The seats on the Texas Tornado swing ride came to a sudden stop as the ride was ended, injuring seven people. Six were treated at the park, but one woman went to the hospital with back injuries.
Park officials have closed the ride pending an inspection and repair. [Changed to update the number of injured to seven, according to a park press release.]
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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.
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).
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