RaySharpton
Retired and going to Disney.
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- Oct 28, 2000
College athlete sues Disney World, saying he lost a season after being run over by a scooter. By GABRIELLE RUSSON ORLANDO SENTINEL | JUN 18, 2020
An accident during his Disney World vacation cost a college basketball player his season, a new lawsuit filed against the theme park alleges.
As David Maynard walked through Hollywood Studios, an electric scooter driver approached from behind and ran into him in May 2018, the lawsuit says. The crash severed 97% of his left Achilles tendon, which required surgery and extensive physical rehabilitation, the suit says.
So Maynard missed the upcoming basketball season, according to his lawsuit seeking more than $30,000 and filed last week in Orange Circuit Court.
“Maynard has suffered great pain and anguish of the body and mind,” his lawsuit said, which accuses Disney of allowing scooters too close to pedestrians and not properly training the unknown driver of the Disney-owned scooter, among other allegations.
When reached for comment, Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said, “This is a matter is between two guests, and we will respond to the allegations as appropriate in court.”
The lawsuit gives clues where Maynard plays but doesn’t explicitly say which school other than to reveal that he is a Utah resident who attends college in New York.
Colgate University, located in Hamilton, New York, has a David Maynard of Herriman, Utah, listed on the basketball team’s roster. Maynard missed the entire 2018-19 season with an injury, the school website says.
Maynard, now a senior, was the second most accurate three-point shooter for the Colgate Raiders, which compete in the Patriot League.
Neither Maynard’s attorneys nor the Colgate athletic department returned messages for comment.
Last year, the Orlando Sentinel reported on the recent rise in scooter-related lawsuits involving incidents at the theme parks.
Scooters pose a complicated challenge for Disney and other theme parks to regulate since the electronic vehicles carry the same legal protection as wheelchairs, a disabilities advocate told the Sentinel.
Disney cannot ban scooters, and it’s difficult to limit who can drive them.
For many Disney-goers, the scooters are their lifeline to enjoy their vacations at the giant theme parks as they live with mobility issues and other health problems.
Some scooter drivers said it’s difficult to drive them in crowded parks with people regularly darting in front of them or casting judgment on them.
Maynard’s lawsuit is at least the fourth scooter-related lawsuit this spring filed against theme parks in Orange Circuit Court.
Last month, Marcia Clemencia Estrada, 84, of Colombia, sued SeaWorld, a company that rents scooters, and a scooter driver who she claims ran into her and fractured her right leg in multiple places in 2018, according to her suit.
Her attorney Eric Ellsley blamed SeaWorld for not properly training the driver to safely operate the scooter or restricting scooters to certain areas.
Linda Lopez of North Carolina sued Universal in late April after she said she flipped over while riding her scooter up a ramp last year at Universal Studios Florida. She fractured her right arm and hurt her head.
“When people visit these parks, they have an expectation and belief the parks are safe and all building codes were complied with. We believe that this was not the case here and our client was badly injured as a result,” Morgan & Morgan attorney Susan Payne said in a statement.
And New York resident Darlene Anchikites sued Disney in March after she said she tipped over on her scooter when her Epcot-bound Disney bus took a sharp turn in 2017.
SeaWorld and Universal declined to comment.
The scooters sometimes caused tension among visitors.
In late September, a man “traveling at a high rate for a scooter” crashed into a stranger’s leg near Epcot’s Mexican Pavilion, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office report.
When the woman yelled, “You hit me!” the man kept going and ran over her foot with the rear tire.
The driver rode away while other passers-by shouted at him, the report said.
The woman said her bones were fragile from a previous injury when she had just taken off a medical boot a week earlier. Now, the crash broke her pinky toe and left her bruised, the sheriff’s report said.
In recent times — at least until the coronavirus shutdown in March — big crowds tightly packed together at the parks, which seemed full throughout the year.
Now, the atmosphere is changing at Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld as the parks have announced safety plans to limit their attendance and enforce social distancing to try and keep visitors safe during the global pandemic.
John Gregory, owner of the Orlando Rising website that covers Orlando’s parks, expects people will likely be more mindful of staying spread apart, which could help cut down on collisions between scooters and walkers.