Scott Harris grew up in a small town where the Wild West theme park, Wild West City, was the big attraction and major employer. He started working there as a kid shoveling horse manure and grew into the role of a lead Wild West shootout actor as he matured.
On the day in 2006 when he got shot in the head with a real bullet, he was playing Wyatt Earp in a reenactment of the famous OK Corral shootout. A poorly trained teenage actor running late to work had accidentally loaded his gun with live ammunition instead of blanks. A fellow employee had brought live rounds into the theme park after practice at a shooting range and had left them in the locker room. The teen actor couldn’t tell the difference between live rounds and blank rounds. (Note: this all took place back East, not in Texas.)
When Scott Harris fell to the ground with a wound in his head after the “fake” shootout, fellow employees thought he must’ve tripped and hit his head on something. No one suspected live rounds until some time later.
The live bullet entered the left side of his forehead and paralyzed his right side. Scott Harris now undergoes several hours of therapy every day. The bullet remains in his head. His speech and thought processes, though still frustratingly slow at times, have come back remarkably after his theme park accident. Early on, he could barely manage “yes” or “no” responses. But his right hand remains atrophied.
Before the Wild West theme park accident, Mr. Harris earned much of his living as a professional guitarist and music teacher. That’s no longer an option for him. He also can’t perform Wild West reenactments any longer. Had the teen actor been firing something heavier than a .22, Mr. Harris’s injuries could have been far worse, even fatal.
Scott Harris has filed civil suits naming the theme park’s co-owner Michael Stabile, Jr. among others. Mr. Harris seeks compensation for the enormous expenses he’s suffered as a result of the disabling injury he received because of others’ negligence. Some aspects of the negligence at issue include the following.
The real guns used in the shootouts had not been modified to only accept blanks.
Workers at the Wild West theme park were often poorly trained. For instance, those involved in the shootouts weren’t always trained to tell the difference between deadly live ammunition and blanks.
Actors were permitted to bring their own guns and live ammunition into the Wild West theme park. Hordes of children attended the theme park. A stray round of live ammunition could just as easily have injured a child in the shootout’s audience.
The civil suit alleges the owner tampered with evidence and hid the live rounds after the accident.
Even though he didn’t load the gun or pull the trigger, the owner of the theme park is responsible for establishing safe policies and procedures, and for ensuring that they are followed. Scott Harris’ injuries are a testament to Michael Stabile’s failure to do so. Theme park owner negligence and failure to establish and enforce strong safety guidelines leads to horrific injuries.
If you’re injured in a theme park, hold the negligent owners and managers accountable for their negligence. Contact our theme park injury lawyers for a free and confidential legal consultation about your accident. We could help you identify all the parties at fault for your injuries and your road to financial recovery following the undeserved trauma. Call today. We have the legal knowledge, skill, and experience to benefit you when you need help.