Now this has the makings for an interesting torts lawsuit. Riders on what is billed as Europe’s longest roller coast in Ripon, England experienced an unexpected fearful element when their car hit a deer — covering the riders in deer blood. “The Ultimate” ride left many hoping for a bit less than the decapitation of a deer.
The Lightwater Valley theme park said that the deer wandered onto the track after making it into the park the night before.
What is really amazing is that hitting the deer only delayed the ride by 30 minutes.
It would seem an obvious case of gross negligence in not maintaining security over these rides. Here is the really amazing fact. This happened before. In 1994, another deer was hit on this very same ride — resulting in the hospitalization of a 12-year-old boy.
While England has lower awards and greater restrictions on tort litigation, the damages from being covered in deer blood and sinew would seem a significant proposition. However, the case would no doubt prompt someone to create an even scarier “Road Kill” roller coaster.
This must also have yielded a memorable roller coaster picture for the riders. Amusement parks often take such pictures in the hopes of riders buying them. On this occasion, they might regret such photos.
Well it happened before, so we automatically have forseeability. Really the only interesting question here is the damages, there’s definitely a tort there from the perspective of American jurisprudence (not sure how the foreign country would deal with it of course)
Free NYC Pics – since it has happened before we have assumption of the risk, especially on the Ultimate Roller Coaster. I think you would be hard pressed to get your sainted grandmother to award damages. 😉