Accident at Six Flags Over Texas injures seven

From Anthony Murphy on March 13, 2006 at 5:59 PM
Wow! What is with all these accidents lately?

From Theresa Whisenhunt on March 13, 2006 at 6:38 PM
This indeed did happen Sunday, They closed that part off and I witnessed some of the commotion. From what was being said it was a ride malfunction, the ride began to jolt and the operator stopeed it because of the jolting.

From Chris P. on March 14, 2006 at 3:27 PM
let me guess, a lawsuit is gonna come from the woman who suffered back injuries.

From Brook Gary on March 14, 2006 at 3:53 PM
Most likely.

From Robert Niles on March 14, 2006 at 5:00 PM
If it was the park's fault, and she suffered real damage as a result, why not?

To be fair, though, in my experience with parks, they generally are *very* eager to settle claims with people injured when equipment fails. The lawsuits come either in haggling over expenses beyond medical bills (lost wages, "pain and suffering," etc.) or if the injured person discovers what he/she believes to be evidence that the park knew about the problem before and did not fix it. Then they go for punitive damages and the case goes to court.

From Anthony Murphy on March 15, 2006 at 6:23 AM
Just why are so many people getting injured lately in the parks? I mean there was the thing at Cypress Garderns, Tower of Terror, Typhoon Lagoon, Peter Pan's Flight, and Mission Space. I don't want to blame anybody, but what the heck is going on now?

From Robert Niles on March 15, 2006 at 11:15 AM
Websites are tracking this stuff now, so every incident is now making the news. I remember, when I worked at Disney World, one nasty incident at Pirates which sent several people to the ER, including one with serious head and neck injuries, that never made the news.

Today, when something happens, pretty much at any park, odds are that there is a Theme Park Insider reader somewhere in the vicinity. Who reports to us. (There are something like 15,000 registered readers of the site now. If I counted TPI "attendance" like it was a theme park, we had 4.99 million daily visitors last year, which would rank TPI 10th on Amusement Business' annual list, right between SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood.)

And if not, there's someone who blogs it or posts it elsewhere. Newspapers and TV producers scan these sites and report the news when they get it.

As a result, parks are now much more forthcoming about accidents. Because they know it is hitting the news, no matter what they do (or don't).