THE BRONX — A Parkchester woman is suing Six Flags over an ill-fated ride on the amusement park's King Cobra waterslide that left her badly injured, court documents say.
Joanne Maldonado was visiting the Six Flags water park Hurricane Harbor in Jackson, N.J. on June 21, 2015 when she decided to take a ride on the King Cobra waterslide, according to the lawsuit.
Six Flags describes the slide as a 256-foot-long attraction that takes people on a journey through a giant snake and ends with them shooting out of the creature's body and sliding up toward its head.
"You basically get swallowed whole by a giant deadly snake head, about 10 times the size of your body," reads Six Flags' description of the ride. "The momentum plus intense slippery-ness will have you sliding up and back under the massive cobra head over and over, just barely in reach of his killer fangs."
After Maldonado got on the ride, a park employee let another visitor go down before she was able to get out of the way and off of the slide, which caused the other person to violently crash into her and cause "severe and permanent injuries," according to the suit.
King Cobra riders can reach speeds of up to 32 miles per hour, according to Six Flags.
The suit places the blame for Maldonado's injuries entirely on the amusement park, arguing that she is not at any fault whatsoever for the crash.
The violent collision sent Maldonado to the hospital and left her unable to do her job, according to the suit, which also accuses Six Flags of hiring "incompetent, poorly trained, inexperienced, indolent, lazy, immoral, negligent, reckless and criminal" employees.
Maldonado is represented by attorney L. David Rahmanan, who declined to comment on the suit. Six Flags declined to comment as well.
