in SeaWorld, Theme Parks
Posted on by Chloe James Leave a comment
A Florida theme park guest has filed a lawsuit demanding $50,000 after a traumatic incident at one of its attractions.
Accidents can happen anywhere, even in the ‘safest’ environments. While theme parks do everything they can to ensure the well-being of their guests, a handful of incidents – most of which are extremely minor – happen every year.
When these incidents do happen, they often trigger legal action against the party the victim perceives as the guilty party. Most of the time, this is the parks themselves.
In April, for example, we saw a guest file a lawsuit against Disneyland Resort and two of its cast members after a meet-and-greet with Goofy at Disney California Adventure Park allegedly caused her lifelong physical and emotional “pain and suffering.” The guest in question claims to have been knocked down onto “hard cement” after Goofy walked into her, then fell onto her with “all of his body weight.”
Meanwhile, a separate lawsuit in May saw a guest file a lawsuit against Walt Disney World Resort after an incident on Typhoon Lagoon’s Humunga Kowabunga knocked her unconscious. She claimed that had a lifeguard been present at the end of the slide, she would not have subsequently sustained a brain injury.
Due to their physical nature, water parks seem to trigger a significantly higher number of cases than theme parks themselves. Another water park in Orlando, Universal’s Volcano Bay, was also subjected to a lawsuit in 2022, four years after a guest allegedly sustained a serious head injury on its Punga Racers slide.
Now, yet another Florida water park has been hit by legal action. According to Fox 35, a woman is suing SeaWorld following an alleged collision on a water slide at Aquatica in June 2023.
Melissa Velazquez, who hails from Vero Beach, filed documents in Orange County in which she detailed an incident on one of the park’s water slides. At the end of the slide, Velazquez was yet to exit the attraction when another adult came down the slide and “violently collided” with her.
Velazquez claims to have been physically, emotionally, and mentally injured by the incident and that the theme park was negligent as there were no lifeguards or employees by the slide. The full claim reads as follows (via Fox Business).
As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s negligence, Plaintiff suffered bodily injury, including permanent injury to the body as a whole, pain and suffering of both a physical and mental nature, disability, physical impairment, permanent scarring/disfigurement, mental anguish, aggravation of a pre-existing condition, inconvenience, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, expense of hospitalization, medical and nursing care and treatment, loss of ability to earn money, and loss of ability to lead and enjoy a normal life.
She’s seekingdamages greater than $50,000 and a trial by jury.
A separate incident occurred at Aquatica last week, which saw the entire water park – home to iconic attractions such as Reef Plunge (in which guests plunge through waters inhabited by marine life) and the newly opened Tassie’s Underwater Twist – go into lockdown after a fight broke out among what seems like dozens of guests.
@SeaWorld – Fight at Aquatica Orlando on 12th June, 2024 (Video 1/3)
#SeaWorldOrlando #SeaWorld #AquaticaOrlando #Aquatica
.@SeaWorld – Fight at Aquatica Orlando on 12th June, 2024 (Video 1/3)#SeaWorldOrlando #SeaWorld #AquaticaOrlando #Aquatica pic.twitter.com/gnax4wcWWt
— Orlando Theme Park Zone (@OTPZ_TP) June 13, 2024
While the Florida theme park was closed for the rest of the day, it reopened as usual on June 13.
SeaWorld is no stranger to controversy. Since the release of Blackfish(2013), which shed light on the issues with keeping orcas and other marine mammals in captivity, activists and guests alike have slammed Aquatica’s neighboring park, SeaWorld Orlando, for its use of animals for entertainment. Earlier this month, a former killer whale trainer criticized the park for the decline in animal care since the documentary’s release.
In May, another property owned by SeaWorld (which was earlier this year) made headlines after a young guest drowned at the park. Anna Beaumont was visiting Discovery Cove from the UK when she suffered a suspected epileptic seizure in the water and sadly passed away.
Do you visit SeaWorld theme parks? If so, which one is your favorite?
