Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure goes to court over near-drowning

Not sure I get why it took so long to go to trial, but I bet it's a slam dunk for the plaintiffs. The park was fined $2,000 in 2001 for a laundry list of violations including sleeping life guards. Beyond that you just have to wonder why and how anyone could get pinned to an intake vent. That's hardly a safe environment.

Ahhh the "Black Plague" Year for SFWoA...Man was 2001 a bad year for the lifeguards. I know A LOT of people got a in trouble all throughout that year, heads got fireds, etc.
I even had quite a few issues in 2001 with one lifeguard at Hook's Lagoon.

Lukily they tore apart their training and redesigned it along with the hiring process for lifeguards (not to mention they replaced that intake motor). I got to witness some of the training last year 2003, and I can say I feel A LOT better from 2001. Not to mention while at the waterpark in 2003 I saw many lifeguards on the ball with stopping even remote things from happening. You know it's amazing how fast they can shut down a wave machine and stop them back up.

But yes, I too thought this subject has already been taken care of. Though I'm still a little confused on how she got caught? I thought it was in Hook's Lagoon Vents. In any case don't most of the waterparks use roughly the same type of system? I have been to many waterparks that have the same attraction, and I'm amazed this hasn't happened else where. Though I do know that a lot of places warn people from swimming near the intakes. Did SFWoA just have it on a higher setting?

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Will it never end? I know the people at this park... and all I can say is that they are better than this. When will my Geauga Lake grow up? Or will it ever? I'm just really tired of seeing one bad news item for every good one.*** This post was edited by Zero-G 2/25/2004 10:25:47 AM ***

To their credit, I can't remember anything particularly bad in the news last year aside from poor attendance, but I wasn't looking that closely.

Yes the Lifegaurds have gotten a lot better since this happened. Theyve gotten 100% on every state safety audit the past two seasons. 2001 was a horrible year and hopefully it will be put to rest when this is over.

Jeff,

Just to let you know, it is not uncommon for lawsuits to take many years. This is at 2 1/2 years, which isn't that long for a lawsuit.

The lifeguards were top notch for '03. I went on the new Hurricane Mountain slides and they didn't see a kid come out of the tube. They shut everything down and had a man crawl the tube in under 10 minutes. It was pretty impressive and they had their act together. Didn't happen to find the kid but they concluded he probably jumped the fence and the lifeguard at the bottom didn't catch him. That part is the only part that didn't sound too safe, but it's better safe than sorry.

In 2002 a Plain Dealer article claimed SWOA life guards rated higher than most city life gaurds. I can say most complaints about life gaurds in the last two years, were of the"super cop" variety meaning, or that the life guards were being overly cautious, too stern.

Why does everyone have to hate on Six Flags WOA? Accidents happen at parks all the time... Hello the beauty and the beast float ran over Pluto or Goofy.. no park is perfect! Since that incident the lifeguards have cleaned up, they've scored near pefect the past two years..Yes they are sometimes overly cautious and not always the friendliest of sorts but its a different water park now.So can we someday stop the hating its a good park!!!

No one is "hating" six flags in this thread...just discussing a lawsuite.