Slide, Zoom, Bang
Q: Last summer, I visited a water park, with my wife and son. One of its attractions is a drop slide. People ride down the water slide on an inflated inner tube. The tube exits into a 50-foot long splash pool. After exiting the drop slide, my tube traveled at a high rate of speed across the entire length of the pool. I collided with the stairs at the other end. I was propelled from the tube and landed on the cement that surrounds the pool.
A: The Park is likely to argue that you assumed the risk of your injuries, by voluntarily riding down this water slide. If there were any safety devices, the Park will probably contend that you failed to use them. Also, the Park will seek to determine whether your weight was in excess of a weight limitation that was imposed for this water slide.
In your favor, there may well be plenty of evidence of the Park’s negligence. Your attorney will strive to show that neither the water level of the splash pool nor the water flow on the slide was at its proper setting. Perhaps neither had even been checked, on the day of the accident. Perhaps the Park had never given you its instruction, “Sit all the way down into the tube! Hold the handles for the length of the ride! Once you hit the pool, pull on the handles and lean back to slow down!” Perhaps the Park should even have given you a bigger tube – allowing your body to drag deeper in the water, so as to reduce buoyancy.
In addition, your attorney will argue strenuously that you did not assume the risk. The dangerous condition posed by this ride was unique – over and above the usual dangers that are inherent in riding down a water slide. The risks to which you were exposed were not fully comprehensible and perfectly obvious. You did not assume this risk.
By: Scott Baron,
Attorney at Law Advertorial
The law responds to changed conditions; exceptions and variations abound. Here, the information is general; always seek out competent counsel. This article shall not be construed as legal advice.
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