haunted house injuries

[Todd Shumansky]

Do you have any injuries in your haunts? It seems like some people freak out so much they are bound to injure themselves. I see a small number of people every year that come out of our haunts with small scrapes and cuts simply from running into walls and things. Do you see this also? If you do how do you handle it? Ignore it? Document every single incident?

Fortunately in 8 years we have never had to call an ambulance but we have sent a one or two people to the hospital to be checked out. If you have someone that is injured do you do follow up phone calls to see how they feel the next day? Do you offer them free tickets? A refund?

Lots of questions here, not many answers on Hauntworld. I searched injuries and safety in the forums and didn't find much. I hope this isn't because people ignore the public safety aspect of our business. Any help is appreciated!

[Freak95]

well, our first year we had a girls finger cut off by a door. She put her hand up on the doorjamb, and when the door was slammed shut, it took her fingertip off right at the base of her fingernail. She didn't freak out or anything, but we had one of the police officers taker her, and her finger, to the hospital. We sent her a card and stuff the next day, and she came back the next year to see it again. lol But yeah, if they injure themselves, it's their fault. If they get injured due to an object or a person in your haunt, it's just good to check up on em and keep in touch. I wouldn't document every single cut and scrape though.

For the ones that puke, we just kinda walk em off and give em some water and stuff. The ones that urinate in their pants...well...we just laugh with em...sometimes at em. Can't do much about that.

[HauntVentFX]

My very first experience at working for a (franchised) haunted hayride in Maryland back in the 1990's.

One night, nearly an entire wagon load of customer fell off the wagon (no pun intended) due to a lug nut coming loose from one of the tires. Upon further examination following the incident, it was shown that there was only one other lug nut holding the tire in place and all that weight caused the tire to pop off and at least 20 people fell to the ground.

The owner of the event was ultimately at fault for not seeing to it that the wagons were properly inspected. If they were, I am sure that it would have been seen that there was only two of the five lug nuts holding the wheel to the wagon!

[Jim Warfield]

Sounds like the incident with a mini-train a haunt was operating. It was over loaded and rolled off the narrow little tracks, several arms were damaged. The owner tried to place the blame on the teenager driving the train. The teenager's Mother said "Oh NO!" the fault was with the train owner.
The Mother told me this story years ago.

[HauntVentFX]

In the case of the wheel that popped off the hay wagon (or in general), the person who was assigned to inspect the wagons and tractors every afternoon didn't bother to check things out that day. And as a result, around 20 people fell off and some were injured.

It was ultimately the responsibility of the owner of the show to make sure that his customers were safe. Proper safety procedures were not followed and he got into big trouble with the state and county for operating what was and is considered an amusement ride (in the state of Maryland). If the wheels of that particular wagon were examined properly and it was noticed that only two of the FIVE lug nuts were holding it in place, I certainly would not have let that wagon be approved for operation.

[bhays]

Something smells funny about that lugnut story. If someone inspected every afternoon and just missed that day.... three out of five lugnuts don't normally just 'come off' in a day's time...I think they must have had a little help..

[HauntVentFX]

The former owner of that (local) haunted attraction had a history of not doing what was expected when it came to the safety of his customers. An investigation into this particular matter revealed that, although he claimed to have certain people in charge of safety and inspection of the tractors and wagons (the tractor drivers were responsible for examining and maintaining their own equipment), not enough was done when it came to the proper behind-the-scenes operation of the event. In an investigation conducted after the conclusion of the event, it was discovered that he cut corners whenever he could to save money on various things to the extent of going out of his way to purposely hide things from state inspectors when they came around for periodic inspections.

While it is entirely possible that "someone" might have purposely tampered with the lug nuts on that tire, if the owner would have had a DAILY safety inspection of all equipment as he originally said he had, then the incident would not have happened! For instance, the haunted attraction that I presently volunteer at has a daily safety inspection sheet that needs to be filled out and approved by the owner before the event opens to the public.

[Jim Warfield]

...then there was the homemade wagon hauling 30 people up very steerp Cemetary hill for the ride through the graveyard...
When I first saw the design of this wagon it looked weak to me but it took three years to finally break. It could have been quite a thrill ride if the front of the wagon hadn't dug into the blacktop and skid to a stop , the wagon would have rolled backwards down a very steep street ("Mount" Carroll) for maybe 200 feet?
The design was sort of a "Gooseneck" design but instead of the hitch coming straight down into the pick up truck bed it went straight down to it's own front axle, then a chain was attached to the axle, so it was like pulling on a chicken wishbone, alot of leverage to break a weld at the top of the gooseneck.
"Safety Chains"? What are those? None used. They were VERY Lucky that night.
Nobody lives long enough to make (and survive) all of the mistakes possible, we must help our selves by learning from others.

[HauntVentFX]

One thing that I forgot to point out about the incident where the wheel popped off the wagon that sent 20+ people to the ground....

Not one of the wagons that were used had sides to them. The riders that sat in the middle were OK but the ones who sat along the sides and the back had to dangle their legs out over the sides! So it was easy enough to simply fall off at any given time, especially when a scene was located on the opposite side from where the riders were facing! Several employees made mention of this to the owner of the event, but he ignored all of the warnings and suggestions.

[bhays]

I have always wondered how folks who do hayrides design the wagon so that it's safe, but still leaves the riders 'exposed' to the scenes. The hayride idea has always been intrigueing to me, but always seemed like it would be difficult to 'involve' the customer in the scenes.