The first step an individual would take in filing a lawsuit against a water park for injuries they sustained while a customer in the park would be to talk to a local attorney in New York.
A New York attorney can review the facts of an individual’s particular situation and help them determine if they have reason to sue the water park in which they were injured under personal injury laws in New York.
But even before speaking to a local attorney, a victim wants to take several other steps. The first priority is to seek medical attention if they need it. Getting the right medical treatment is essential in order to protect one’s health.
If it is possible, the victim or others visiting the park with them need to document the incident that caused the victim’s injury. They should take photographs of the situation that caused the accident, if it is possible. They want to notify park management and file a report or follow any other procedures the park offers.
Again, if it is possible, someone should collect information from witnesses to the incident, their names and contact information. A person might also want to note what a witness knows or may have observed.
Taking these steps would help immensely if a lawsuit against a water park for injuries becomes necessary.
What Are Some Common Types of Water Park Injuries?
Many, but not all, water park injuries are related to the presence of water everywhere in the park. They are as follows:
- Slips and Falls: The patrons of a water park track water onto surfaces where it does not belong, and this creates the risk of slip-and-fall accidents for patrons.
- Falls from Equipment: Many attractions, e.g., large water slides, place customers high off the ground. A fall can be extremely injurious.
- Drowning Risks: If pools and other rides and attractions are not closely monitored or are allowed to become overcrowded, there is a risk of drowning.
- Collisions: Features such as huge water slides can become overcrowded or otherwise unsafe, so that customers collide with one another, or they may collide with structural features of the attractions.
- Equipment Malfunction: This can cause unexpected injuries due to poor maintenance.
Of course, other incidents are possible. This list is not exhaustive.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Water Park Injury?
The main entity that is going to be liable for a customer’s injuries sustained in a water park accident is the owner of the park. An employee might contribute to causing an accident in a water park, but under the legal theory of vicarious liability, their employer is also liable and is more likely to be able to compensate a victim. The designers and manufacturers of waterpark equipment might be liable also.
Possible claims include the following:
- Claims for Negligence: A victim can show that the park breached the duty of care it owes its customers and that the breach was the direct cause of injury to a customer.
- Premises Liability: This claim would be appropriate if a customer is injured because of an unsafe condition of the property, e.g., water on floors.
- Vicarious Liability: This doctrine holds employers responsible for the actions of their employees.
- Strict Product Liability: Waterparks feature a multitude of different kinds of equipment, and if it is defective in design or manufacture, a victim might have a claim for strict product liability.
A personal injury lawyer in New York would be able to advise a victim as to which claim they should use in their situation.
Vicarious Liability
Vicarious liability is a legal doctrine that allows one entity to be liable for the negligent or intentional wrongs of another entity, e.g., an employer is liable for the conduct of its employees. Courts in New York apply the doctrine of vicarious liability, so employers may be liable to pay for a victim’s costs, e.g., medical treatment, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses.
The doctrine of vicarious liability may be important in water park injury cases, because an employee’s negligence may have been the direct cause of a victim’s injury. However, the employee is unlikely to have the assets or insurance coverage to fund the payment of damages to the victim.
The owner of the water park is important because, as the “vicariously liable” party, it probably has more assets and insurance coverage than the person who was directly negligent or reckless.
However, the doctrine is limited to situations in which one entity, e.g., an employer, has a legal relationship with the individual who caused the harm and the right to control at least some of that individual’s actions, e.g., an employee.
Of course, the patrons of waterparks can cause injury to other patrons. If one waterpark patron’s negligence causes harm to another patron, they may be liable. However, the park may also share responsibility if the water park was not enforcing safety policies or was otherwise negligent in supervising patrons.
Instances of the negligence of other patrons that may cause injury are as follows:
- Ignoring safety warnings
- Overloading water park rafts
- Stopping on a slide and failing to complete a trip on the device
- Jumping into a crowd in a pool.
Again, this list is not exhaustive. Of course, patrons at a water park may be negligent in other ways or may even engage in intentionally harmful conduct that causes injury to other patrons.
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What Evidence Do I Need To Prove a Water Park Injury?
The main items of evidence that the victim of a water park accident would want to collect are as follows:
- Evidence of the condition in the water park that caused the accident in which the victim was injured is critical.
- Photographs of the condition would be most helpful.
- A victim also needs solid documentation of the nature and extent of their injuries and the treatment they require to restore their health, if that is possible.
- If a victim’s injury results in permanent disability, then the nature of the disability should be documented along with the effect it will have on the victim’s life.
Documentation of other losses that a victim suffers as a result of their injury would be essential. Of course, a victim would want to get legal advice before filing a lawsuit.
What Compensation Can I Receive for a Water Park Accident?
A victim should be able to recover compensation for both their economic and non-economic damages. This would include the cost of all medical treatment they require to restore them to health if that is possible. They should be compensated for lost wages if they are unable to work because of their injuries or because they must miss work in order to obtain medical care.
If a victim’s ability to work is permanently affected, they could recover for lost earning capacity. They could also recover for their pain and suffering and for other effects on their lifestyle that may prove to be permanent.
What Are Some Common Defenses Against a Water Park Injury Claim?
Of course, the water park owner or others who may be named as defendants in a lawsuit would attempt to deny their responsibility for any situation that caused an accident in which someone was injured.
They would be most likely to succeed with a claim that an entity other than the water park owner is at least partly to blame for causing the incident and shares liability. Under New York comparative fault laws, the jury may decide what percentage of fault each party has. Fault could possibly be divided up among multiple defendants, and the victim might even have some fault as well.
The “assumption of the risk” doctrine shifts liability for an accident to the individual who is injured for the reason that they willingly engaged in some risky activity that caused their injury. So, in a water park injury lawsuit, the water park may claim they are not liable for damages, because the injured patron voluntarily engaged in an activity that had an inherent risk of injury, which might even have included drowning or other significant injury.
Do I Need a Lawyer to Sue a Water Park for an Injury?
If you have been injured at a waterpark, you need to consult a New York personal injury lawyer in New York. Your lawyer can review the facts of your situation and investigate what happened to locate more evidence also. Suing for damages for an injury suffered in a waterpark can get technical and a victim wants to have an experienced New York personal injury lawyer guiding them.
