A lawsuit filed in Orange County, FL alleges that Walt Disney World Resort failed “to warn of any dangerous conditions about which it knew or should have known about” on the Humunga Kowabunga waterslide at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon. The “dangerous conditions” alleged in the suit are that there are “no lifeguards at the end of water park rides.”
The suit, filed by Laura Reyes-Merino, claims that on May 11, 2024, the plaintiff “went tubing on the Humunga Kowabunga ride but at some point went unconscious after banging inside the ride.” Humunga Kowabunga is a 214-foot-long body slide that does not use tubes.
Her mother and fiancé found her “limp body at the end of the ride and frantically asked the attendants to help.” The attendants “were not lifeguards and would have to find lifeguards to help.” A lifeguard arrived and called an ambulance. The suit claims that if Disney “had lifeguards at the end of the ride … the plaintiff’s brain injury would not have occurred as she wouldn’t have been drowning in the water coughing up blood.” How exactly a lifeguard at the end of the ride would have prevented the rider from going “unconscious after banging inside the ride” is not explained.
This lawsuit comes on the heels of one filed by Emma and Edward McGuinness against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts over a 2019 incident in which Emma McGuinness suffered a “painful wedgie” on the same slide.
You can read the full text of the lawsuit for all of the details.