Park Settles With Family Of Girl Maimed On Thrill Ride
Family: Settlement Is Best For Daughter
By Mike Petchenik/WLKY

POSTED: 1:12 pm EST November 21, 2008
UPDATED: 6:20 pm EST November 21, 2008

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The family of a girl who was injured on a thrill ride has settled with the amusement park.

Kaitlyn Lasitter’s feet were severed when a cable snapped on the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in 2007. Doctors reattached her right foot, but were unable to save her left foot.

State inspectors ruled Six Flags failed to properly inspect and maintain its ride and that an underage operator failed to activate an emergency brake at the first sign of trouble.

Kaitlyn Lasitter’s family sued the park for negligence. A judge set the trial for January, 2010.

In a press release, Kentucky Kingdom representative said, “Kentucky Kingdom has reached a settlement with the Lasitter family that will provide lifetime care for Kaitlyn Lasitter. We deeply regret the tragedy that Kaitlyn suffered and she remains in our thoughts and prayers. All of us at Kentucky Kingdom are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests.”

Monique Lasitter, Kaitlyn’s mother, released a statement concerning the settlement.

“After a long and extremely difficult year and a half, we as parents, with the advice of our lawyer have decided [this is] the best that we can do to put this incident behind us and provide Kaitlyn with the best possible medical help available to secure her future. We would like to thank everyone in the community for all their support and we realize as a family this will never make things right for our daughter, who ultimately will have to live with this the rest of her life. We can only hope for the safety of others we have helped to change some of the safety procedures at these parks and that something this tragic can never happen again.”

The Lasitter family’s attorney said the settlement will bring some relief.

“There is no way you get to be okay when your daughter has her legs cut off,” said Larry Franklin. “They are glad to get out of the legal system because the legal system is very stacked up against individuals. They could have been in the legal system for four to six years.”

Franklin said the family has incurred $500,000 in medical bills since the incident, but he couldn’t elaborate on the terms of the settlement.

“In Kentucky you are allowed to recover for pay and suffering,” he said. “Thats physical and mental pain…and when you get into the aspect of mental pain, she was 13 when she lost her legs, she doesn’t know yet what’s going to be ahead of her.”

http://www.wlky.com/cnn-news/18033707/detail.html

Kaitlyn, is very beautiful and very photogenic, if modeling is still an interest for her I hope she pursues it!

What a tragedy for her and her family, I wish them the best!

How scary all this amusement park negligence is, I will never ride or watch my children ride without be reminded of the potential danger (this article and others in the forums, scary stuff), wtf!

Hope its enuff dough to make those fucking irresponsible assholes think twice about neglecting the mantainence on their rides.

Kaitlyn also said boys no longer call her, she is treated differently by her friends and other people make fun of her.

That was the first thing I thought of when I first heard that this accident had happened to a teenage girl: the accident itself is bad enough, but teenagers can be so, so shallow and cruel, that the aftermath would be where the real difficulties came in.

By any measure, she is absolutely stunning, and will only be prettier, the older she gets. Sounds like she’s incredibly brave and strong, as well. One of the articles said that she’d hoped to be a model; I hope she still can be, because she’s a perfect example that beauty is many, many things…none of them having to do with the number of feet you have.

I wish her all the best, one redhead to another.

Why would a park that had dangerous equipment stint on safety checks? I am so sorry that this accident happened and I hope that the park gets held to the utmost reach of responsibility.

Greed, and a disconnectedness that comes with business culture. I’m sure the boss man would have ensured the ride was safe if his daughter and niece were riding it regularly. Just look at the size of the ride and the G’s it pulls – that cable would have sheared a horse in half, given the tension and speed at critical failure. You’d be checking and re-checking a ride like that – to manufacturer’s specifications (especially in the Magic Land of Litigation) – unless your hubris and rampant capitalism had eaten away your sensibilities.

Were they able to reattach her feet?

There’s no excuse for that kind of negligence.

I, too, Morbid, have always been uneasy about rides that are supposed to put you in safe-danger.

I hope that Six Flags has to pay loads of money to this family and I hope they actually learned something from this incident. I am so happy that 613 is not keeping quiet about what happen, and is fighting them. These are the ‘big boys’ and sometimes it is scary to fight them.