Resort Injury Lawyer Blog

"Even among gambling friendly senators" there is mounting opposition to the massive destination resort casino plans proposed for South Florida, despite projections of an economic windfall.

A majority of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee has asked for significant changes to the current bill proposed for casino expansion legislation in the state. The Committee is known as being open to casino expansion, according to the Miami Herald, but is not yet willing to pass the current proposal.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce is lobbying against the bill on behalf of Disney and the Central Florida theme park and tourism industry.

The facilities in question are three $2 billion resort casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties that could bring a reported $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion in annual gaming. The figure is based on 6.6 million to 14 million annual visitors to the resorts. The entire state of Florida currently sees around 82 million visitors annually.

The increase in visitors and resort activities would likely to give rise to a substantial increase in Resort Torts. If built, the initial proposed hotel alone is expected to have 5,200 rooms, making it the largest in the country.

The Senate sponsor of the casino resort bill, Ellyn Bogdanoff, estimates that 31% of the new gaming would compromise existing casinos, primarily the Seminole Hard Rock casinos. Casino cases in Florida currently hinge on the sovereign immunity of the Native American community that runs the facilities under their land grants. They cannot be sued and a plaintiff must go to tribal court. It is important to note, however, that not all areas of a casino location are necessarily tribe owned. Some of the shops and restaurants are "concessions" that are independently owned outside the tribe and can be sued outside tribal court. Common areas around a tribal casino are still considered tribal owned.

Florida already has a built-in base of resort tort victims because of the vast tourism industry throughout the state. Tourists are here to have a good time and relax, which can also mean letting their guard down in unfamiliar surroundings where alcohol and late nights prevail. Resort Torts can involve a wide range of cases, including hotel and motel safety; cruise ship litigation; pleasure boating and jet ski incidents; amusement, aquatic, diving and swimming incidents; foreign travel and medical emergencies; gaming and casinos; commercial and general aviation; rental car liability; moped, bicycle and motorcycle safety; buses and tour guides; travel industry liability for crime victims; medical care provided to vacationers, and many more.

In a 14-page report, the National Transportation Safety Board cited employee errors as the primary causes of the accident, but added that "Walt Disney World Resort's lack of standard operating procedures leading to an unsafe practice when reversing trains" was also a factor in the accident.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration had previously cited Disney with four safety violations in December 2009 upon concluding its investigation of the accident, and fined the resort $35,200.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that "an employee in the monorail's maintenance shop, which controls the system's track switches, failed to properly position the switch beam. It also found that the manager who was temporarily serving as the monorail system's coordinator -- relaying commands between the maintenance shop and the train drivers -- was not in the system's control tower during the track-switch procedure, where he could have seen that the track had not been properly aligned."

Disney's policies, however, did not require the central coordinator to be station in the control tower when directing monorail movements, nor that the employee in the monorail shop verify the beam realignment. Employees were also not required to follow an operating guide with regards to moving from the front cab of the train to the back cab before driving in reverse.

Resort Torts can include a wide variety of legal cases but they all have one thing in common: Tourists, business travelers and locals alike are all exposed to risk while traveling, vacationing or engaging in resort and leisure activities.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, new filings with the state include the following injuries reported at Orlando theme parks:

Islands of Adventure
• A man from Puerto Rico had to have an eye removed after something stuck and lacerated it while he was riding the Dragon Challenge roller coaster in Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure. According to the Sentinel, the description in the report Universal provided the state was "eye discomfort".

Walt Disney World
• An 18-year-old woman lost consciousness and experienced seizure-like symptoms in Castaway Creek.
• A woman injured an ankle on Mayday Falls.
• A woman lost consciousness after riding Mission: Space.
• A 16-year-old girl had a seizure on Star Tours.
• A woman fell and broke her leg at Haunted Mansion.
• Another woman fell and broke her leg on Prince Charming's Regal Carousel.

Wet 'n' Wild, owned by NBCUniversal
• An 8-year-old boy suffered a head injury on Storm.

Amusement Park Injury Reporting
In 2001, The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the amusement park industry trade group, began producing its own injuries-per-ride-cycle figure for amusement rides (roller coasters, Ferris wheels, etc.) operated at fixed site locations. Their methodology is that IAAPA asks its members each year to report the number of riders they've processed through the turnstiles of their mechanical amusement rides, and the number of customers they know of who were treated by a doctor for injuries caused by any of those rides. They then come up with a number of patron rides taken each year, and an aggregated count of ride-related injuries parks reported knowing about.

