Kansas City Haunted House Accident Attorney

Haunted houses are spooky fun, but no visitor expects it to get spooky bloody or deadly. Unfortunately, people do get hurt when visiting haunted houses in Kansas City and elsewhere in Missouri.

The popularity of haunted houses continues an upward trend, with experts estimating that there are more than 1,500 haunted house locations across the U.S. Haunted houses get huge profits during the Halloween season alone.

What if you get injured in a haunted house?

While haunted houses are supposed to be scary, the last thing you would want is to end up in a hospital. No, not because the “monsters” were so scary that you had a heart attack (though cases where people with cardiovascular disease have heart attacks in haunted houses are not unheard of) – but because the haunted house operator failed to keep you safe due to his or her negligence, recklessness, or carelessness.

Seeking financial compensation through a premises liability claim after getting injured in a haunted house can be confusing and complicated, which is why seeking legal help from a Kansas City haunted house accident attorney is often the best option to receive maximum recovery. Luckily, our skilled premises liability lawyers from Mayer & Rosenberg, P.C., can help you determine liability in your particular case and recover damages.

Types of haunted houses in Missouri

As we have mentioned earlier, there are an estimated more than 1,500 haunted house locations across the nation. But these do not include approximately 3,000 haunted houses run and operated by charity groups (usually, these charity groups surface around the Halloween season).

Because haunted houses are run by different organizations, public entities, private citizens, and charity groups, determining liability in the event of a haunted house accident becomes more difficult than one would imagine.

Before filing a premises liability claim against the owner of the haunted house in which you sustained an injury, it is important to determine the type of the haunted house location:

1. Historical haunted house locations include tours of historic architecture and communities that have any relation to legends about ghosts and monsters. Historical haunted house locations include spending the night in a “haunted” hotel, asylum, or mansion.
2. Professional haunted house locations are haunted houses with a fixed location (usually open 365 days a year).
3. Amateur haunted houses and fund-raising events are run by charity groups and various non-profit organizations or even private citizens and can include haunted mazes, escape rooms, and other types of “scary” experiences.

Most common causes of haunted house accidents

Given that haunted houses draw hundreds of visitors daily, the importance of properly maintaining the property and exercising a high standard of care cannot be overestimated. Unfortunately, many haunted houses breach that duty of care, which results in injury and even death to their visitors.

Although causes of haunted house-related injuries vary from one case to another, our experienced haunted house accident attorney in Kansas City has outlined the most common ones:

• Slip and fall accidents. Haunted houses are full of not only monsters and spooky decorations, but also loose cords as well as hazardous props and other obstacles on the floor. Combine these with the fact that haunted house locations are usually dark and visitors tend to spill drinks all over the place when getting spooked, and avoiding a slip and fall accident immediately becomes almost impossible.
• Negligent workers. Many haunted houses in Kansas City and all across Missouri employ workers whose only job is to scare their visitors. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for haunted house workers to take their actions too far, which can cause harm to visitors, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions.
• Inadequately maintained or improperly secured props. It is not uncommon for improperly secured props to fall on visitors of haunted houses and cause injury. Also, a visitor can be injured by such hazardous elements as exposed wires, screws, metal parts or other protrusions.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning. Most haunted houses use fog machines to add the spooky factor. Unfortunately, inhalation of gases like carbon monoxide or other dangerous gases or chemicals that are used to create artificial fog can be harmful, especially if the owner of the haunted house failed to install proper ventilation and filtration on the property.
• Trampling. During an emergency situation, being in an overcrowded haunted house can be extremely dangerous because there is a high risk of crowd trampling, which can cause serious injury to visitors.