Father blames safety failings as son drowns at Thai water park
British diving instructor threatens legal action after three-year-old fell into deep pool at attraction
WHEN a British diving instructor and his family were invited for a free tour of a Thai water park in the hope that they would send tourists to the attraction, they got caught up in the excitement.
But a day out soon turned to tragedy when William Watson’s three-year-old son Bobby was able to wander from knee-deep water into a plunge pool just metres away and drowned.
Now the family is considering legal action against the Blue Tree water park, which reopened just hours after Bobby’s death, warning that there are a raft of safety failings and the lifeguards were all watching a competition on a slide when disaster struck.
Mr Watson said: “I will always blame myself. My son drowned in a pool and I am a diving instructor and I should have been there to scoop him up.
“But Blue Tree needs to change because otherwise another child is going to drown in this way. It is too late for my son Bobby.”
Mr Watson, who is originally from Bridport in Dorset, disputes the park’s version of events and says the Phuket attraction has offered him money since his son’s death last Sunday. “They want me to take money and shut my mouth, but if I do that and another child dies then … I have two deaths on my conscience,” he said.
The £32million, 55-acre water park opened last summer in Cherngtalay.
Mr Watson and May, his Thai wife, both 35, run the 3Willys Diving school on the island and had been invited to attend the park with their sons Billy, 7, and Bobby.
“We were taken around in a gold buggy and they kept telling us how safe it was, how many lifeguards they have,” he recalled.
The family was having a picnic and the boys were playing in shallow water where Bobby found a red toy truck.
Mrs Watson took her eyes off him “for 10 or 20 seconds” as she spoke to Billy and then went to find Bobby.
“She saw the truck floating in the plunge pool and then looked and saw my son,” said Mr Watson.
“She screamed ‘get that boy out of the water’ because she couldn’t say Bobby’s name, she did not want to believe that it was him. [The lifeguard] got my son out of the bottom of the pool. He walked over to my wife and he handed her our baby.”
Another lifeguard intervened and started CPR. They had to wait 15 minutes for an ambulance to attend from the nearest hospital, where Bobby was pronounced dead. Mr Watson, who has lived on Phuket for nine years, said many other attractions have a doctor on site because of the wait for ambulances.
Mr Watson suspects Bobby dropped the truck into the deep pool and was trying to get it back when he fell in.
“When I look back there are so many things that are wrong with the safety,” he said. “There is no barrier, no railing, nothing to prevent Bobby or any other child going from waist deep water into a deep pool.
“There are a lot of lifeguards at the pool. Nobody was watching the pool, their eyes were all fixed on the big slide.” On the day of Bobby’s death the park released a statement saying they were “deeply distressed” by the “tragic accident”. They said that Bobby stumbled and fell into the water and was spotted by a lifeguard who “came to his immediate assistance”.
A spokesman said: “We are very troubled by the unfounded allegations aimed at Blue Tree Phuket, which we wholeheartedly refute. Given the desperately sad circumstances of the day’s events and the fact that this is under police investigation, we are unable to share any further details.”
‘They want me to take money and shut my mouth, but if I do that and another child dies then … I have two deaths on my conscience’