An unknown amount has been agreed to be paid by the former operator of an Iowa amusement park to resolve a lawsuit brought by the family of an 11-year-old boy who drowned on a water ride in 2021.
On Sunday, a business that owns Adventureland Park in the Altoona, Des Moines neighborhood, together with its former CEO and three managers, came to an agreement with Michael Jaramillo’s family.
Monday was supposed to be the first day of jury selection for the trial of the family’s lawsuit. The terms of the settlement are not public knowledge.
On July 3, 2021, Michael Jaramillo, his parents, two brothers, and another relative were strapped into a 1,700-pound raft on the Raging River ride when it overturned.
The family claims that although all six struck their heads on the water’s surface, Michael Jaramillo and one of his brothers were unable to remove their seatbelts and were kept head-down for roughly ten minutes.
According to the lawsuit, Adventureland neglected to adequately maintain and repair its rides, notably the Raging River, for many years.
Additionally, it stated that even though there were complaints of significant issues, the park kept the water attraction running on the day of the disaster.
Three managers, former CEO Michael Krantz, and Adventure Lands of America, the park’s previous owner, denied that the ride had been run incorrectly or with inadequate supervision.
However, the family’s lawyer, Fred Dorr, stated on Tuesday that his team feels they have a solid case that the park and its staff were at fault.
“Imagine the terror going on in those kids’ minds,” Dorr stated. “And then you turn to the jury and say, ‘What’s that worth, to watch your child die like that?”
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In response to the complaint, the defendants stated that no raft had overturned during the 38 years the ride was in operation before to the disaster and that the accident was caused by “a series of unexpected and intended factors.”
Krantz is a member of a family from the Des Moines region that started Adventureland in the 1970s and sold it, along with other related properties, to a Spanish-based multinational amusement park company’s subsidiary months after the disaster.
Adventureland and other US sites owned by the Spanish corporation were acquired by Herschend, an Atlanta-based business, in March. Silver Dollar City near Branson, Missouri, and Tennessee’s Dollywood theme park are both run by Herschend.
