Six Flags Faces Lawsuit After “Denying” Shoes to Guest Who Suffered Second-Degree Burns

A Six Flags theme park in New York is facing legal action after a guest claims a lost pair of sandals led to serious burns on his feet, with the incident allegedly compounded by staff who refused to offer him any way to protect himself from scorching pavement.

The Lawsuit Against Six Flags Darien Lake

According to The Batavian, Harrison G. Huffman filed the lawsuit with the Genesee County Clerk’s Office on July 24, representing himself in the case against Six Flags Darien LLC, DLFE Management Company LLC (doing business as Six Flags Darien Lake), DLFE Management Company II, LLC, EPR Properties, and a group of unnamed “John Does 1-10” identified as theme park employees, managers, ride operators, maintenance technicians, or contractors.

Huffman, an Army specialist originally from South Carolina now stationed in New York, says the incident unfolded during a June 28, 2026, visit to the Darien Center theme park. Before boarding the Tantrum roller coaster, he claims “defendants’ employees and ride staff” told him to remove his Rainbow-brand sandals and place them in a storage bin provided by the ride.

What Allegedly Happened After the Ride

Huffman says that when he got off Tantrum, staff had “negligently, carelessly and without authorization” handed his sandals off to someone else. Left without footwear, he claims employees denied him any accommodations — no temporary shoes, no golf cart ride, no wheelchair — despite the extreme summer heat.

“Defendants and their staff knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known that the exposed, dark, asphalt walkways of the Premises reach extreme temperatures under the summer sun in late June, creating a severe physical hazard capable of causing thermal burns to unprotected human skin,” Huffman wrote in the lawsuit. “Instead, Defendants’ employees directed the barefoot Plaintiff to walk across the hot asphalt to a security station and subsequently directed him to walk an additional distance to the front entrance of Guest Relations.”

Even after repeatedly alerting staff to his pain, Huffman claims he received no relief. He wrote that he “repeatedly notified staff that he was sustaining painful burns to his feet from the hot asphalt,” but staff “continued to refuse him transport or protective footwear, forcing [him] to walk barefoot once more from Guest Relations to the park’s EMS station.”

The Injuries and Legal Claims

Huffman says his burns required “extensive medical wrapping, examination and treatment by on-site EMS and subsequent medical providers,” and cites “intense physical pain, suffering and public humiliation, and aggravated pre-existing vulnerabilities, entitling Plaintiff to recover for the full extent of his injuries, regardless of any predisposition, under New York’s ‘eggshell plaintiff’ doctrine.” That doctrine holds defendants liable for the full scope of a plaintiff’s injuries, even those made worse by a pre-existing condition that wasn’t foreseeable.

He also claims the injuries left him “temporarily disabled” and unable to carry out his “normal physical military duties as an Army specialist,” while also costing him wages from a second job and access to travel and concert plans he’d already paid for.

The lawsuit alleges both negligence and premises liability, arguing Six Flags Darien Lake failed in its “duty of care to maintain Darien Lake in a reasonably safe, hazard-free condition and to ensure that all rides, attractions and public areas were constructed, operated, inspected, and maintained safely.” Huffman also brings a breach-of-bailment claim for his missing sandals, arguing that handing them to ride staff created a legal obligation on the park to safeguard them.

“By directing Plaintiff to surrender his footwear into a storage bin or receptacle owned and controlled by Defendants’ staff as a condition of riding the ‘Tantrum’ attraction, Defendants accepted delivery of, and assumed exclusive custody and control over, Plaintiff’s personal property, thereby creating a bailment for mutual benefit,” the lawsuit reads. “As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ breach of bailment, Plaintiff sustained the loss of his personal property and, further, the loss of that property was the direct and proximate cause of the barefoot exposure that gave rise to Plaintiff’s thermal injuries … in an amount to be determined at trial.”

Six Flags Darien Lake has not issued a public statement regarding the lawsuit.

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