Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Premises Liability > California Amusement Ride Accident Victims Receive More Than $3.3 Million in Settlement

Personal Injury Blog

California Amusement Ride Accident Victims Receive More Than $3.3 Million in Settlement

A California family, whose four members were injured in an amusement park accident at a county fair in San Jose in 2006, will receive more than $3.3 million in damages. The accident occurred in 2006 at a fair in San Jose. There were more than two dozen children riding on the Yo-Yo carnival ride, when the ride collapsed. Some of the children were thrown to the ground, and were dragged several feet before they crashed into the surrounding rails. The children were seriously injured in the accident. One of them suffered serious head injuries. The family filed an amusement ride accident lawsuit against the owner of the ride, the operator and the manufacturer.

The manufacturer of the ride, Chance Rides Manufacturing will now pay about $500,000 of the settlement. Most of the settlement will be paid by the owner of the ride. Safety investigators later found that the owner of the ride had failed to maintain the ride, contributing to the accident. Chance Rides Manufacturing was found to have failed to tell the owners of the ride’s risks.

That wasn’t the first time that an accident like this had occurred on the same ride. Back in 2006, a similar accident had been reported at a Six Flags over Texas Park. In that accident, nine people had been injured. In both the Texas and California accidents, a lock washer on the ride had failed, and this had caused to nuts to come loose. As a result, the arms that were swinging the riders, collapsed.

A few months after the California amusement ride accident the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Chance Rides Manufacturing conducted an inspection of more than 85 Yo-Yo carnival rides. However, even as Chance Rides Manufacturing was conducting inspections of its rides, it was already aware of the safety hazards. According to lawyers representing the family, Chance Rides Manufacturing had been aware of the defects in the ride for at least two years before the accident occurred in California. In fact, just five days after the ride collapsed at the Six Flags over Texas Park, Chance Rides Manufacturing had sent out a safety bulletin, to all its customers, outlining the problems with the ride, and the steps that they needed to fix the problem.

While Chance Rides Manufacturing failed to inform its customers about the inherent safety hazards in the ride, the hazards became worse because of the failure of the operators to maintain the ride probably. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation, two separate owners of the ride neglected to maintain and service the ride for at least 10 years. According to the terms of the sale, Chance Rides Manufacturing required the operator to send the ride cylinder back to the company to be reconstructed every five years. However, the ride had not been serviced since 1997.  It shouldn’t be so surprising to California amusement park injury lawyers that an accident like this occurred.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of premises liability. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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