In late December 2013, a Florida woman named Tedi A. Brown suffered a brain injury after falling from a ride at the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which is owned by country legend Dolly Parton. One year later, Billboard reports that Brown and her husband have filed a lawsuit against Dolly Parton Productions Inc. and Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., alleging that the ride's operators are responsible for Brown's headfirst fall, which resulted in "permanent impairments and disabilities."
According to the lawsuit, Brown's accident occurred on a ride called the Waltzing Swinger, which features swinging chairs with a lap bar mechanism to keep riders restrained. But Brown lifted the lap bar before it was safe to do so, and due to the wintry weather conditions that day slipped out of her seat and fell 10 feet onto the pavement below, resulting in "spine and neck injuries, torn ligaments, and a broken jaw."
The lawsuit alleges that Brown and her family were falsely informed that the ride would be safe under such wintry conditions and that Brown was not warned to keep herself restrained until the ride was completely finished and safely on the ground.
"Defendents failed to exercise due care and breached the duty owed these plaintiffs by failing to close the Waltzing Swinger ... when the weather was a wintry mix of rain and sleet," the lawsuit reads, "which rendered the seats and lap bars of that ride dangerously slick."
Brown and her husband are seeking $475,000 in damages.
Though Dolly Parton herself has not commented on the lawsuit, Dollywood spokesman Pete Owens released a statement today, Dec. 31, saying, "Out of respect for the process and as a matter of practice, Dollywood does not comment on pending litigation. We look forward to this issue being resolved and anticipate commenting at that time."
You can listen to Dolly Parton's performance of "Jolene" from Glastonbury 2014 here:
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