Personal Injury Law

Injured Teen Speaks Out About Six Flag Park Safety

By Jane Akre

A Kentucky teen who lost her feet in an amusement park ride last June has sued Six Flags and is support a bill to make amusement parks safer.

14-year-old Kaitlyn Lassiter was riding on the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags in Kentucky when a cable snapped and sheared off her feet.

Kaitlyn, speaking in Washington D.C. Wednesday said she is not the same person she was and is now afraid of cars and elevators. She spoke Wednesday in support of a bill designed to give federal control over the safety of amusement parks. 

The bill sponsored by Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts comes as the summer season kicks off and amusement parks around the country open to families. H.R. 2320, the National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act, would close the loopholes in the law that prohibits federal safety oversight of rides located within amusement parks.  

The legislation would restore the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) authority to investigate accidents at parks and develop and enforce action plans to correct defects. It would also authorize the CPSC to be a clearinghouse for accidents and defect data and would authorize $500,000 each year to do that work.  

The CPSC oversees carnival rides that are transported from site to site, not fixed site larger rides. Such as rollercoaster.

Six Flags denies liability while the family says the park failed to ensure riders' safety. 

But last month the ride-maintenance supervisor at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom said in a deposition that workers failed to follow instructions for handling the cable and then did not perform a hands-on inspection of any of the 10 cables before the accident.

Doctors have reattached Kaitlyn's right foot but her left leg had to be partially amputated. #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on May 15, 2008 (boomark / email).