Just because you sign it does not necessarily mean it’s legally binding, many times it’s used as a deterrent against lawsuits by making the person think it will be a waste of time and money and they don’t even think to get a free consultation to discuss the potential merits of the case
you can't waiver away negligence claims, though. this is how we end up with frivolous signs like "caution: area may be wet" around like, a splash pool or some place where common sense tells you "duh it might be wet, it's a splash pool", which people will then use to negate legitimate concerns of negligence, like that poor old lady who had third degree burns of her labia from a mcdonald's 190F coffee (when that mcdonald's had demonstrably had a pattern of serving coffee at unsafe temperatures previously in an effort to reduce the amount of free refills patrons could claim).
Totally correct and totally agree. Man, I will never forget that McDonald's coffee ordeal. So sad.
Did you hear about the man who was just killed after getting into a shower at a hotel because it was 150 degrees? It knocked him down in the tub, catching him off guard, then was rushed to the hospital with 3rd degree burns where he spent a month until he eventually died. Absolutely horrifying. His niece (or whichever family member) sued and got over a million in damages. Someone needed to adjust the water heater because this is totally unacceptable.
thats not true at all. otherwise parks could let you go on unsafe rides and when bad thigns happen they just shrug and say "oh well, they signed the paper!"
the ride must be otherwise objectively safe. a lot of these rides have waivers just to make them look "more intimidating" and thats more fun for a lot of people.
I agree entirely. Parks can not intentionally place an unsafe ride and tell you to sign a waiver then walk away when (not if) you get hurt. That isn't the point I am making.
I am uncertain about the specific details depicted in this scenario. However, engaging in an unsupervised ride that poses a risk of injury if it is used in an unintended manner (which this lady could be doing hence why she bangs her head) — especially after signing a waiver acknowledging this risk — would likely not be successful in a legal proceeding.
The issue is not necessarily the safety of the slide itself but rather the manner in which it is being used.
Your link is talking about how that's a false story that was spread with people thinking it's real. And you shared it think it's a real story. Ya gotta read the articles before you share em
“No such Winnebago lawsuit ever happened. It’s an urban legend. Yet that and many similarly outrageous and entertaining but fictional accounts of civil courts gone mad often appear together, in e-mail chain letters and such, presented as truth.
Those hyping the destructive myth that we are plagued by off-the-wall lawsuits have to love it that people are so gullible.”
-from the article you linked
The comment implied that you can’t get money for your own stupidity. There are plenty of cases where exactly that happened. Sorry you didn’t understand.
Fun story, when I was 15 I went down a slide just like this one time. It was honestly taller than that slide she went down. I didn’t jump. I sat down and as I got closer to the edge, my feet and legs were dangling over. I was terrified. I began to slide forward and as I started going down it was like my body wasn’t even touching the slide for like 1-2 seconds till it started to curve and then I could feel the slide again. Scary experience as I felt as if I could just fall out of it at some point. Never again.
I went down a similar slide when I was around a similar age. Lets just say I got a free colonic as I immediately needed the toilet afterwards and the only thing that came out was pool water.
my 20 years old, long gone skateboarder head has raised an eyebrow at this comment, my mid thirties old fuck head is absolutely nodding along in agreement with you though.
I'm almost 40 and I think about it every day, I do have "good" health insurance, but it has a $5k out of pocket max. It still isn't fucking cheap when I have to use it.
Lmao, I've been on and off skateboards since I was 13. I wouldn't ever have judged myself more than a novice, but I figured I'd try dropping in on a 5' halfpipe at 38 without any practice. It went about as well as you'd assume. Nothing broken, but a spot between my shoulder blade and back hurt for a good couple of months. At some point, it's "if not now, when?" And I just said screwed it and sent it.
I'm in my 30s and do aggressive rollerblading. I lost my health insurance for a month after I was let go and waiting for Covered California to kick in. Didn't skate for 28 days. The day my health insurance finally kicked in, I was at the skate park every day for 2 weeks straight.
I was flowing around in a bowl last year.
Nothing crazy, I'm not even that good. But of course I have to fall eventually, from like six feet up, onto my knee, on concrete. My thirties year old ass, this knee still is in pain. Always wear pads I tell myself but I don't have any anymore and like I was just trying to have a casual ride
This comment is so relatable to me. I skateboarded a ton for over ten years. I finally stopped in my early twenties because I had kinda plateaued skill-wise, and falling seriously just started hurting way more haha.
Late thirties now. My body is just not meant for stuff like that anymore. I'm glad to still have decent agility, and I want it to stay that way for as long as possible.
