Water Park & Water Slide Accidents – How to File a Lawsuit

If you are injured in a water park accident, you can file a personal injury claim for damages. A personal injury lawsuit allows you to get money for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Waterpark and waterslide injuries may include

• drowning accidents,
• slip and fall injuries,
• lifeguard negligence, or
• getting sick from contaminated water.

The person responsible for causing the accident could be a

• water park employee,
• water slide manufacturer, or
• other patron who recklessly uses a water slide.

Children are especially vulnerable in water park accidents, which can result in serious injury or even death. If a child drowns or is killed in a water park accident, the family may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit to hold the responsible parties accountable for their actions.

Below, our California personal injury attorneys discuss the following frequently asked questions about water park and water slide injury lawsuits:

• 1. Filing a Lawsuit
• 2. Liable Parties
• 3. Damages
• 4. Wrongful Death
• 5. Assumption of Risk
• 6. Liability Waivers
• 7. Shared Fault
• 8. Major Settlements and Verdicts

If you have further questions after reading this article, we invite you to contact us at Shouse Law Group.

1. Filing a Lawsuit

If you are injured in a waterpark accident, you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against those responsible for the accident. Those responsible for causing an accident are generally liable to you for the costs of the accident.

If you are successful in filing a personal injury lawsuit, you can get money damages.

Liability in a water park accident is generally based on one of the following types of personal injury claims:

• Negligence
• Premises Liability
• Vicarious Liability (Respondeat Superior)
• Product Defect Liability

Some water park accidents can also be caused by someone’s

• reckless behavior or
• intentional actions.

Negligence

In order to get damages in a water slide injury case based on negligence, you need to prove the following elements:

1. The defendant owed you a duty of care;
2. The defendant breached the duty of care through negligence;
3. The breach was a cause of your injuries; and
4. You suffered damages as a result of the defendant’s negligence.¹

Premises Liability

Under premises liability laws, water park owners and operators owe a duty to customers and visitors to maintain their property in a safe condition. Waterpark companies must

• repair dangerous conditions,
• follow safety regulations, and
• have a duty to warn patrons about other dangers.

The water park owner is responsible for maintaining the waterslides and wave pools, as well as maintaining other parts of the property, including

• restrooms,
• benches,
• food service areas, and
• parking lots.

Vicarious Liability

If a negligent employee is responsible for causing an accident, then the waterpark company may be liable for the actions of the employee. You do not have to show that the company was directly liable.

In a vicarious liability claim, you have to show:

1. You were harmed by the employee’s negligence; and
2. The company is responsible for the injuries because the employee was acting within the scope of their employment when the incident occurred.²

Product Defects

When a water park product is defective, the defective part may be responsible for causing an injury accident. Product liability laws make the designer, manufacturer, or seller strictly liable for damages caused by the faulty product.³

Waterpark product liability lawsuits are generally based on:

• Manufacturing defects,
• Design defects, or
• Inadequate warning defects.⁴

2. Liable Parties

There may be multiple parties who are responsible for a waterslide accident.

When you file a personal injury lawsuit, the complaint names the potential defendants who may be responsible. In a water park injury lawsuit, the defendants may include:

• Waterpark owner or operator,
• Waterpark employees,
• Lifeguards,
• Lifeguard and safety trainers,
• Waterpark supervisors,
• The parent company that owns the water park,
• City or county of municipal water parks,
• The park’s insurance company,
• Other water park patrons,
• Third-parties who contract with the water park to provide goods or services,
• Waterslide engineers, or
• Waterslide manufacturers.

The water park employee was responsible for the accident.

When a water park employee is negligent and causes an accident, the park may be vicariously liable for the damages. Under “Respondeat Superior” laws, the park operator may be held responsible for the employee’s actions (or lack of action).⁵

However, when a lack of training or supervision caused the accident, the water park may be directly liable for the accident.

• Failure to properly train employees,
• hiring employees with a history of negligence, or
• not properly supervising employees

could make the park liable based on negligent hiring.⁶ This is often the case in lawsuits for injuries sustained on a roller coaster or at an amusement park.

The water park property conditions caused an accident.

The water park and property owners are responsible for keeping the property in a reasonably safe condition. To win damages in a property liability lawsuit, you generally have to prove:

1. The defendant owned, occupied, or controlled the property;
2. The defendant was negligent in the use or maintenance of the property;
3. You were harmed;
4. The defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing your harm.⁷

In a water park, safety hazards may include:

• Improper warnings of wet surfaces,
• Broken stairways,
• Broken restraints,
• Broken slides,
• Pipes or hard edges that could cause slide injuries,
• Shallow slides that cause people to fall out,
• Lack of safety nets,
• Too shallow pools, or
• Lack of warnings in wave pools.

Another person at the water park caused the injury.

Waterpark accidents can also be caused by other water park patrons.

If another water park customer is negligent, they may be liable for injuring other customers. However, the park may also share responsibility if the water park was not enforcing safety policies.

Customer negligence that causes a water slide injury could include:

• Ignoring safety warnings,
• Overloading water park rafts,
• Trying to stop in the middle of the slide, or
• Jumping into crowded pools.

The water slide was faulty and caused an injury.

When a defective water slide is responsible for a water park accident, multiple parties may be liable for damages.

Under product liability claims, the manufacturer, designer, or seller has “strict liability” for damages. This means you do not need to show that any person or group was negligent for causing the accident.

