Mother sues after 10-year-old suffers serious injuries from zip line fall

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    LAKELAND, FL (WFTS) — A lawsuit was filed Monday by the mother of a 10-year-old Lakeland boy who suffered serious injuries when he fell from a zip line at the Urban Air Adventure Park in September.

According to the lawsuit, on Sept. 1 the boy fell more than 20 feet onto a cement floor while riding the “Sky Ride” zip line. He was airlifted to the hospital and suffered serious injuries to his head and body, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is filed against the company that owns the Lakeland facility, UATP Management. It alleges Urban Air employees failed to check or secure the boy’s harness properly before the start of the ride.

Surveillance video from inside the facility shows the boy falling onto the concrete floor just a few moments after getting on the zip line.

An attorney representing the family tells ABC Action News the boy suffered several broken ribs, a collapsed lung and head injuries. He spent five days at Tampa General Hospital.

Morgan & Morgan attorney Steven Capriati, who filed the lawsuit, released this statement:

When parents bring their children to a facility like this, they are led to believe that the facility and its employees have both the proper safety measures and protocols in place – and the training, knowledge, and ability needed to implement them. We believe that Urban Air failed, at every level, to protect our client. In this case, three different people supposedly trained on safety procedures failed to take the necessary steps to ensure our client’s safety, and the result was horrific. But this isn’t just employee failure; we believe it was the lack of proper training and oversight by management as well a failure to have appropriate safety measures in place in the event of employee error.
The family is seeking an excess of $15,000 in damages.

Urban Air Adventure Park sent ABC Action News the following statement Monday:

Urban Air is fully committed to the uncompromising safety and well-being of our guests and employees. As a family-owned and operated company, safety is at the heart of everything we do. We take matters of this nature very seriously and can assure that appropriate measures have been taken. All staff members have been retrained on all attractions and the employees in question are no longer with us. We are thankful to hear that the child is back in school and we will continue to keep him and his family in our thoughts and prayers through his full recovery.

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