A BALLAN woman is launching legal action against Ballarat’s Sovereign Hill after she was injured on a gold mine tour in 2009. She has claimed $70,000 in medical expenses.
Former postal worker Merilyn Meadows said she had been looking forward to taking friends from Sweden on a tour of the history museum to experience the region’s rich gold rush history, particularly a guided vehicle tour of the mine shafts weaving underground.
She claimed that on February 19, the carriage she was riding in was travelling too fast and stopped abruptly, jolting her forward and then slamming her back, giving her whiplash.
“I didn’t realise on the day the extent of the injury. I was in a lot of pain and it was a hot day, but later that day I couldn’t turn and my back got worse,” she said.
She said her pain worsened the next year, and severe leg and back pains culminated in the discovery of a spinal tumour “eating away” at her spine.
“If the doctors hadn’t discovered it and I hadn’t had the surgery I would be a paraplegic now,” she said.
Mrs Meadows alleged the accident in 2009 triggered the growth of the tumour.
She has undergone back surgery and had to learn how to walk again.
Mrs Meadows, who had retired shortly before the incident, said she had given up on her dreams of overseas travel and would have to modify her house because of her disability.
“They’re so well-known as a company, it should not have happened,” she said.
Doctors had advised her that her back would worsen, she said, but the community around her had offered “immense support”.
Sovereign Hill attracts about 500,000 visitors a year and is one of the state’s biggest tourist attractions. According to the Sovereign Hill charter, one of the company’s six values is safety.
“We will maintain a safe and healthy workplace for all our visitors and for all who work on our sites,” its website states.
Sovereign Hill management declined to comment.