To recover damages in a product liability lawsuit, you have to show:

1. The defendant manufactured, distributed, or sold the product;
2. The product contained a manufacturing, design, or warning defect when it left the defendant’s possession;
3. You suffered harm; and
4. The product defect was a substantial factor in causing your harm.⁸

3. Damages

When you are injured in a water park accident, you may be able to sue for compensatory damages in a personal injury lawsuit. This includes:

• Medical bills,
• Physical therapy,
• Continuing medical care,
• Lost wages,
• Lost earning capacity,
• Loss of consortium of a spouse or domestic partner,
• Scarring or permanent disfigurement, and
• Pain and suffering.

In some cases, you may be able to sue for punitive damages. However, punitive damages generally require a showing of extreme or outrageous conduct or intentional actions by the defendant to injure you.⁹

4. Wrongful Death

Waterpark accidents can end in a fatal accident or drowning death. By filing a wrongful death lawsuit, the surviving family member may be able to sue for damages after a loved one is killed because of someone’s wrongful act.¹⁰

Certain family members are eligible to receive damages in a wrongful death lawsuit for their losses caused by the death of a family member. For example, in California, eligible family members who can sue for damages include:

• Surviving spouse;
• Domestic partner;
• Children;
• Grandchildren (if the deceased person’s children are deceased); or
• Anyone else who would be entitled to the property of the decedent by California intestate succession laws.

Damages in a wrongful death claim can include:

• Funeral expenses,
• Burial expenses,
• Financial earnings the deceased would have provided, and
• Compensation for the loss of companionship, guidance, and support.

5. Assumption of Risk =

The “assumption of the risk,” doctrine shifts liability for an accident to you for engaging in an inherently risky activity. In a water park accident lawsuit, the water park may claim they are not liable for damages because you voluntarily engaged in an activity with an inherent risk of injury, including drowning or water injury.¹¹

However, the defendant may still be liable for injuries even if the activity was considered inherently risky. If the defendant violated state safety laws or regulations or increased the risk to you over and above the inherent risks, the defendant may still be liable.

A water slide may not be considered inherently risky, depending on the situation and type of injury. When assumption of the risk does not give the defendant a full defense, the defendant may be partially responsible for damages.

Under comparative fault laws, the jury may decide what percentage of fault each party shares. This could include dividing up fault among multiple defendants, or even placing some percentage of fault on you.

6. Liability Waivers

Some water parks may require you to sign a liability waiver so your kids can use a water park or participate in swimming activities.

In general, a liability waiver generally protects the water park operator or owner from personal injury claims for ordinary negligence. However, a liability waiver would generally not protect the water park from

• gross negligence,
• recklessness,
• violating safety regulations, or
• intentional harm.

Children are generally not able to enter into legally enforceable contracts.¹² If anyone under the age of 18 signs a liability waiver, the waiver is probably not enforceable.

However, when a parent or legal guardian signs a child’s liability waiver on the child’s behalf, those waivers may be enforceable. However, it may be up to a jury to decide if the accident was covered by the liability waiver.¹³

7. Shared Fault

The water park may claim you caused the accident and are responsible for your own injuries. However, even if you were partially at fault for the accident, you could still claim a portion of the damages.

Under comparative fault laws, if more than one party shares in the fault for the accident, the jury can apportion fault and damages.¹⁴

Example: A water park patron is injured after colliding with another patron Max inside a slide tube. A jury finds Max was 30% responsible because he purposely stopped inside the slide tube, and the jury found the park was 70% responsible for failing to space out the patrons.

Based on Max’s percentage of fault, Max may receive $7,000 in damages from the park (70% of $10,000 = $7,000).

8. Major Settlements and Verdicts

• In 2016, a 10-year-old boy Caleb Schwab – son of lawmaker Scott Schwab – was decapitated on the Verruckt water slide (“the world’s tallest water slide”) at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas after it hit a metal pole. The Schwab family avoided a district court trial and received a settlement of almost $20 million dollars from several parties, including KC Waterpark. Note that a Wyandotte County judge dismissed a second-degree murder charge against the slide’s designer John Schooley and involuntary manslaughter against operations manager Tyler Miles. The attorney general had gotten the grand jury to indict on the criminal charges, but the judge said the grand jury had been improperly influenced.
• In 2016, the parents of a young boy filed a lawsuit against the city of Dublin, California after their son flew off the side of a water slide, causing cuts, scrapes, and burns across the boy’s body. The family filed a lawsuit seeking $2.5 million for damages against the city and the Wave Water Park.
• In 1997, a group of students on the Banzai Pipeline water slide at Waterworld, USA in Concord, California when the slide collapsed. One person was killed and another 32 were injured. The family of the student who was killed settled a negligence lawsuit for $1.7 million.
• In 2015, a 6-year-old boy suffered a brain injury after almost drowning in a wave pool at Cowabunga Bay water park in Henderson, Nevada. A health inspection found the park was operating with less than half the required number of lifeguards at the pool. The family filed a lawsuit against the water park.
• In 2017, a woman was struck in the head by a pipe on the Tornado water slide at Waterworld California. The woman suffered a broken artery in her skull and filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages for her injuries.
• In 2007, a 4-year-old boy drowned in few feet of water at the Great Barrier Reef wave pool in Santa Clara, California. A Cal/OSHA investigation found unprepared lifeguards and unenforced safety warnings. The family negotiated a settlement with the Great America amusement park company.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 4,200 people are taken to emergency rooms every year to treat water park victims for injuries, including:

• Broken bones,
• Spinal injuries,
• Cuts and abrasions,
• Concussions, and
• Near-drowning injuries. ¹⁵

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