Personal Injuries on Disney Property

[MayBWeRMnt2B]

Well this was a question from 'have you ever' and it was mine so I figured I'd share my story with you all and then you could possibly share yours!

Okay so I got hit at MGM during the Lights when they still had the houses. You could walk up the street. Well, I was crossing in front of a lady in a motorized wheel chair (it was REALLY crowded.) The lady was stopped and looking behind her so I didn't think she'd move (common sense I thought), well she started moving forward without looking in front of her. The little box on the top of the wheel chair that you steer from hit my knee cap directly on. It knocked me over, I blacked out for a split second, and my leg just started to swell. I was with my parents (this was maybe when I was like... 17 I think) so they saw me and I walked out thinking no big deal. However that night my knee wouldn't fit in my jeans it swelled so big, but we were flying home the next day so I just waited until I got home to go to the Doctor. To shorten this a bit, they still don't know what's wrong with me knee. It just randomly swells whenever it feels like it. They've also determined I have arthritis in my knee from getting hit. I've had surgery on it and lots of therapy but nothing helps. They could figure out what's wrong if I decide to be cut open and have like a 2 foot scar, but I don't really care to. Lol. So I shall live in pain.

Disney called me once we sent through all the insurance paper work and they seriously harassed me for over a month. My family didn't want anything from them since even though I got hurt on Disney property, it wasn't their fault. However every night/day/morning for a month I got phone calls from Disney people making sure I was okay, and making sure "i did not want anything." We finally got so sick of it that we told them if they called us back again, THEN We were going to sue them. They never called back after that...

[Minnie_Mouse007]

Disney called me once we sent through all the insurance paper work and they seriously harassed me for over a month. My family didn't want anything from them since even though I got hurt on Disney property, it wasn't their fault. However every night/day/morning for a month I got phone calls from Disney people making sure I was okay, and making sure "i did not want anything." We finally got so sick of it that we told them if they called us back again, THEN We were going to sue them. They never called back after that...

Well, you don't exactly hear THAT every day. lol. I hope your knee isn't too bad today, or any day for that fact. They need HORNS on those wheelchairs! Like CAR horns. That'd be better.

[MayBWeRMnt2B]

It was... unique. My friends make fun of me for not accepting anything they said I should have tried for money or lifetime passes, but really it wasn't Disney's fault. So I didn't want anything. My family and I thought the whole thing was just annoying.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be.

Was the motorized chair Disney property? If so, then the operater probably had to sign a waiver that they assumed all risks to themselves and any harm they did to other WDW guests would be their responsibility. As a minor you have until age 24, I think, to sue Disney, but you probably would lose since you cannot prove it was Disney owned. If you look on your ticket you will see any suit against Disney will be litigated in Florida, which means you would have to have a Florida lawyer, or a lawyer who can practice in Florida. You could sue on the theory that Disney created a hazard by not providing enough light for you to see clearly and avoid the motorized chair.

If the motorized chair was owned by the guest you could sue the guest, but obviously you do not have any information about the guest at the time of the incident.

Anything Disney would do for you would be a goodwill gesture and if you accepted anything you could not sue Disney in the future, even if you could prove they were at fault.

[NORMNB8S]

I've always thought that those wheelchairs were dangerous. I'm always paranoid that someone is going to take out the back of my legs.

[Disneynut57]

I voted no but forgot my DD got a bloody nose walking in the entrance turnstyles at MGM. Nothing to do with disney but it did start bleeding. they sent us over to the first aid thing and they got it to stop ok. There were a couple drops of blood on her t shirt and they tried to get it out but couldnt so they gave her a coupon for a free shirt up to 25 dollars. YOu want to guess how many of the stores we went into till she finally made her mind up. Good thing Fantasmic is late or we woudl ahve missed it

[MayBWeRMnt2B]

Thanks JC!

We still don't want anything. I mean it's technically not their fault I'd find it just a stupid lawsuit just clogging up the system. Insurance covered it and and my parents found the whole thing annoying too. My parents have the perspective that there are too many frivilous lawsuits. So I don't mind... it's amusing to think about though... I mean I could get money to buy a house with...

[nick.jeschke]

I've had a few injuries...here is one of mine.

