A primary school educator faced disappointment after losing a £60,000 lawsuit against the adventure park company, Go Ape. The case centered around a serious leg injury she sustained on one of the park’s slides, with the judge emphasizing that such activities naturally come with risks.
In February 2019, 50-year-old Rosemary Mountain suffered a severe leg fracture while descending a 10 to 12-meter ‘Big Bounce’ netted fabric tube slide at Go Ape’s Black Park location near Slough.
Her shoe got stuck, resulting in multiple fractures and leaving her leg in an alarming state, described as ‘floppy’ and bent awkwardly at 45 degrees. This incident occurred in the park’s Nets Kingdom area, which is typically designed for children aged three to twelve.
Mrs. Mountain, who instructs young students in year one and two, pursued a £60,000 compensation claim against Adventure Forest Ltd, operating as Go Ape. She argued that the slide, which has since been replaced, posed too great a danger and was not suitably safe for use.
However, Judge Luke Ashby dismissed her lawsuit, noting that injuries are an understood risk in such adventurous environments.
“There are inherent risks in engaging with adventure park activities, even when instructions are followed,” Judge Ashby stated, rejecting the claim.
The court heard that Mrs Mountain was on a half term visit to the Black Park Go Ape with her husband and her young children in February 2019 when the accident happened.
She told the court they had decided to leave the area and go home, using the slide as the most convenient exit, with her husband and kids going first.
Rosemary Mountain, 50, suffered a ‘severe’ fracture and sued Go Ape for £60,000 – but her case has now been thrown out
The incident occurred on a 10 to 12m long ‘Big Bounce’ netted fabric tube slide at Go Ape’s Black Park adventure site near Slough in February 2019
‘I went down with my legs together,’ she told Judge Luke Ashby.
‘It was very fast and the first part is just a freefall. My foot just got snagged in some sort of material at the side of the slide and dragged behind me. I came to a rest and it was twisted right round.’
Mrs Mountain described how her leg ‘broke horribly’, adding: ‘My foot and leg were dragged underneath me as I fell and I knew I had badly broken my leg because I could feel intense pain and see that half of my shin was bent at about 45 degrees.
‘I could see that it was broken because it was in a flexible curve round behind me. It was just wobbly. When I came to a rest, I just thought “my kids can’t see my leg like this”.’
She said: ‘I’ve seen Go Ape a lot of times before. We signed to say there’s a risk of bumps and scrapes, but not this sort of injury.
‘It says on the description that it’s suitable for three-year-olds, so I didn’t expect to break my leg in the way that I did.’
After the horrific break, she had to be cut out of the netting at the bottom of the slide before being taken to hospital.
She told the court she had previously been an ‘outdoorsy adventurous person,’ but after the leg break had to undergo extensive surgery, remains plagued by chronic pain and is unlikely to ever return to running or her previous ‘active lifestyle’.
The court heard that Mrs Mountain (pictured) was on a half term visit to the Black Park Go Ape with her husband and her young children when the accident happened
Lawyers for Go Ape denied all blame and insisted there was nothing unsafe about the Nets Kingdom, which was ‘installed by industry specialists’ and regularly inspected for potential hazards.
They also argued that Mrs Mountain signed a disclaimer accepting she was at risk of injury before she went into the Nets Kingdom.
Dismissing the claim, the judge said: ‘There are inherent risks in undertaking adventure activities in adventure parks even when following instructions.
‘The defendant operates many well-known adventure parks around the UK…it is not an amateur outfit, it is a household name and the installation reflected that.
‘It is clear that injuries do occur. It is clear that people caught their feet on this slide probably eight or nine times before the accident,’ he went on, saying that after what had probably been around 100,000 uses of the slide there were eight or nine reported incidents.
‘The reality is you have a handful of minor incidents on this slide before the accident,’ he said.
‘It is socially desirable for adventure parks to be able to operate…There is a social utility to these types of activities.
‘Of course that doesn’t mean that the defendant can throw caution to the wind and must take such measures to assure that its users are reasonably safe.
‘[But] it was a course that was put together with professional advice to professional standards.
‘It was a nasty injury and it was a very unpleasant accident, but that is what it was. This claim is dismissed.’
