Universal’s debt could play a role in lawsuit
Universal Orlando owes the ride manufacturer that built many of the water slides at Volcano Bay more than $1 million, which could play a role in a lawsuit involving a New York tourist who broke his neck at the park last year, the tourist’s attorney said at a court hearing Wednesday.
James Bowen sued Universal after he was paralyzed riding Punga Racers, a slide with a troubled history of people getting hurt since Volcano Bay opened in May 2017, court records show.
Lawyers for Bowen and Universal presented their cases virtually Wednesday in front of Orange Circuit Judge Kevin Weiss. The judge did not issue a written ruling about whether Bowen can seek punitive damages in the lawsuit that has revealed a deeper look into theme park safety rarely disclosed to the public.
Bowen’s attorney David Buckner argued Universal knew for years there were problems on the ride but did nothing to fix it, leaving it open to the public. He called it a “physics problem” — riders, primarily heavier adults, traveled too fast as they passed through a wave of water at the end and into a runoff that wasn’t built long enough to slow them down safely.
Universal attorney Justin Kreindel acknowledged the park was aware of the problems but tried to take action. He called Bowen’s allegations at most an ordinary negligence lawsuit, saying it didn’t rise up to the ex
treme level of “reckless disregard” for punitive damages.
“This is not a case where Universal or its employees were ignoring all these problems and we’re looking the other way, and just saying, ‘ You know what, We’ll do it later,’” Kreindel said. “Universal was actively seeking solutions to address these issues.”
Kreindel pointed to regular meetings between Universal executive leaders, engineers, senior managers and others that led to modifying the ride in 2017 and later testing new ride mats with different textures to try and slow riders down.
“These meetings show that Universal takes safety seriously,” Kreindel said.
Buckner said those meetings, which included Universal Orlando Resort President Bill Davis, “actually shows quite the opposite.”
“They are well aware of the problem at the highest levels,” Buckner said. “Here’s the reality. …If they could not have figured out how to fix it, it was incumbent upon them to shut the ride down because they knew it was dangerous.”
After Punga Racers had been open for about five months in 2017, ProSlide Technology, the Canadian ride manufacturer that built it, and Universal modified the ride slightly, but injuries persisted. But Universal stopped working with ProSlide because of the financial dispute, Buckner said.
Buckner argued Universal’s more than $1 million dispute with ProSlide showed why Universal was hesitant to invest about $800,000 more to extend Punga Racers’ run-out further to stop the injuries.
“Universal cuts ProSlide out of the process,” Buckner said at the hearing. “They’re trying so hard not to have to pay ProSlide back and they don’t want to even tell ProSlide they’re having all these injuries, holding this information from ProSlide to get leverage over ProSlide ultimately in this dispute.”
Last month, Admiral Insurance Company, which insures ProSlide, filed a federal lawsuit arguing it wasn’t responsible for paying 73 injury claims involving numerous slides at Volcano Bay. Admiral said Universal sometimes took years to notify ProSlide and Admiral of the claims at Volcano Bay.
Kreindel declined to speak about any ProSlide financial dispute at the hearing, saying Buckner didn’t specifically file the issue in court documents.
ProSlide executive David Alexander pointed out Bowen is not suing ProSlide but declined to comment further.
The original Punga Racers was a water slide where people laid on mats to go head-first down the fiberglass slide and into a shallow catch pool. Before they ended up in the catch pool, they passed through a hydraulic wall of water.
Sometimes, the wall of water caused the mats to hit people in the face, causing nosebleeds or chipped teeth. Other people re
ported headaches or whiplash on the ride, according to Universal internal documents filed in court.
Punga Racers reopened this year as a different slide so riders go feet-first, without any mats.
Kreindel said Universal doesn’t deny the incidents took place but he called most of the injuries, up until Bowen’s, as “minor” with guests getting checked at Universal out without going to the hospital and then returning to the waterpark.
Bowen, 47, of Wappingers Falls, New York, was on a summer vacation with his family in July 2019 when his head snapped back as he went through the wall of water.
“It was immediately evident that this was not a runof-the-mill incident, but a serious injury,” Judge Weiss wrote in court documents.
In July, Bowen’s wife testified about what happened that day.
“I ran and I could hear my kids, they were yelling, ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ And I could hear the lifeguard saying, ‘Sir, you have to get up,’” Lisa Vera-Bowen said in a deposition on July 31, 2020.
She tried to lift her husband to see his face as he lay paralyzed in the shallow water of the catch pool.
“Turn me over,” her husband said.
“What ’s happening? What’s happening?” she asked him.
“I can’t feel my body,”
Bowen told her.
In the chaos of the moment, Universal says it lost Bowen’s mat, which the judge noted as key evidence missing in the lawsuit.
The judge wrote that since ProSlide was not involved with Punga Racers after 2017, Universal “had complete control over the slide, the speed reduction testing, and the mats.”
“If Mr. Bowen’s mat was worn smooth, increasing his speed, energy, and risk of injury, that fault lies entirely with Universal. Plaintiffs note that they, and the jury, will never know because Universal misplaced and ultimately lost this key evidence,” Weiss wrote.
Because of the lost mat, the judge ruled on a motion in favor of Bowen, deciding the burden of proof now lies with Universal to show it wasn’t negligent at trial, Buckner said.
Universal said it hadn’t intentionally lost or destroyed the mat.
“In the hectic several minutes immediately following the incident, Universal personnel were focused, as they should have, almost completely on treating and stabilizing Plain
tiff’s condition and arranging for his transport to the hospital,” Universal attorneys said in a court filing.
Bowen’s attorney alerted Universal to preserve the evidence in August 2019, a month after he was hurt. The lawsuit was filed in October 2019 in Orange Circuit Court.
Bowen’s lawsuit has shed light on theme park injuries in Florida where the biggest
attractions, rather than undergo state inspections, self-disclose visitors’ injuries or illnesses on rides that require at least 24 hours in the hospital.
But the public rarely learns the nature of the injuries when the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services releases a report every three months.
In Bowen’s case, Universal reported his injury as “numbness.”