Skyslide Lawsuit: Woman Sues After Breaking Ankle
Less than a month after opening, the U.S. Bank Tower’s terrifying new Skyslide is already facing its first personal injury lawsuit, reports Curbed Los Angeles. New York woman Gayle Yashar claims she broke her ankle sliding down the frightening glass slope and is suing for more than $25,000.
The Skyslide, which is attached to the 72-story U.S. Bank Tower, is affixed 1,000 feet above the ground. The 360-degree glass slide spans 45 feet from the 70th to the 69th floor.
Gayle filed a lawsuit with her husband Morty Yashar on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against OUE Skyspace LLC, the company that owns U.S. Bank Tower, and Legends Hospitality, the operator of the slide. The Yashar couple is seeking enough to cover medical expenses, legal fees, and loss of earnings.
The lawsuit alleges that the drop – extending from the 70th story of the building to the floor directly below – is steep enough that riders do not have the time to decelerate before being catapulted out of the base of the slide on the 69th floor.
According to MyNewsLA, Gayle was injured just eight days after the slide opened.
L.A.'s new Skyslide is a panic-inducing 1,000 feet up…We won't even pretend it's not scary https://t.co/qWiMOt1d1K pic.twitter.com/9V9UbOt6kC
— Condé Nast Traveler (@CNTraveler) July 17, 2016
The couple’s attorney, Barry Novack, says he specializes in injuries that occur during amusement park rides, among other types of personal injury. Novack told LAist that he has a P.h.D. in engineering and has worked on cases involving various theme parks, including Disneyland, in the past.
According to Novack, Gayle Yashar is an active person who enjoys hiking, yoga, and kickboxing among other activities, and is inconvenienced to have a boot on her ankle for the recommended six-week recovery period. Yashar is also unsure of whether or not she will need surgery.
Novack says that the main reason for the suit is to prompt the operators to make the slide safe.
“We want to catch their attention and get them to improve it,” Novack told LAist. “There’s too short of a runout area, and there’s a place at the end where the ankle gets caught, where you could sprain or fracture your ankle.”
Novack also claims that his client is not the only person who has been injured on the Skyslide.
The suit states the following.
“From the time SKYSPACE opened to the public on or about June 24, 2016 until the date of this incident on July 3, 2016, defendants became aware that riders of the SKYSLIDE were suffering injuries including an ankle fracture. Defendants knew or should have known that these injuries were caused by dangerous, unsafe and defective design and operation of the SKYSLIDE. Defendants increased the ordinary risk inherent associated with going down a slide by failing to provide a sufficiently long and continuous deceleration area of the end of the slide to allow the riders to slow down to a safe speed before encountering a change in surface elevation and change in surface coefficient of friction, and then added stacked mat at the end of the slide runout area. This created a gap that trapped the covered feet of riders. This increased the risk of serious injury for an ankle fracture which was far beyond the risk assumed by the uninformed and unsuspecting rider.”
The Yashars’ attorney also posted a video showing Gayle’s ride down the terrifying slope.
Although Gayle is heard laughing in the video, she also says “ow” as she is getting up.
The glass slide opened to the public on Jun. 25 as a part of a series of new attractions on the upper floors of the U.S. Bank Tower, including an observation deck and a 360-degree restaurant.
OUE told CBS News that the Skyslide is built to withstand earthquake and hurricane winds up to 110 miles-per-hour.
[Photo by Richard Vogel/AP Images]
