Injury sustained in escape room: operators liable

Zeeland-West Brabant District Court 18 January 2017

An escaperoom is a game in which participants are locked in a room, from which room they must escape within a certain time limit. Participants go through various rooms in the building, each time having to complete tasks consisting of puzzles or riddles. On the occasion of a staff outing, a 63-year-old man takes part in an escaperoom game. After his group solves the puzzle in the last room, they can open the metal grille, behind which there is a staircase that provides access to a room downstairs. While descending the stairs, the stairwell begins to fill with fog produced from two smoke machines, among other things. The man, who is the third person to descend the stairs, falls and suffers serious leg injuries.

The man blames the operators of the escaperoom for failing to warn of a situation that was unknown and unsafe to him. These were a staircase consisting of two parts, where the lower part was at right angles to the upper part with a platform as a transition, the lack of an armrest at the lower part of the staircase and the creation of a situation in which visibility was virtually impossible. According to him, the operators could easily have taken measures to avoid the fall he suffered by, for example, making the armrest extend downwards and by not allowing any or less fogging.

The operators of the escaperoom argue that from above the man could clearly see what the construction of the stairs looked like. The operators argue that if the man felt there was a dangerous situation, he could have chosen to leave the game early. By not doing so, but entering the stairs anyway, it was his own fault.

The court ruled as follows. The man did not need to be particularly attentive until descending the stairs, as nowhere was it expressed that one should beware of any physical threat. The environment in which the man subsequently found himself had a disorienting effect: loud sound effects, lightning bolts, fog clouds and bright lights that alternately turned on and off. It is therefore obvious that in that situation the man no longer exercised the due care and attention required. Given the aforementioned circumstances, a accident as happened to the man is by no means exceptional. Moreover, it is a fact of general knowledge that a fall from stairs can lead to (serious) injuries, including leg injuries. The court ruled that the operators could easily have installed - necessary - safety devices. For instance, after the accident, the operators installed reflective strips, installed an armrest on the wall side at the level of the last part of the stairs, painted the last step of the stairs white and changed the position of the construction lights. In addition, they could have placed focused warnings and lowered the level of disorientating factors.

Moreover, the man's plea of his own fault fails. Indeed, the operators' reasoning presupposes that the man must have realised the risks to which he would expose himself if he continued the game and walked down the stairs beyond the metal fence. However, the risks only revealed themselves later, after the metal fence opened and the man continued the route of the game in an actually different situation than he might have witnessed before descending the stairs in question. Namely, a situation with sound and light effects and in which fog was created by two smoke machines. The court concluded that the operators were liable for the man's injuries.

Tip: Don't play with people's safety!