Understanding Your Rights After a Michigan Amusement Park Accident

With summer vacation right around the corner, now is probably a good time to discuss your family’s personal safety at some of Michigan’s most popular tourist attractions: our state’s wonderful amusement and theme parks. Because despite the best of intentions, and even with the most careful attention to their upkeep, it’s certainly possible to be injured when enjoying thrilling park rides… or to get hurt while hurtling down a zip line… or even to suffer painful wounds by slipping and falling while on park property due to inadequate cleanup of spills or poor maintenance of pedestrian walkways.

It happens too often to ignore, and the results can be terrifying. Consider just a couple of recent examples:

• Not long ago, a major attraction at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City nearly toppled over while it was loaded with riders, though by some miracle no one was seriously hurt thanks to bystanders who – without regard for their own safety – leapt onto the ride to help prevent it from crashing onto the ground. (Watch this astounding video of that “Magic Carpet Ride” being stabilized by Good Samaritans using their body weight to counterbalance the wildly swinging pendulum-like gondola that was threatening to overturn the ride!)

• Then there was the tragic case of a Michigan woman visiting Cedar Point who suffered traumatic brain injuries when a piece of metal broke off from a ride called the “Top Thrill Dragster” and slammed into her head as she was innocently waiting in line. Her life was changed forever in that fateful moment – while she was merely trying to enjoy a fun day at the park with her family. (Coincidentally, a new roller coaster – dubbed “Top Thrill 2” – which opened earlier this month as a replacement for the old “Top Thrill Dragster” has already been closed for an “extended” period of time for “mechanical modification” according to Cedar Point officials.)

Is This Why Amusement Parks Ask You to Sign Away Your Rights?

These kinds of scary incidents are perhaps one reason why so many amusement parks and other tourist venues require visitors to sign waivers of liability before permitting paying customers to enter their facilities. You might not even be aware you’re doing so, but when you buy passes to these kinds of attractions you could even be signing away your right to sue if you’re hurt on their premises through no fault of your own. For instance, when you purchase a summer pass to visit Cedar Point (and other parks owned by its parent company Cedar Fair) you are agreeing to the following terms:

“The Passholder or Ticket Holder assumes all risk incidental to waterparks, water rides, amusement parks, amusement park rides and all Cedar Fair Attractions, whether occurring prior to, during, or after the event, and agrees Cedar Fair, and its affiliates, and its and their respective owners, operators, employees, members, and/or agents (collectively, “Cedar Fair Staff”) shall not be liable for bodily and/or severe injury, and/or death resulting from such causes. By purchasing and/or accepting this Season Pass or Ticket, the Passholder or Ticket Holder explicitly agrees not to file any claim or lawsuit against Cedar Fair Staff for personal injury or death.”

Would you ever imagine if you or your loved ones were to be seriously injured at an amusement park, that you’d already signed away your rights to sue before even walking through the turnstiles and boarding your first ride?

How to Stay Safe and Protect Your Rights

Fortunately, even if you’ve inadvertently agreed to such a waiver because you didn’t read the “fine print” or were not made aware of its presence, you can still take action to be compensated for your injuries – especially since (as we explained in another recent article) if your children are hurt, their rights can’t be signed away so easily. Dedicated personal injury attorneys at Mike Morse Law Firm will be happy to work with you to explore all possible legal avenues to protect your kids’ rights, even if you’ve effectively been coerced into signing a liability waiver so they can visit an amusement park, play on a little league team, attend a summer camp, or enjoy a baseball game at Tiger Stadium. (Yes, even our very own beloved Detroit Tigers require fans attending their games to release the team from liability due to possible exposure to contagious diseases or being hit by an errant bat or ball!)

In addition, you can take action on your own by reporting an unsafe amusement park ride to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, which tracks nationwide data on such accidents (though it perhaps surprisingly doesn’t enforce federal safety standards for theme park operators simply because there aren’t any). To help ensure safe operation of local amusement park rides, Michigan requires park owners to obtain licenses, to conduct regular safety inspections, and to report any accidents to the state Licensing and Regulatory Affairs department, also known as LARA. You can see the full text of the state law outlining these requirements here. The state also maintains a searchable database of amusement park ride safety inspection records and operator license status, so you can verify that the rides you’re planning to experience have met all mandatory requirements.

Getting Hurt at a Theme Park Is No Laughing Matter; We Can Help Your Recovery

If you or someone you love are injured while visiting an amusement park, or perhaps when enjoying spine-tingling thrills on a zipline attraction, watching a ballgame, or splashing down a slippery slide in a water park, you might believe you have no legal recourse to seek compensation for your pain and suffering, unexpected medical bills, lost wages, or other damages you’ve experienced. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Mike Morse Law Firm attorneys have vast experience dealing with such cases, and we will do their utmost to work on your behalf without ever asking you for a penny out of pocket. Get us on your side by calling 855-MIKE-WINS (855-645-3946), and we’ll start the ball rolling right away.

Content checked by Mike Morse, personal injury attorney with Mike Morse Injury Law Firm. Mike Morse is the founder of Mike Morse Law Firm, the largest personal injury law firm in Michigan. Since being founded in 1995, Mike Morse Law Firm has grown to over 200 employees, served 40,000 clients, and collected more than $1.5 billion for victims of auto, truck and motorcycle accidents. The main office is in Southfield, MI but you can also find us in Detroit, Sterling Heights and many other locations.