An Army specialist is taking Six Flags Darien Lake to court, alleging that a mishandled pair of sandals left him walking barefoot across scorching asphalt and resulted in second-degree burns.
The Case Against Six Flags Darien Lake
The Batavian reports that Harrison G. Huffman filed suit with the Genesee County Clerk's Office on July 24, acting as his own attorney in the case. Named in the filing are Six Flags Darien LLC, DLFE Management Company LLC (doing business as Six Flags Darien Lake), DLFE Management Company II, LLC, EPR Properties, and a set of unidentified “John Does 1-10” described as employees, managers, ride operators, maintenance technicians, or contractors connected to the theme park.
Huffman, a South Carolina native currently stationed in New York as an active-duty Army specialist, says the trouble began during a June 28, 2026, visit to the Darien Center theme park. He claims that ahead of boarding the Tantrum roller coaster, “defendants' employees and ride staff” directed him to take off his Rainbow-brand sandals and leave them in a storage bin near the ride.
Sandals Go Missing, Guest Left Barefoot
According to the lawsuit, Huffman's shoes were nowhere to be found once he exited the ride — staff had allegedly given them to another guest by mistake, described in the filing as acting “negligently, carelessly and without authorization.” From there, Huffman claims he was left to fend for himself, with no offer of temporary shoes, a golf cart, or a wheelchair to get him off the hot pavement.
“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.”
Huffman claims that despite alerting staff multiple times to his worsening condition, help never came. 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.”
Injuries and Legal Claims
Huffman says the burns required “extensive medical wrapping, examination and treatment by on-site EMS and subsequent medical providers.” He's invoking New York's “eggshell plaintiff” doctrine, citing “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 that legal standard, defendants can be held liable for the complete extent of a plaintiff's injuries, even those that were made worse by an unforeseeable pre-existing condition.
He further claims the injuries left him “temporarily disabled” and unable to perform his “normal physical military duties as an Army specialist,” in addition to costing him income from a second job and previously paid-for travel and concert plans.
The lawsuit brings claims of negligence and premises liability, arguing the park failed 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 is also pursuing a breach-of-bailment claim related to his sandals, arguing that the park assumed responsibility for them once staff took custody.
“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 commented publicly on the lawsuit.
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