Theme park attractions break down and that often leads to frustrated guests who either can’t experience certain rides, or get stuck on the ride that has broken down. It’s annoying, but there is usually no harm done. However, in one recent case, four people are claiming harm and are now suing Universal Studios Hollywood after they got stuck on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and honestly, I get it.
The incident took place in April 2022, when a power outage at Universal Studios Hollywood, froze both the Harry Potter ride and the Transformers ride. EW got a look at the lawsuit in which four guests who were on the ride at the time. Debra Biane, Gerald Scott Biane, Josh Taylorson, and Sami-Joh Goldberg are suing Universal Studios Hollywood for liability, negligence, and the infliction of emotional distress.
According to the complaint, the four were on the attraction at Universal Hollywood’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter when the ride vehicle stopped in its tracks. The guests were stuck in the air at an angle that left them “tilted backward and to the right” for approximately an hour. The ride vehicle then moved enough to get the group upright, but they remained stuck in the vehicle for an additional 30 minutes before they were able to be evacuated.
This is literally my nightmare. Not because I have an issue with getting stuck on a theme park ride, I’ve been on enough rides that I’ve experienced my share of breakdowns, but Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is not my favorite attraction in the world when it is working properly-- never mind when it breaks down. The ride vehicle swings you at all sorts of unnatural angles and it gives me more motion sickness issues than most roller coasters.
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Some people may have nightmares of getting stuck on It’s a Small World and hearing the song for an hour while they wait to be rescued, but I’d much rather do that than be stuck on Forbidden Journey. At this point, I only go on it when I start to wonder if maybe it’s not as bad as I remember. It is. It always is.
While the vast majority of people ride theme park attractions without incident, when you consider the millions who go on popular rides every year, there are going to be the occasional issues. We’ve seen ride breakdowns go viral on social media before and lawsuits certainly do happen when people claim injury on a theme park resort property. We rarely hear about these issues after the initial lawsuit filing, indicating that most often settlements are reached or cases are dismissed before they ever reach courtrooms.
Two years ago a California grandmother also sued Universal Studios Hollywood over the same Harry Potter attraction, though in that case the woman was injured while in the queue, not on the ride itself.
