and water park accidents. Don’t let raging waters ruin your summer. Let us help you calm those waters.