Horrible accident at a Quebec water park

Today, there was a terrible accident at a small Quebec water park south of Montreal.

A kid was playing in the exit pool of 3 water slides when suddenly, he was sucked in filtration system. Unfortunately... the water system used blades to get the water in and so... the kid got his 2 feet shredded... He was barely alive when he got pulled out by the lifeguard and another swimmer.

I'll submit this to news tomorrow once its out in the Gazette. *** Edited 7/11/2006 2:38:43 AM UTC by Absimilliard***

I don't care about any of the poisitve postings under the trip reports - This has not been a good week.

Wow, that is really sad news... :(

Shouldn't there be a guard in place to prevent exactly this from happening?

The guard was in place they said monday morning when the water park opened... The provincial police are investigating currently why the guard wasn't in place when the accident happened.

Man, that's horrible.

I would really like to know how the kids feet got caught up in the filtration system. It should be a safety regulation to have protection all aroung the filt system. This is very intersting. Sucked into the filtration system, holly. Someone is in deep doo doo let me tell ya.

Why was there no steel grating in front of the intake system?
Man, that sucks.

Richie's right: This has not been a good week and it's only tuesday.

^Good point.

Without getting into too much detail, as I don’t know any specifics of this accident or park – there are some serious problems with the entire inspection and safety systems in place in the Quebec amusement industry as a whole. There is far too much ‘self regulation’ and almost no ‘official oversight’.

In short, you can get away with almost anything. I had a good chuck of my elbow removed (big ouch!) at another park north of Montreal last summer, and the park was obviously aware of the problem as they had posted a small sign by the launch pool to keep your arms tight against you (which, for the record, I thought I was doing).

However, other than having a sign made, and giving the guard at the bottom a supply of gauze and bandages, there was no effort to actually fix the problem. It operated like that all season.

** formating *** Edited 7/11/2006 5:57:58 PM UTC by Odd Todd***

Man thats sounds horrible. Here is a link to story.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2006/07/11/boy-critical.html

That story says the lifeguard warned the kids away from the intake. If there was a guard in place at that point, why would they need to be warned?

That park is in some serious trouble.

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The park has been closed for an indefinite period of time.

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As it should be. Especially after reading this...

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Quebec provincial police spokesman Claude Denis said an investigation is underway to determine whether protective screens were in place on the pipe and, if not, at what point they came off.

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Ok, I just did a bit of research. NOTHING in Quebec verifies, certifies, etc. water parks. Arcades, rides, etc. all have certification provided by Quebec alcohol, games and races office, but as for water parks? they don't have jurisdiction on that. The only thing I guess that limits anyone from opening a water park are the insurance companies. Wow... I'm shocked.

But, I guess everything is not that bad. The families that run Super Aqua Club (who in 2003 decided to scrap everything, except some water slides on a hill, to buy brand new Proslide slides.) and Valcartier (who can teach Disney, Schlitterbahn, etc. a lesson or two on how to theme water park rides!) and others run and operate safe, clean water parks, even without regulation. *** Edited 7/11/2006 8:32:00 PM UTC by Absimilliard***

This season has been too devasting. Its almost hard to believe. This accident is horrific. The pain that poor kid must be in.

I just watched CTV news and the reporter said the little boy had both feet amputated, however the CBC website states boy loses legs below knees. You think when a boy goes through something like that they can get the facts straight. CTV also said the boys mother is happy she does not have to mourn her boys death. Not sure how to spell mourn properly. Please correct me if im mistaken. This is CoasterDiscern, back to coaster buzz.