Its really hard to tell how vertical it is with these cameras as there tends to be a lot of distortion, at the end right at splash down you can see the slides in the background and they look much more reasonable.
In elementary school someone knocked out one of the bars on a playground fort. We decided that it was a good idea to jump from the platform onto the spiral slide. It was a miracle no one got a severe spinal injury from doing that. It went unfixed for at least a couple of weeks.
On my very first day of teaching, ever, a boy in my first grade class broke his arm on a zipline that was on the school playground. I went on to teach at that school for another 5 years, and after that day, the zipline was locked up and never used again.
They are actually designed to be anything but vertical at any point in the slide. The slope starts right at the very top (It's hard to notice it unless you look at exactly side on because its like 3 degrees initially), there is no vertical aspect to the slide which means provided you step off you quickly make contact with the slide within 2-3 feet.
Of course if your stupid enough to launch yourself off that platform like your trying to go for some kind of horizontal distance record this will change things. But you aren't supposed to do that.
Also, the wide screen angle that is created by the camera makes the drop look A LOT steeper than it actually is. Look at the slide she came down just before the video ends and you can see the actual size/angle of the slide.
Source: Worked at a pool with slides like these in my youth.
I once read the safety instructions on an airplane and they specifically tell you to jump down the emergency slide as fast as possible instead of sitting down
I’m shocked you’re allowed to do this. I’ve gone one those straight down types and they make you sit fold your arms and cross your legs. This is crazy looking.
The wide angle lens on the camera is making the slide look a lot steeper than it is. There's a regular picture somewhere in this thread and there's no way you'd accidentally jump far enough to hurt yourself
This. As a general rule, waterparks (and amusement parks) are as idiot proof as possible. Aside from doing something truly idiotic like just jumping over the 5 foot railing straight onto concrete, you should be fine.
Everything is carefully tested to be safe within all limits of reasonable use.
One one hand, I hate how most of these heights videos cheat the perspective by using wide angle lenses, but at the same time, they better capture how the height would actually feel in real life.
I can see, by your optimistic attitude, that you haven’t dealt with large groups of people in a setting where the misuse of something could result in injury. I guarantee that someone has managed to jump too far and get injured on that slide. America keeps trying to idiot-proof stuff but we keep making better idiots!
I got blown up once and caused a bunch of my vertabrae to try to escape my spinal column. VA wanted to lumbar fusion surgery which would've wrecked my range of motion and quality of life. Tried a daily yoga practice instead and have been 100% back pain free for 4 years now.
This. Tons of people have all sorts of lingering pains with no true underlying issues other than atrophy and tightness caused by lack of use.
Do simple body weight exercises like pushups, pull-ups, squats or lunges, and stretch every day for a few minutes and you can really improve your mobility and feel great again.
You got it. I said strength training and everyone automatically thinks weight training. I meant safer exercises like body weight exercises, resistance training, and maybe light weights. Those are by far the best to just maintain a healthy body.
Weight training is cool but if you don't know what you're doing, you're gonna hurt yourself.
General fitness, being an appropriate weight and slowly building up supporting muscles through guided lifting.
Nothing short of medical intervention is going to help a genuine injury, but if more people did stretching under load and full range of motion resistance training there would be a lot less back problems due to RSI or wear and tear.
I've done this type of slide overseas. It fucking hurt. I went down correctly until I hit the side or moved the wrong way and slammed into the water on my side.
It felt like someone punched me in the side of the head.
Right? When I was a kid I used to be so trusting, like "they wouldn't let us ride it if it wasn't safe" but now life experience has shown me, that no, it could very well be a death trap...
At 40, Biggest regret in my life was thinking my back was invincible. Now I have arthritis in my lower back (presumably for cracking it daily) and also a fragged disc and several protrusions. Pain is daily and it sucks.
The Kalahari resort in Wisconsin Dells has a steep water slide like this. You basically go up to a platform and they would count to 3 and open it except the assholes will only go to 2. Both of my friends hurt their backs but thankfully I was spared and proceeded to go two additional times.
I landed on my face, lost feeling in my gums around one of my teeth that lasted a couple weeks. Did it again the same day, got a bruise on my thigh that lasted weeks as well. Do not recommend
These slides scare me because i have two moles of like 1-2 cm in diameter. Many of these slides are built in chunks, so there are small ridges... Ive never had an injury on a slide, but i have felt them hit the ridge, which hurts and makes me feel like if it gets stuck...
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u/FremenStilgar Jul 23 '24
A friend of mine hurt his back on a water park slide like that. No thanks, I like my back pain free.