Old Orchard Beach amusement park faces lawsuit over child’s 2022 injury
A Florida father has sued the owners of Palace Playland in Old Orchard Beach, claiming the amusement park’s negligence left his 10‑year‑old son seriously hurt on a popular ride in the summer of 2022.
Walter Mercer, who lives in Bonifay, Florida, filed the complaint in York County Superior Court last Friday. He alleges that on July 16, 2022, a ride attendant failed to secure his son’s safety restraint before the Super Star ride began moving. According to the lawsuit, the ride’s design – three arms each bearing seven gondolas, with a central column spinning one way while the outer stars rotate the opposite direction – relies on a metal lap bar and a rope to keep riders in place. Mercer says the employee did not check that the lap bar and rope were properly fastened, allowing the boy to slip from his seat as the ride started.
Mercer says he shouted for the ride to be stopped, but the car was already in motion. In an attempt to avoid being carried higher and faster, the boy jumped from the seat onto the metal platform below. Before the ride could be halted, he was struck several times by passing gondolas. The complaint lists his injuries as a two‑inch laceration to the head, a broken nose, and extensive pain and bruising along his right side. Photographs submitted with the filing show blood spattered on the ride’s structure.
The father says he feared his son would be killed and that witnessing the episode caused him lasting emotional distress. A nearby T‑shirt shop owner, Paul Carney, who saw first responders load the boy into an ambulance, told reporters at the time, “It looked like he just stepped off the set of ‘The Walking Dead.’”
A state fire marshal’s investigation, referenced in the complaint, determined that it took the ride operator 23 seconds to bring the ride to a stop and reach the child. The investigator concluded that the operator had not verified that all riders were properly secured before the ride began. The lawsuit also claims that Palace Playland did not keep the Super Star attendant available for an interview after the incident, withheld incident reports and delayed providing security‑camera footage.
When asked for comment on the lawsuit on Monday, a representative of the park did not respond.
Mercer’s legal team, led by attorney Peter Richard, is seeking a jury trial and damages to cover medical costs, physical suffering, emotional anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and the ongoing fear of further injury. Richard wrote in the filing, “The harm did not end when the machinery stopped. This lawsuit asks Palace Playland to answer for the full human consequences that flowed from starting the ride before this child was properly secured, and to help ensure that no other family is placed in the same danger.”
