Mind the Drone.

Mind the Drone

This case deals with a Virtual Reality game in which students are faced with a situation and must determine the legal consequences. Johanna was participating in a drone show hosted by Ushio Technologies Pte. Ltd., when she suffered a severe head wound that caused her mother PTSD. The students playing this game had to sort through the evidence and determine what was relevant and irrelevant. Based on the evidence, students must ask themselves if Ushio Technologies performed their duty of care thoroughly enough that the severity of the damages suffered by Johanna and her Mother was not their fault. This is the question the students must ultimately answer.

Before Johanna had even attended the event, the ticket she purchased stated that Ushio Technologies was not responsible for any damage or injury incurred by the participants at the drone show. The organizers of the event also set up warning signs further informing the contestants that they are entering at their own risk and once again, they are not liable for injuries sustained on their premises. If Johanna had not read the disclaimer on her ticket, the signs at the event should have indicated that she needed to take extra precaution as she was responsible for her own safety. The fact that she wandered into an off limits area despite the fact that the event organizers had cordoned it was the result of her carelessness. It is for these reasons that Ushio Technology did exercise their duty of care in warning the contestants that they were not responsible for any damages they may suffer during the drone show.

While Ushio Technologies took their due diligence to inform the ticket holders that they had to assume any risk during the event, there is evidence to suggest that Ushio Technologies had committed a breach of duty and are not completely void of liability. Even though the event organizers had cordoned off the restricted area, they had not set up an adequate barrier if Johanna could simply wander into a section of the premise that was supposedly off limits. There is also the case of the drone that accidently hit Johanna in the head. It was stated that the operator had not read the instructions properly thus contributing to the injury. Finally, the hematoma that Johanna sustained resulted in bleeding that was above average for injuries of this type. The intensity of her wound was so great that her mother suffered PTSD as a result. When considering causation and remoteness, if Ushio Technologies had committed to a higher standard of duty of care, the suffering Johanna and her mother had encountered could have been decreased