This reporting system does not collect any information useful for analysis of accident patterns or development of prevention strategies. No information is collected that would identify the ride, the park, the age/size of patrons involved, the type of accident, or the injuries sustained.

With 82 million visitors each year, Florida and its many tourist attractions give rise to Resort Torts - cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal in a resort, vacation or recreational setting. Click here to contact a board certified civil trial specialist with 26 years of experience representing victims of negligence in personal injury matters.

A woman has accused a Walt Disney World employee of raping her at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort after luring her there with a Friends and Family hotel rate and free theme-park passes, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

The man charged with sexual battery is a Disney reservations clerk, now on unpaid leave pending the outcome of a criminal investigation. The Orange County Sheriff's Office is investigating whether the man booked rooms for other visitors with his employee discount and provided them with free admission to Disney parks with his employee pass, to determine if there might be other victims.

The woman first spoke to the accused when she called Walt Disney World reservations to inquire about hotel reservations and theme-park tickets. During the conversation, she mentioned that she was unemployed and wanted to spend her income-tax refund check on a vacation for her children. The man began sending her text messages and offered to book her a room under his Friends and family discount, saying that he was raised by a single mother and understood what it was like to want things, reports the Sentinel.

Records state the woman "made a point to tell [the man] that she was not willing to trade sexual favors for what he was doing."

The man met the woman at her hotel, took her and her children on a free tour of the Magic Kingdom, and then returned to the hotel with them. Reports state that he did not respond to "her hints for him to go." She eventually fell asleep and awoke when she felt him sexually assaulting her.

When he finally left the room, he took $40, her debit card and the key to the hotel room.

Adding to recently updated injury reports and a bus crash injuring five people last month, a Disney worker died Monday morning from massive head injuries he suffered on Sunday while working at the Disney's Animal Kingdom.

The 52-year-old man was repairing "The Little Dip" portion of the Primeval Whirl roller coaster when a co-worker called 911, according to a Sun Sentinel report, which published the call transcript released by Reedy Creek Fire District, Walt Disney World's municipal fire department:

"We need somebody right now," a co-worker told a 911 dispatcher. "One of our maintenance guys got hit by a moving vehicle...He got in the way of a moving vehicle."

The man was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he died Monday morning. Details of the accident were not immediately released and an investigation is underway by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. So far there have been no reports of a wrongful death lawsuit.

This is the second death associated with the Primeval Whirl. Another Disney employee was working on an elevated rider-loading platform in November 2007, when she was struck by one of the roller coaster vehicles, and died five days later. Disney was fined $21,000 for the accident and faulted five safety violations by federal investigators.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Disney filed updated guest-injury reports with the state, revealing a death in December on the Prince Charming Regal Carousel in the Magic Kingdom. A 77-year-old woman with a pre-existing heat condition collapsed and died on the Carousel.

The Sentinel states that this was one of three incidents reported to state authorities for the fourth quarter of 2010 in accordance with an agreement in which "the parks avoid state ride-safety regulation in exchange for providing basic details about guest injuries."

The other resort injuries involved a 71-year-old woman who fell and broke a hip and shoulder following a ride on the Magic Kingdom Carousel, and a 76-year-old woman who fell on the moving loading platform to The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot.

Amusement Park Injury Reporting

In 2001, The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the amusement park industry trade group, began producing its own injuries-per-ride-cycle figure for amusement rides (roller coasters, Ferris wheels, etc.) operated at fixed site locations. Their methodology is that IAAPA asks its members each year to report the number of riders they've processed through the turnstiles of their mechanical amusement rides, and the number of customers they know of who were treated by a doctor for injuries caused by any of those rides. They then come up with a number of patron rides taken each year, and an aggregated count of ride-related injuries parks reported knowing about.

This reporting system does not collect any information useful for analysis of accident patterns or development of prevention strategies. No information is collected that would identify the ride, the park, the age/size of patrons involved, the type of accident, or the injuries sustained.

Resort Torts are piling up at Disney. Disney's Magical Express bus collided with a tractor trailer in Orlando early this morning, injuring five people, including the bus driver. The bus provides transportation to and from the Orlando airport.

The accident follows last week's reports of two lawsuits filed against Disney: A San Diego, California family whose 4-year-old son was scalded by nacho cheese sauce at Orlando's Magic Kingdom last March; and a quadriplegic who was left in his wheelchair on a stalled boat of the "It's a Small World" attraction for about 40 minutes during an evacuation of other park visitors on the ride.