Ok, so I was 6 or so and my family had rented a golf cart from the bike barn. I always loved riding in the back of the golf cart, watching the things whisk by. Well, we were all leaving the trading post and had just had fun browsing around. Well, my Dad kinda forgot to make sure everyone was seated before taking off. And well, I was just about to take a seat when he hit the...electric? (LOL)
So...take a guess on how that worked out. I flew off the golf cart and landed square on my face. Scraped up knees, hands, and another broken nose (my other was when I was 3...not at Disney though!). So that all paned out well!

[nick.jeschke]

Oh...and my Dad jumped out a moving tram once...did not turn out well. And after that, my uncle walked into one of the yellow parking barriers...hitting him square between the legs.

[peterpanflight]

there was never an injury with me but my stepfather..im not sure if i posted this or not.
anyway it was years ago and we were at river country. My brother and stepfather was fooling around on the swing set and my father went to jump up on the wood railing holding the swings together....there was a broken ***** and his wedding band got caught on it. The ***** grabbed on to his ring and ripped it. His ring went into his finger...it was gross!!!!! His finger was basically hanging and had to rush him to the hospital. Long story short disney ended up giving us a large sum of money because they felt it was there fault they did not fixed the broken srew.

[peterpanflight]

sorry all the **** stands for a bolt.. i was using another word that did not think was going to be blocked out in case anyone is confused

[tizzo]

I've always thought that those wheelchairs were dangerous. I'm always paranoid that someone is going to take out the back of my legs.

It's not the motorized wheelchairs that are dangerous, it's the people driving them.

[peterpanflight]

im dont know what is worse the people with the wheelchairs or people pushing the strollers in the crowds

[tizzo]

Insurance covered it

Let me start out by saying that in this particular case, I don't see what else you could have done, other than let Disney pay for your expenses instead of insurance. But in the more general sense, the attitude behind this statement is a large part of why the US health care system is "broken" and why insurance costs so much. There is no obvious incentive to try to limit costs, keep providers honest, or make sure that costs are borne by those who deserve them. If it was me, I would not have let the person who hit me leave without at least giving a name and address so that if necessary I could make sure that they bear their appropriate share of any cost resulting from their actions.

That's not to say that I would sue them. Under ordinary circumstances (IE unless they are actual criminals), I would have sent them my medical bills and they would have willingly paid them. If they refused, then I would have to make the decision whether to litigate or not.

It's great and appropriate that insurance covered it, but what most people don't understand about insurance is that when they pay a bill, they're paying it with your money. That doesn't mean that your insurance premium is going reflect a dollar for dollar increase next year, any more than it means that not filing a claim will result in a decrease. But it all washes out in the end, so that ultimately you (and I and everyone else with health insurance) is paying a cost that should appropriately have been borne by the wheelchair driver.

Besides the money issue, the presumed immunity from the consequences of their actions was surely a contributor to the carelessness that resulted in you getting hit in the first place. IE If the wheelchair's operator had any reason to believe that hitting someone with the chair due to their own negligence would have consequences, I guarantee you they would have been more careful, which may or may not have avoided the entire incident.

Sorry for straying so far off topic. This touched a nerve for me because I just had an incident with a health care provider billing my insurance company for bogus charges, and when I called them about it they were surprised, even flabbergasted, that I wanted them to fix it. They seemed to think that I didn't understand that I wasn't being asked to pay anything directly and that insurance was going to pay for it. IE they thought that my attitude should be that as long as it's not coming directly out of my pocket, I should have let them steal whatever they could get from my insurance company.

Tony

[MayBWeRMnt2B]

My family has amazing insurance. Basically we are all over-insured because my parents own their own businesses. So my car, me, anything that happens to me, is all over insured. So ANY claim not matter how little goes through insurance no matter how little it is goes through insurance. Since I'm insured through their business I'm considered "responsible" (along with my brother) for it if anything would ever happen to my parents, so we are all "over-protected." And they've never sent our insurance bogus charges because our insurance is scary to some people. lol. I'm going to miss it when I get married.

Basically the lady on the wheel chair, how do I put this nicely? I don't know if it was hers or not, but she was a heftier older lady. She apologized profusely for hitting me and I didn't even think to get any contact information neither did my parents because we just kinda figured it would swell and then it would go away. Fooled me though.

So moral of the story: watch out for people on wheel chairs, it hurts!