WARREN — Two recent lawsuits in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court seek damages from those responsible for amusement rides plaintiffs said caused riders to suffer injuries.

Amanda Elser of Green Bay Drive, Boardman, filed suit against Mid-America Events LTD of Niles and “XYZ Defendants 1 through 4” for a broken ankle she suffered at the Haunted Scaregrounds at the Canfield Fairgrounds on Aug. 6, 2017.

The suit states Mid-America Events operated the Scaregrounds. The XYZ defendants are unknown individuals or corporations responsible for the ownership, maintenance, design, management or operation of the Scaregrounds.

In the lawsuit, Elser said she and some friends went to the Scaregrounds and entered a building known as The Bayou, going through it.

“At one point, she was guided to a sliding board, which went into a dark area below,” the lawsuit states.

Elser believes, the suit states, the sliding board was “improperly and negligently designed, maintained, managed or constructed without any warnings to users in such a way that when (Elser) reached the bottom of the sliding board, it caused impact which fractured her ankle.”

An attempt to reach Mid-America Events for comment Friday was unsuccessful.

The suit states Elser’s injuries are permanent, and “she may have aggravated pre-existing conditions.” It states she “experienced much pain, suffering, disability and / or discomfort in the past and in all probability will continue to experience the same in the future.”

She also has incurred medical expenses and likely will incur more in the future, the lawsuit states.

She seeks compensatory damages from Mid-America Events and the XYZ defendants of at least $25,000. The suit was filed by attorney Darren DeHaven of Uniontown.

In another lawsuit, a Mecca family has sued a Farmdale family; the company Austintown Bounce; its agent, Bruce Shepas of Austintown; and three John Does for injuries a 7-year-old girl suffered while playing on an inflatable slide at a children’s party.

The suit, filed by Nicolette and Nickolas Pappas of Greenville Road, states their daughter attended a party Aug. 17, 2018, at the Fisher Corinth Road home of Edward and Vickie Kuzmick, who had employed Austintown Bounce to provide an inflatable slide for the party.

The suit states the Kuzmicks “knew or should have known that children attending their party were of young years and required substantial supervision while using the inflatable slide.”

The Kuzmicks “became aware during their party that the inflatable slide was separating at its seams, creating a potentially dangerous condition for children using the slide whose arms and legs could become entangled in the seams,” the lawsuit states.

But the Kuznicks did not close the slide and warn parents and their children that the slide was not safe, the lawsuit states. The Pappases had to work and had someone drop off their daughter at the event.

When reached by telephone Friday, Edward Kuzmick declined to comment.

The lawsuit states Austintown Bounce and its employees “should have known” that the slide was separating at the seams and presented risk to children using it, and failed to warn parents parents and children about the condition “even though it was reasonably foreseeable that children using the slide could catch their arms and legs in the open seams.”

Attempts to reach Austintown Bounce and Shepas on Friday were unsuccessful.

As a result of the problem with the slide, the girl sustained injuries, required medical care and hospital attention, “suffered great pain of mind and body” and incurred “medical, hospital and related expenses as well as other injuries, damage and loss,” the suit says.

Austintown Bounce on Kirk Road rents a variety of inflatable bounces and slides, according to its website. The suit states two unnamed employees assembled and inflated the slide, and “John Doe 3” is the corporation, individual or partnership that manufactured the inflatable slide.

The suit seeks at least $25,000 in damages from the Kuzmicks, Austintown Bounce and the manufacturer of the slide.

The suit was filed by attorney Matt Blair of Niles.

erunyan@tribtoday.com