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The OUE Skyspace Skyslide has hardly been around for more than three months, and already it's the subject of at least three lawsuits, reports the City News Service.
The first lawsuit, which named OUE Skyspace LLC and Legends Hospitality LLC as defendants, was filed back in July. Gayle Yashar, 57, claimed that she'd suffered a broken ankle on the ride. Her lawyer drew attention to a supposed gap that existed between the end of the slide and a cushion mat. He said that it was a hazard because a rider's foot could get trapped in it.
Now, there are at least two more lawsuits that focus on the Skyslide. Candice Coke, a plaintiff on one of the suits, claimed she'd injured her back while going down the see-through slide. And Tiffany Arnold, who is also suing, told KTLA that she'd sustained facial and neck injuries on the ride. "Once I was getting to the bottom, I just remember my head in the mat and I was getting up and I noticed I had a cut on my face," said Arnold. She said she'd asked the Skyslide managers to cover her medical costs but they were uncooperative.
On video, the Skyslide doesn't seem like a high-octane ride (it's also a really short trip). But, according to statements in both Coke and Yashar's lawsuits, the trouble is that the slide isn't built to slow down the momentum of the user, who continues to build up speed as the ride progresses. Yashar's suit said:
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...
Which is a long-winded way of saying that the slide should perhaps implement some safeguards near the end to slow down the rider. LAist has called OUE Skyspace LLC and Legends LLC but no one was immediately available for comment. We've sent a request for a statement to OUE Skyspace LLC.
Anyway, let's revisit that time when Jimmy Kimmel Live's Guillermo went for a jaunt on the slide. Look at him go!
