GIRL, 11 DIES IN THEME PARK HORROR
Pupil on school trip plunges into rapids from water ride
A GIRL of 11 died yesterday after falling off a theme park water ride on a school trip.
Thrill-seekers watched in horror as the child tumbled from a dinghy and into fast-flowing rapids.
Paramedics treated her at the scene before she was flown to hospital where she was declared dead. Visitors to Dray- ton Manor theme park in Staffordshire said the Splash Canyon ride had been malfunctioning as recently as Sunday.
The park is 40 miles from Alton Towers, where a rollercoaster smash in June 2015 led to two women having legs amputated.
Health and Safety Executive officials will
examine whether human error – the cause of the Alton Towers incident – played a role yesterday.
Park visitors were speculating online that the girl may have been standing up when she fell into the water. It was not known whether she drowned or was in some way injured or trapped under water. Park staff pulled her from the water.
She attended Jameah Girls’ Academy in Leicester, which charges up to £2,300 in fees. Police were stationed at the school last night.
The father of a girl on the trip said: ‘The entire school went to Drayton Manor. All the girls had been looking forward to it. My daughter is in the year above the dead girl and is absolutely distraught.
‘She was on another ride at the time and realised something was wrong only when she saw other girls in tears. Nobody knows how it happened. People want answers.’
Splash Canyon has 21 circular dinghies, each of which holds six riders who board from a rotating platform.
Oonagh Law, 21, said the ride appeared to be malfunctioning when she visited from Stafford on Sunday with boyfriend Richard Griffiths, 27.
She said: ‘ There were a group of girls in the boat behind us but when I looked around a second time they were nowhere to be seen. A father who was riding behind them with a child was now behind us. The boats should not swap positions like that.’
Miss Law said a couple had complained to park bosses on Monday about the adjacent Shockwave rollercoaster, saying staff did not check harnesses were locked.
She said four of the park’s major rides were out of action on the day of her visit, adding: ‘I’ve been to Drayton Manor around ten times and never had an issue. But after what has happened to us and to this poor girl I’ve lost confidence.’
Ann Bowyer, a 37-year- old author who visits the park reg- ularly with family, said Splash Canyon broke down when she was on it a fortnight ago.
‘Something felt weird,’ said the mother-of-four from Walsall. ‘The ride had stopped and the turntables the boats sit on were not moving.’
The ride resumed working only to stop at the end, she said, adding: ‘We visited the park again on Sunday but didn’t use Splash Canyon because we have lost faith and didn’t want to get stuck on it.
‘A lot of the rides are broken or not being used.’
Fiona Fletcher, from Burton upon Trent, was visiting with her two young children yesterday. She estimated only a few hundred visitors were in the £39-a-ticket park when the incident happened around 2.20pm.
She added: ‘They put metal barriers up around the whole area so no one could get in. I overheard the staff saying “don’t tell anyone yet” and were hurrying people away.’
Splash Canyon, which opened in 1993, is billed on the theme park’s website as the most ‘ unpredictable and thrilling’ ride of its type, with ‘fast-flowing rapids’.
It is not considered a whiteknuckle attraction however.
Following the incident both Splash Canyon and Shockwave were closed down and security began turning arrivals away.
No decision had been taken last night about whether to open the park this morning.
George Bryan, who runs the park, fought back tears briefing reporters about the tragedy. He said: ‘Our staff were alerted that an 11-year-old girl had entered the water.
‘ Trained park staff were immediately on the scene attending to the patient and West Midlands Air Ambulance arrived and airlifted her to the hospital.
‘We are all shocked and devastated and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this very difficult time.’
The park was founded by Mr Bryan’s grandfather on 80 acres of wasteland in 1949.
Staffordshire Police said officers were supporting the girl’s family. The Health and Safety Executive said it was making initial inquiries along with the emergency services.
The girl was declared dead at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
‘Complained to park bosses’