Family sues Kings Island theme park for "act of God" lightening strike

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | Thursday, June 19, 2003 | Erica Solvig

[yankeedame]

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Kings Island sued by family

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By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A Laurel, Ind., family is suing Paramount's Kings Island, claiming the park failed to warn them of an electrical storm during a June 2001 visit.

The suit, filed last week in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court says Shawn Perkins was hit by lightning in the parking lot as he and his family left the park.

"A bolt of lightning hit the car, touched him, threw him several feet and blew the tires," said Drake Ebner, the family's attorney. "A lot of voltage passed through his brain."

Perkins is still being treated for cognitive deficit and severe memory loss. Ebner said Perkins once was gone for three days because he loses track of time. Perkins also has a fear of being outdoors.

A Kings Island spokesman said Wednesday morning that park officials had not had time to look over the suit and had no comment.

The Perkins family is suing the park, located in Mason, for at least $25,000 plus punitive damages. They have demanded a jury trial for the civil suit.

Kings Island has its own weather station and does warn patrons when inclement weather comes into the area. The suit claims the Perkins family was not warned during their June 12, 2001, visit.

"The case is one that I suspect will draw some criticism," Ebner said. "At first, people are going to say 'Isn't this an act of God?' But in fact, amusement parks across the country watch the weather. ... They do have the duty to warn people in the park.

"We think the tragedy that happened here was avoidable," he said.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com

[Publius6961]

"We think the tragedy that happened here was avoidable," he said.

Is Perkins legally blind? or just legally retarded?

[trebb]

Since the article intimated that the park does watch weather and warn patrons, I wonder how they can prove that the family wasn't warned and decided to cross the parking lot instead of staying under cover.

[DonQ]

Considering this guy was struck while in the parking lot (presumably ground level), this is different than if he had been, say, on the ferris wheel when he was struck. In fact, a lightning bolt that ignored all the tall stuff in the park and went all the way down to street level seems so improbable that it does genuinely qualify as an Act of God.

On a slightly different note, about 25 years ago, there was some sort of terrific storm, I think in Virginia, where power lines were knocked down and entire neighborhoods were blacked out. Evidently a power line fell into the street, and the twits in the Virginia Electric HQ decided to throw the switch on the circuit breaker and run power through the line without first checking on whether the wires were up or not, with the result that someone on the ground was electrocuted. The power company tried to defend on the Act of God argument ... I forget if they won (they certainly intended to drag out the lawsuit), but I thought that the Act of God was in the line coming down (and when it hit the ground the circuit breakers had cut the power off) but sending electricity back through the line was the Act of an Idiot.

Also about 25 years ago, there was some sort of brownout in NYC, and Con Edison made the deliberate decision to shift its available electricity out of some neighborhoods (leaving them totally blacked out) and into other neighborhoods. In this case they decided to take the power away from Harlem and send it to Park Avenue (gee, did they toss a coin or what?) - and someone in Con Ed phoned up several bigshot businesses to let them know that the shift might knock out their burglar alarms. But nobody bothered to warn business owners in Harlem, and with the local blackout entire blocks of stores were completely looted. The store owners tried suing Con Ed, which again trotted out the Act of God defense ... but it seemed to me that Con Edison, which had made all the decisions about who to help and who not to help, was confused about its identity.

[Grampa Dave]

Hey, where the heck are all of your lightening Zot pictures?

I can't believe that you missed this opportunity to post the Zots of Lightening.

[RasterMaster]

Some folks need to stay the hell at home!

[lowbridge]

The Brady Bunch
102. "The Cincinnati Kids"

Original airdate: November 23, 1973
Directed by Leslie H. Martinson
Written by Al Schwartz and Larry Rhine

The Bradys mix business with pleasure at Kings Island amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Paramount Television's "The Brady Bunch."

In "The Cincinnati Kids," the Brady kids accompany Mike to Cincinnati where he is to present plans for an addition to the Kings Island amusement park. While the kids enjoy the many rides, Mike is aghast to learn his plans have been lost in the park, and a frantic search ensues.

http://davidbrady.com/eb/buncheps5.html

[Zavien Doombringer]

here ya go :)

[Grampa Dave]

Yes! Fry those Darwin candidates riding around in metal cars on metal rails so high in the skies during a thunderstorm.

[lowbridge]

[Zavien Doombringer]

But Grandpa, it was in a parking lot, while he was in his automobile!

[Hildy]

Actually, TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL did an episode about a town that sued God. It was pretty God.

[Ignatz]

I am embarrased that the Perkins family is from Indiana.

[MoJo2001]

Ahhh..I love Kings Island. I don't like this though. Geez, where's the Darwin Award when you need to hand it out?

[Hildy]

LOL...I mean, pretty GOOD.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Little did anyone know, Shawn Perkins was actually a guinea pig for a new military grade weapon.

Actual photo - courtesy of Kings Island

"Test was sucessful" stated the Park's owner, "We will be using this device to stop the patrons from bringing thier own food into the park and force them to buy our over- priced fast, greasy food".

For the rest of us, let's take this as a warning, next time you enter the theme park nearest you...

[LandofLincoln]

But in fact, amusement parks across the country watch the weather. ... They do have the duty to warn people in the park.

The person was in the parking lot, was that person on the way in or out of the park. On the way into the park the person had not reached the park yet. Either way, as a juror they would not get a dime from me.

[IYAS9YAS]

If the park knew of electrical storms, they would have warned riders and possibly shut down tall rides. However, according to this

"A bolt of lightning hit the car, touched him, threw him several feet and blew the tires," said Drake Ebner, the family's attorney. "A lot of voltage passed through his brain."

I'd have to throw them out of court. They weren't even technically in the "Park" they were in the parking lot. Also, I've seen reports of lightning striking from storms over 20 miles away. A program on Discover/TLC showed several stories of clear skies and lightning strikes. A guy on a bike was hit by lightning from a storm in a valley over 5 miles from him. The sky was blue all around him where he was.

[ought-six]

"I am thoroughly convinced lawyers *would* sue God, if they only knew how. I'm sure it's crossed their minds, since God is the proximate cause for EVERYTHING."

Don't think they won't try, once they can identify God's agent for service of process. The Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Grand Poobah of Mecca better watch out or they might find that they've been served with a summons, because our liberal courts are fully capable of recognizing any head cleric as an agent of God, and thus His agent for service of process. Our judicial system is COMPLETELY broken (I know, I work in it).

[Kenton]

"Ok here in NC when we get a storm there is usually a darkening of the sky, thats our first clue.....then we pretty much hear the thunder coming our way and the lightening flashes."

I'm from Ohio, but I've visited North Carolina, and when I was there I noticed the same thing. ;)

It can be confusing though, because a couple of days I was awakened by what I thought was thunder only to find out it was artillery practice over in Camp LeJuene.

[aruanan]

A Laurel, Ind., family is suing Paramount's Kings Island, claiming the park failed to warn them of an electrical storm during a June 2001 visit.

"Yep, hyuck hyuck, we done chose to come to the park that day, we seen all them thunderheads, and we was a leavin' the park, but our lawyers really hepped us to see that it was all the park's fault 'cause we can't make no money if'n we was to sue ourself."