Two months ago, a tragic Disney bus incident involved a 69-year-old tourist, who was hit and killed by a Walt Disney World bus filled with passengers, in the parking lot of Disney's Port Orleans Resort.

In April, a 9-year-old boy riding his bicycle was pulled under the rear wheels of a Disney bus in the Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. He was wearing a safety helmet, riding on the sidewalk. Disney faces a wrongful death lawsuit that points to sidewalk conditions and the park bus system for the death.

Resort Tort: Walt Disney World has been sued again, this time by a San Diego, California family whose 4-year-old son was scalded by nacho cheese sauce at Orlando's Magic Kingdom last March.

The boy was falling out of an unsteady chair when he grabbed a food tray on the table, containing a paper cup of scalding nacho cheese, which splashed onto his face, reports USA Today. The lawsuit claims he suffered "permanent scarring, pain and suffering," and his parents suffered "serious emotional distress." The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the family spent months trying to resolve the case out of court, but was not successful.

Disney was also sued last week by a quadriplegic who was left in his wheelchair on a stalled boat for about 40 minutes during an evacuation of other park visitors on the ride.

A report of that incident said that while stuck, the man suffered a type of sudden and potentially life-threatening high blood pressure attack that affects people with spinal cord injuries. In the report, the man is quoted as saying that the attack "feel like an ice pick going through your temples." In the lawsuit, he alleges that Disney employees did not call paramedics when this happened. The Associated Press reported that the lawsuit also alleges Disneyland violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because it didn't have proper procedures in place for evacuating disabled passengers from the ride. The man is also suing for negligence, emotional distress and liability. He said Disney added "insult to injury" when Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were sent to perform for him while he was treated at the park's first aid station.

With 82 million visitors each year, Florida and its many tourist attractions give rise to Resort Torts - cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal in a resort, vacation or recreational setting. Resort Torts can encompass a vast array of types of cases but they all have one thing in common: tourists, business travelers and locals alike are all exposed to risk while traveling, vacationing or engaging in resort or pleasure activities. Click here to contact a board certified civil trial specialist with 25 years of experience representing victims of negligence in personal injury matters.

Walt Disney Co. has been sued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, by a quadriplegic who was left in his wheelchair on a stalled boat for about 40 minutes during an evacuation of other park visitors on the ride.

A report of the incident said that while stuck, the man suffered a type of sudden and potentially life-threatening high blood pressure attack that affects people with spinal cord injuries. In the report, the man is quoted as saying that the attack "feel like an ice pick going through your temples." In the lawsuit, he alleges that Disney employees did not call paramedics when this happened.

The Associated Press reported that the lawsuit also alleges Disneyland violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because it didn't have proper procedures in place for evacuating disabled passengers from the ride. The man is also suing for negligence, emotional distress and liability. He said Disney added "insult to injury" when Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were sent to perform for him while he was treated at the park's first aid station.

In Florida, between Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, there were eight ride injuries reported in the third quarter of 2010, according to state records cited in the Orlando Sentinel.
1. Disney's Animal Kingdom: A man suffered a seizure on the Dinosaur ride.
2. Disney's Animal Kingdom: A man experienced chest pain on the ride Expedition Everest.
3. Disney's Epcot: A woman experienced chest pain on the ride Mission: Space.
4. Disney's Typhoon Lagoon: A man collapsed and eventually suffered a stroke after riding Storm Slides.
5. Disney's Typhoon Lagoon: A woman lost consciousness in the wave pool.
6. Disney's Magic Kingdom: A woman fell and broke her spine on the moving passenger-loading area for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.
7. Universal Orlando: A woman broke her ankle on Camp Jurassic in Islands of Adventure.
8. Wet 'n' Wild: Someone experienced chest pain requiring the use of a defibrillator on Der Stuka.

Resort Torts are cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal acts that arise out of a resort, vacation or recreational setting. These can involve aspects of hotel and motel safety, cruise ship litigation, pleasure boating and jet ski incidents, amusement, aquatic, diving and swimming incidents, foreign travel and medical emergencies, gaming and casinos, aviation (commercial and general), rental car liability, moped, bicycle and motorcycle safety, buses and tour guides, travel industry liability for crime victims, and medical care provided to vacationers. Resort Torts can encompass a vast array of types of cases but they all have one thing in common: tourists, business travelers and locals alike are all exposed to risk while traveling, vacationing or engaging in resort or pleasure activities. Click here to contact a board certified civil trial specialist with 25 years of experience representing victims of negligence in personal injury matters.