Fort Lauderdale woman suing Universal Orlando over rocky coaster ride
MIAMI - A Fort Lauderdale mother shares only with CBS News Miami how a rocky roller coaster ride changed her life.
Geriann Clem and her husband filed a lawsuit last month in Orange County against Universal City Development Partners, Ltd., which does business as Universal Orlando Resort, alleging she suffered a "traumatic brain injury" after riding a roller coaster at the Universal Studios Florida theme park.
"I remember it started out going up an incline, and then it just felt like I was out of control," said Clem.
Sitting across her dining room table from CBS News Miami reporter Joe Gorchow, the 66-year-old Clem recalled what she described as a rough ride on the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster.
"There was I was, getting thrown side to side really hard, violently, and I just remember, I just want this to be over," said Clem.
On February 11th, 2023, Clem took a quick trip to the theme park with her daughters who were 19 years old. Their first ride was Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. Once off the coaster, her daughters called Richard Clem, who was home in Fort Lauderdale.
"We just got off the ride and she doesn't know our names," recalled Richard Clem, Geriann's husband and the girls' dad. "She can't read the signs. She's, like, not her herself. I said, please try to get her some help."
The family said they did seek immediate medical attention for Clem from a Universal employee onsite. Universal also self-reported the injury to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as a "headache."
Gorchow asked Clem, "What do you think when you see yourself in that photo there," referring to a picture she said her daughter took of them after she got off the ride.
"There's a girl in trouble," replied Clem.
Clem said her daughter snapped the photo shortly after the ride. The family left and went back to the hotel, with her husband listening on the phone.
"Then, all of a sudden, she ran to the bathroom, and I could hear her throwing up at the hotel," said Richard Clem.
"I don't remember a lot of it, but the next thing I know, I was getting put in an ambulance," said Geriann Clem.
Clem showed Gorchow her medical chart notes from a month after the initial injury, on March 15th of last year, when she went to a hospital closer to home in Fort Lauderdale, detailing what doctors identified as the head injury and the development of bleeding in the brain.
Clem's attorney provided her brain scan results taken months after the initial injury report to Universal: "In summary, the above findings are abnormal and compatible with the history of traumatic brain injury with objective quantitative evidence of permanent traumatic brain injury..."
"Clem's imaging mirrored the textbook image of what a brain injury looks like," said Justin Bailey, Clem's attorney. "This shows evidence of traumatic brain injury."
In the lawsuit, it alleges, "Defendant negligently failed to warn Plaintiff, GERIANN IRWIN CLEM, her head would be shaken and slammed against the headrest of her seat while riding the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit Roller Coaster."
Read Geriann Clem's Complaint
A Universal Orlando Resort spokesperson told CBS News Miami, "The company does not comment on pending litigation."
They also have not responded to the complaint in court filings when CBS News Miami checked on March 25th.
Universal Orlando's Rider Safety and Accessibility online booklet describes Rip Ride Rockit as a "high-speed roller coaster ride that includes sudden and dramatic acceleration, climbing, tilting, and dropping."
"How has your life changed since going on that ride?" Gorchow asked Clem.
"Well, I, the first half of the year after it happened, I was kind, I was having visual seizures, they called it, which was double vision. Sometimes, looking at something, part of it would be missing. Other times, some colors would kind of come up. So it made it impossible to, for me to do my graphic design work," she said.
"Are you worried you'll never be back to your full self?" asked Gorchow.
"I am because after all this time, it's been over a year, and I'm still having trouble with memory issues," she said.
"She hasn't been herself," added Richard Clem. "And in the way that I've known her for, we've been married for 28 years."
The theme park advises people online to "read all health and safety requirements for each attraction, as they are not all the same. If you suspect your health could be at risk for any reason or that you could aggravate a pre-existing condition of any kind, do not ride."
That's what's at the heart of this lawsuit. The family alleges the warning sign near the coaster was "inadequate," failing to warn about potentially "unreasonably dangerous conditions."
Read the lawsuit:
Universal lawsuit -- Geriann Clem by Mauricio Maldonado on Scribd
