A possible lawsuit might be on the cards with this one. The plaintiffs could pursue a breach of contract and even possible health and safety infringement law suit, which led to the plaintiffs severe mental and emotional distress, which required the plaintiffs to contact the emergency and rescue services. I suspect that the maize maze fell short of required public safety standards such as failure to correctly display the appropriate level and number of emergency exits, a lack of due care and attention and that as night time fell the maize maze route was not adequately lit properly which would have allowed the plaintiffs to continue on to complete the maize maze route.

Even more disturbing was the fact that the owners of the maize maze had failed in their duty to ensure that the plaintiffs had actually completed the maize maze (they had closed the maize maze before they had noticed that before the end of the business day that the plaintiffs were still inside the maize maze, leading to charges of neglectful abandonment by the owners) and therefore the contract arrangement between the two parties had been wholly negligent in order to maintain the plaintiffs safety and security.

Then there are the issues of having to face the global public humiliation and embarrassment as being perceived as being complete thicko's.


Fitch, Dewar and Crotch.

You'll pay us handsomely to argue the toss all day, to blame others for your own incompetence and stupidity.

OTOH, mounting a couple of IR or night vision capable security cameras overlooking the maze might not be a bad idea...

While you are trying to figure things out, your sobbing spouse has made a 911 call. Now what? Tell 911 to forget it [they won't of course]? Get into an argument with your spouse about the embaressment [I hope not]? Tell your spouse she and the baby are on their own while you leave them to solve the problem yourself the because you are a real man [not]?

Wouldn't there be a sweep of the maze by its proprietors come dark? Isn't there normally a count of who goes in and who comes out?

Me [hoping never to be in that situation], I'm considering tearing up / sawing off and lighting a few isolated corn stalks on fire; figuring that will deter bugs, light my way out, and probably get a lot of quick attention from the proprietors!

I've been to any number of corn mazes since my children were born. I've never seen one that counted people going in or out. Also, more than half of the ones I've seen have more than one entrance or exit.

Just think how awful it would have been if they had been trying to find their way through a government building with solid walls! And suppose the building had a cell phone-suppressant as part of the security measures... Do you think security would have found them before they turned into poor little mummified bodies?

These are the kind of people who have made America what it is today.

Forget trying to find a cure for the common cold, let's find a cure for idiocy.

Sue

They were "Stuck" in a 8-10 acre corn field, and the hubby could see lights. WOW. People should have to pass a test to be able to reproduce, and I think that damn corn maze should be on the test... Unreal.

As a city boy, I claim no cornfield knowledge. A country friend posted on FaceBook that trying to cross a mature cornfield is not easy, can have concealed dangers, would make you almost impossible to find by rescuers, and that almost any other option would be better.

I wonder if there will be rash of cornfield crossings by those "proving" they are better than the 911 cornfield folks?

A mature cornfield, particularly one punctuated by maze openings, is an impossibly benign environment compared to virtually any piece of wild real estate. The field is flat as a billiard table; you have no rocks, canyons, etc. How can it be any simpler?

Very strange situation. I tend to agree with Am Fear that legal concerns might have been involved but in quite a different way. The couple may have been worried about the liability to the owner of the maze caused by destroying part of it to escape. Its not much a a maze when there is an exit cut through the corridors. It would have been a passing thought, but I would have done it anyway if I considered it an emergency situation (hard to say with a three week old involved). Then again, I may be giving them way too much credit.

I have to believe the situation you described is a serious fire code violation in any municipality regardless of whether it is "after hours". The fire marshals and code inspectors I have known take their jobs very seriously. If that fire trap existed in my building, I would drop a dime on them in a heartbeat.