Lawsuit says Kennywood water ride caused eye parasite infection
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A Squirrel Hill man claims he contracted an eye-eating parasite this summer after getting splashed by water while riding the Raging Rapids. Robert Trostle, along with his wife, Krystsina, filed a lawsuit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday against Kennywood Entertainment alleging negligence.
Read more from The Post-Gazette.
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If you're a lawyer, how do you prove this? It seems to me that you have to prove the state of the water was what he says, and account for all of his time in the window that he could have been infected. That doesn't strike me as possible.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Or try to get a settlement out of it.
Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."
Jeff said:
If you're a lawyer, how do you prove this? It seems to me that you have to prove the state of the water was what he says, and account for all of his time in the window that he could have been infected. That doesn't strike me as possible.
It also seems odd that,if the water in the ride was the cause,only 1 person had a problem.
This is a harder one to judge without appropriate technical background, which I doubt most of us have. From the standpoint of the plaintiff, there is at least some form of causality in riding a water ride and shortly thereafter getting medical help for an eye condition. That certainly isn't the only way this can happen, but it certainly could happen. From Kennywoods standpoint (and again, I do not have all the technical details), they would need to show whatever water treatment, etc. was being done appropriately. I don't know that these rides use chlorinated water like a swimming pool does, but I would assume there is some water testing that goes on.
From the standpoint of others being infected, I would have to think this might be similar to the Naegleria fowleri infestations that occur down south. A lot of people swim in fresh water, but Naegleria fowleri infections are very rare (though also very serious). If there was a positive test showing that the parasite was in the water, then you might have some form of plausible causality, especially if there is a way of DNA matching infections (which there may or may not be). Similar things happen with Legionella, though again, I'm not an expert there either.
Only rode that ride one time, back in the early 90's. It seemed like a toxic sludge sluice back then. It was the last ride of the day for us, and our clothes smelled so nasty we had to drive home with the windows open.
No idea what it's like now, but seriously, it was so gross back then that I was worried we'd get sick and ruin the rest of our trip.
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