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10-year-old boy decapitated on waterslide at Kansas park

10 Comments
By JIM SUHR

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Velcro Straps. That's negligent. Maybe even criminally negligent.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This is now the second death of a young child in a park where parents assumed that the environment was completely safe. Why would the park not stop this young child from riding something that they admit is not a family ride? Why would Disney not wish to warn their guests that alligators could be lurking nearby? The answer, presumably, is that in both instances such an admission would likely hurt the bottom line. Risk management for parks must be a challenge. Which is more cost-efficient: paying the wrongful death civil penalties for the occasional dead child or depressing ticket sales on a regular basis?

This is an excellent reminder of why we have governmental regulation of such entities. I wonder if this boy's father now wishes that there had been more stringent regulation of rides like this in Missouri?

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Kansas is the land if no safety regulations of amusement parks--they slashed that budget to almost nothing--and here is the twist, a little karma--though I hate to say so, the boy was a son of a republican lawmaker who probably passed those cuts through. How many times did tests show that the rafts would fly off and were unstable? Way too many, but profits come before people!!!! I would never ever trust anything in Kansas or any other repug land. Way too unsafe!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He was too young and too small, but he went on it anyway. In legal terms that's called "assumption of risk".

Assumption of risk is a defense in the law of torts, which bars or reduces a plaintiff's right to recovery against a negligent tortfeasor if the defendant can demonstrate that the plaintiff voluntarily and knowingly assumed the risks at issue inherent to the dangerous activity in which he was participating at the time of his or her injury.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

For the assumption of risk defense to work, in the case of a minor a defendant would need to demonstrate that the injured party had the capacity to assume a risk and that the defendant had taken appropriate steps to exclude those who did not have such capacity.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

wishes that there had been more stringent regulation of rides like this in Missouri?

I agree with your point, but this was in Kansas, actually. The operator decided to set up in Kansas because neighboring Missouri has stricter checks. Amazing that for some people money is more important than someone else's life.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

a defendant would need to demonstrate that the injured party had the capacity to assume a risk

Easy enough to do. The kid would have known the ride was dangerous, it's the tallest in the world. And I'm sure there were signs about age and height requirements.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

He was too young and too small, but he went on it anyway. In legal terms that's called "assumption of risk".

We don't know anything about the specifics of this case. The age requirement had been removed and replaced with only a height requirement of 54 inches and possibly a minimum combined weight level.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

10 years of like gone just like that due to lack of common sense.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Since a young age I've never trusted anything where I couldn't control my velocity; I still don't .....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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