The Hsinchu District Court on Thursday last week ruled against a woman who sought compensation from an amusement park after her daughter died of a stroke shortly after taking a ride in its free-fall drop tower.
In its verdict, the court said the Leofoo Village Theme Park does not owe the woman’s family compensation.
The ruling can still be appealed.
Photo: Screen grab from Leofoo Village Theme Park’s Web site
A woman surnamed Ouyang (歐陽) in 2022 reported feeling a headache, nausea and numbness in the extremities following a free-fall ride and was helped to the amusement park’s infirmary, the court said.
Ouyang lost consciousness within 1.5 hours of being admitted to the infirmary and was sent to Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, where a scan revealed bleeding in her skull, it said.
She died two days after that, the court said.
Ouyang’s mother, surnamed Chan (詹), filed a NT$10 million (US$308,452) civil lawsuit against Leofoo Development Co, the company that owns the amusement park.
Chan said the park’s health warning — mentioning health risks to pregnant women and people with blood pressure issues — was insufficient, as her daughter did not have any of the conditions it mentioned, the court said.
The plaintiff also argued that the park did not have qualified medical care personnel on site and failed to send Ouyang to a hospital promptly, leading to her death, it said.
After consulting evidence supplied by the litigants, no scientific link could be found between Ouyang’s death and the free-fall experience, the court said.
Citing a medical report submitted by Taipei Veterans General Hospital, the last hospital to treat Ouyang, the court said doctors were not sure if the ride directly caused her death.
A medical study submitted by the plaintiff speculated that the sheer g-forces created by a roller coaster could pose cardiovascular risks, but it did not apply to free-fall rides, which generate g-force for a short duration only, it said.
The park records showed that only 15 people felt ill after taking the free-fall ride in 12 years, or an incident rate of three cases in every 1 million users, it said, adding that no death or serious injury has happened before.
The court did not find liable faults with the amusement park personnel’s handling of Ouyang’s medical emergency, which followed all established standards and procedures, it said.
The park provided multiple forms of text-based and audible instructions for guests to assume a safe posture to avoid whiplash and other injuries, meeting the standards stipulated by the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), the verdict said.
The court rejected Chan’s allegations and found the amusement park to not be at fault.
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