Another Day....Another Tragic Death....

A little boy drowns in a wave pool at Great America.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289161,00.html

Though this isn't relevant to the story, the article mistakenly calls the park by its former--Paramount-- name.

This is tragic, and will probably result in some policy changes.

Why can't parents just watch their children? This is not something the park is at fault for, I swear people should be tested on parenting before the hospital gives you your child.

I totally agree. A four year old should not be unsupervised anywhere, especially while playing in a 355,000+ gallon wave pool.

However, I'm certain the media will blame the park, just as they always seem to do in these cases.

This is sad. Another avoidable tragedy.

Notice: no mention of the kids parents anywhere in the article.

A little bit (not much) more information here...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/13/MNGIBR00851.DTL

My heart sank reading this story. So sad. The number of tragedies this year is astonishing.

This years deaths is truely astonishing. The sad part is, most of the accidents could be preveneted if parents of younger children actually watched them.

I don't really think deaths are up this year. I think we're more aware of them because of the internet and our obvious interest in theme parks.

Five deaths at that park since 1976? That's a pretty good track record considering the amount of guests they have. 30/31 years and 5 deaths. That doesn't really seem astonishing to me.

These stories frequently come from city pools too, and private pools in backyards. Very sad, but it's true that it happens all of the time. I'd venture to say that it's often due to parents not paying attention, which is even more sad.

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halltd said:
I don't really think deaths are up this year. I think we're more aware of them because of the internet and our obvious interest in theme parks.

Five deaths at that park since 1976? That's a pretty good track record considering the amount of guests they have. 30/31 years and 5 deaths. That doesn't really seem astonishing to me.

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And out of those 5 deaths, the only one that was a mechanical error was the Whizzer accident. The Logger's Run, Drop Zone, Top Gun, and Wave Pool was not mechanical error.

I totally agree that drownings are unfortunatley a reality of life. Even if he was a strong swimmer, I would imagine that a four-year old would have a very hard time staying afloat through the heavier waves in the wavepool.

It's got to be heartbreaking for the parents to lose someone so young.

The one thing though that drives me crazy in this article is that the media constantly has to bring up accidents that happened years ago. In the case of The Whizzer, that accident happened twenty-seven years ago under different ownership.

Some of the accidents are also totally unrelated in terms of what they do. What does a roller coaster have to do with a wavepool? It could be fifty-years from now and they'll still bring up this wavepool incident should anything else ever happen at the park.

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I don't really think deaths are up this year. I think we're more aware of them because of the internet and our obvious interest in theme parks.

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Remember a few years back when everyone was concerned about "shark attacks" happening everywhere? That's because the media decided that would be the big story (after all, who doesnt like shark stories), but in reality, shark attacks statistically were down that year.

The VERY next year, it was kidnappings. The media closely followed several kidnappings that year, and people were freaked out, when once again in reality the numbers of kidnappings by strangers was actually down that year.

This year it's amusement park accidents. Now granted, the Six Flags ordeal is horrific, but it is so rare in that it actually was the fault of the ride, and not human error.

Here in Columbus our news made it sound like people were near death on Magnum when the trains "bumped" one another.

They have also followed the latest, such as the lady worker who died at Playland, However, they never mentioned it was due to human error, they just said "lady dies on park ride".

We're again seeing the media blow everything out of proportion, when the real message should be, "if you follow the rules, chances are you will be absolutely fine".

Even if the parents are right there and nominally paying attention, bad things can happen very quickly. Here's a quote from another message board I frequent:

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Two years ago there were SIX of us IN our pool... Granddaughter Emily was 4 years old...this is a 12 by 30 pool! All of sudden, NO Emily. She had bounced down hill and with all the splashing was underwater in 4 feet of water. She was not visable because of all the waves and splashing...Only one person happen to notice she was not visable and we pulled her out sputtering and choking...she was 2 FEET from an adult who did not notice she had slipped under.

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Another Wave Pool, this time at Oceans of Fun, and on the same day too...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289208,00.html

The story does not say how the teenager is doing.

Last year when I was at the Water Park at Kings Island I took a dip in the wave pool. It was a hot busy day and the Wave pool was PACKED. While I do believe that parents need to keep an eye on their children, I also believe the Lifeguards need to keep an eye on the amount of people in the pool. You literally only had a small area (maybe only a 2x2 foot area) to move around before you came in contact with another guest. Less people for Lifeguards to look after could prevent some thing like this. Guess we need a queue system for the wave pool now. 5 Minute Sessions and your out, that could work.

*** Edited 7/13/2007 5:25:16 PM UTC by BGRooDoG***

yup, I remember the "serial" shark attacks. It was August 2001. There were a string of coaster non-incidents that summer, including a lift stop on SFOT's Titan that ended in an evac, took about an hour until the ride was back up, and every TV station in the country showed footage of the stalled train for the next 24 hours, long after it was over. I remember thinking toward the middle of August, we need something to distract everyone from these stupid events. Then the shark attacks started. Then I was sitting on my front porch with some friends a few weeks later, saying how the shark attacks needed a good mainstream news event that would blow them out of the headlines, just as they had taken the amusement park stuff out of attention. The next morning was September 11. Be careful what you wish for. *** Edited 7/13/2007 5:38:54 PM UTC by Seahawk & the Wave***

True. I guess I just hate that all the negative media publicity could have a completely unnecessary effect on a given parks' attendance.

Feeling "afraid" on a good ride is part of the point, to a certain extent.

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halltd said:
I don't really think deaths are up this year. I think we're more aware of them because of the internet and our obvious interest in theme parks.

Five deaths at that park since 1976? That's a pretty good track record considering the amount of guests they have. 30/31 years and 5 deaths. That doesn't really seem astonishing to me.

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There shouldn't be any deaths, or at least any because of mecahical errors. Nobody can do anything about stupid things like these though, parents leave their 4 year old kid alone in a wave pool..?

Very sad story.

http://www.newsnet5.com/travelgetaways/13694346/detail.html

Life jackets now required for children under 48" at CF parks.