The young woman struck down by a rollercoaster while retrieving her phone has revealed the full devastating injuries she suffered as she launches legal action against the family-run company who operated the ride.
Shylah Rodden, now aged 29, has filed a County Court of Victoria civil suit against Chants Amusements, owners of the Rebel Coaster that hit her at the Melbourne Royal Show in 2022.
Ms Rodden was lucky not to have been killed in the shocking incident, which saw her upper body and head smashed into pieces.
A list of 31 injuries included in a statement of claim lodged with the court makes for harrowing reading.
They included fractures to the skull, brain haemorrhage, injuries to the left carotid and right vertebral arteries, abdominal injuries, damage to the liver and small bowel, fractures to the thoracic (area from the neck to the bottom of the ribs cage) spine, a broken right wrist, a broken left arm, pelvic fractures, a broken right ankle, broken left hand, a right eye haemorrhage, chest injuries, multiple fractured ribs and psychological injury.
But after a near two-year investigation, workplace watchdog WorkSafe Victoria decided against charging Chants or the Melbourne Royal Show with anything.
Ms Rodden’s lawyer, Arnold Thomas & Becker’s Sharlene Mehta, refused to comment on the civil action on Monday.
But a 16-page document filed with the court claims Chants Amusements was solely to blame for Ms Rodden’s injuries.
Shylah Rodden’s body was crushed after being hit by a rollercoaster and sent nine metres off the track to the ground
Shylah Rodden after she was hit by a rollercoaster in 2022
‘The injury suffered by (Ms Rodden) occurred by reason of the Defendant’s breach of the duty owed to her in that it failed to ensure (she) would not be injured or suffer damage by reason of the state of the site or by things done or omitted to be done in relation to the state,’ the court was told.
Among the allegations is that Chants staff should have stopped Ms Rodden from jumping onto the tracks to retrieve her phone after she dropped it on the ride.
Ms Rodden had re-entered the ride from the arrival point, which lawyers claimed among other things, should have been better fenced off.
Chants Amusements did not respond to an inquiry by Daily Mail Australia on Monday.
It can be revealed the company is a family owned business operated by Les ‘Chippa’ Chant and Cassie Evans.
Mr Chant, a father of five now aged in his late 40s, has been a showman his entire life.
Chants Amusements has been operating for more than 30 years, with Mr Chant renowned across the country as one of the great carnival operators.
‘Some people choose to do it just as a way of life and they live week by week and enjoy the campfire and a few beers and a barbecue and they just get by,’ Mr Chant told the Daily Liberal just a few years back.
Les ‘Chippa’ Chant (right) and Cassie Evans
Chants Amusements is a family operated business
Shylah Rodden before she was struck by a rollercoaster in 2022
Seconds from disaster. Shylah Rodden (dressed in black) attempts to grab her phone
Shylah Rodden as she is today. She is suing the ride operator for causing her injuries
‘But other people try to do it in a bigger way. I’ve got kids in boarding schools and private schools. I have to have more rides because I’ve got bigger bills to pay.’
Mr Chant said showmen like himself thrived on ‘seeing kids enjoying themselves’.
‘We’re here to create fun and make memories for families,’ he said then.
The company now faces a $3million damages bill which Ms Rodden’s lawyers claim would have been what she’d have earned working in community services until retirement if she had got a job and hadn’t stepped in front of the rollercoaster.
At the time of the incident, according to court documents, Ms Rodden had been studying a Certificate IV in ‘Alcohol and Other Drugs’ and was unemployed.
In August, Daily Mail Australia revealed Ms Rodden allegedly lashed out angrily at Chants operators who warned her not to retrieve her phone moments before she was struck.
Well-placed sources closely linked with the WorkSafe investigation told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Rodden was found to be the key cause of the tragedy.
Ms Rodden had earlier been working at a lolly stand at the show when she and a friend took a ride on the rollercoaster during a break.
Witnesses are understood to have told Worksafe investigators Ms Rodden appeared disorientated when she dropped her phone and attempted to retrieve it from under the tracks.
The source alleged ride operators told Ms Rodden they would stop the ride to allow her to retrieve her phone, but she would need to wait up to 30 minutes before she could access the area.
‘It’s fair to say she had some words to say to the operator when he told her to wait half-an-hour so that was the kind of behaviour the operator was facing,’ the source said.
‘She really didn’t want to wait and took it in her own hands not to do so.’
The Rebel Rollercoaster reopened just days after Shylah Rodden was struck in 2022
Shylah Rodden was ‘living life loose’ when tragedy struck her down.
The investigation is understood to have found the operators had taken every precaution to ensure the safety of showgoers.
‘They did all that. They followed their systems, they followed the processes they had in place,’ the source said.
‘The workers there followed their training as they were told to do and that’s where the obligations are.
‘That’s where any charges the authority could lay are and have nothing to do with any decisions that one person may have made to get around those systems and processes that were in place by the (operator).’
The ride operator was already familiar with those processes, given the number of items that routinely get dropped from the ride, the source said.
That system does not see the ride stopped each and every time a customer alerts the operator.
‘With a rollercoaster that kind of thing happens all the time,’ they added.
‘Stuff falls out of people’s pockets literally every time the ride goes around so they have a system in place to ensure that when things fall out people can get it back.
‘They keep the ride going because they can’t stop it every time otherwise they’d be doing it all day, everyday.
‘They have set times when they can shut it down and let people go and collect their stuff. [But] she decided not to wait and ultimately suffered the consequences.’
Ms Rodden’s legal action is being spearheaded by Ms Rodden’s mum and legal guardian Kylie Rodden, who is tasked with caring for her daughter.
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