2019 West Virginia Code
Chapter 20. Natural Resources
Article 16. Nonprofit Adventure and Recreational Activity Responsibility Act
§20-16-5. Duties of Participants
It is recognized that the adventure and recreational activities described in this article are hazardous to participants, regardless of all feasible safety measures which can be taken.
Each participant in an adventure or recreational activity expressly assumes the risk of and legal responsibility for any injury, loss or damage to person or property which results from participation in an activity. Each participant shall have the sole individual responsibility for knowing the range of his or her own ability to participate in a particular adventure or recreational activity, and it shall be the duty of each participant to act within the limits of the participant's own ability, to heed all posted warnings, to act in accordance with the instructions of any employee of the non-profit youth organization or provider, to perform an adventure or recreational activity only in an area or facility designated by the nonprofit youth organization or provider and to refrain from acting in a manner which may cause or contribute to the injury of anyone. There is a rebuttable presumption that any participant under the age of fourteen is incapable of comparative negligence or assumption of the risk. There is an irrebuttable presumption that any participant under the age of seven is incapable of comparative negligence or assumption of the risk. Any participant over the age of fourteen will be subject to the common law presumptions as to their acts and or omissions.
A participant involved in an accident shall not depart from the area or facility where the adventure or recreational activity took place without leaving personal identification, including name and address, or without notifying the proper authorities, or without obtaining assistance when that person knows or reasonably should know that any other person involved in the accident is in need of medical or other assistance.
