Urban cowboy, he ain’t.
A Manhattan man is suing the Rockefeller Center bar where he was allegedly roughed up by a mechanical bull.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Aaron Schnore said he suffered “serious physical injury” when he was bucked from a mechanical bull during a drunken ride at Johnny Utah’s in May.
Schnore’s lawyer, Lawrence Saftler, said his client appears to have been a victim of his own success.
“He was riding it pretty well, and since he wasn’t getting thrown,” an employee “ratcheted up the speed so he would,” Saftler said.
The suit says the unidentified employee “caused the actions of the mechanical bull to become more violent in an effort to throw the plaintiff off.”
“These things should be fun, but safety should be the paramount concern. They dropped the ball, in addition to dropping him,” Saftler said.
The lawyer refused to divulge the nature of Schnore’s injuries, except to say they were “sufficient to start this suit.”
A spokesman for the restaurant said the owners hadn’t seen the suit, and declined comment.
The nightly “Running of the Bull” is a major draw at the West 51st Street restaurant and bar. A sign posted near the contraption says customers can’t ride the ornery cuss if they’re intoxicated, but Schnore’s suit says he was encouraged to do so.
The home of the “urban cowboy experience” was “allowing and promoting an inebriated individual to use and ride the mechanical bull,” the suit says.
Schnore, 38, signed a waiver before going for his ride, but the lawyer said he plans to challenge it.
The suit seeks unspecified damages, and names bull operator “John Doe” in addition to the bar.
Additional reporting by Pilar Conci and Alex Sundby