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Drayton Manor Park - Splash Canyon Incident

The bigger issue for schools is the lack of teacher on the boat with them but sadly this will likely be overshadowed by the claim the staff ignored them.

I hate to go on about it but having been very recently on a school trip with 11 year olds our instructions were very clear not to let the kids on the big rides unaccompanied.
 
If that is the case the school will surely have as many if not more questions to answer in this tragedy. I'm sure that when they do health and safety assessments there would have to be so many adults per child and going on a rapids ride each 4 or 5 children should have a supervising adult .

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The teachers can't be to blamed for this or the park. In 24 years only 2 people have fallen into the water and both were standing up when the boat bumped. They got cameras all around the track but there's nothing they can do if someone keeps standing up when a wave goes over the sides.
They need better warning all around the queue lines and giving warning This is a fast moving Rapids ride you will get wet even maybe soaked if your not prepared to get wet please leave the queue now. If you do stand up you will be escorted off the park with no refunds given.
 
I understand why people would expect a teacher to be on the boat - but if they were all above the height that meant they could ride without an adult then they can't be blamed surely.
 
I agree that this was just simply a tragic accident.

Like I said (and others) before, if you put this into perspective, themeparks are very much safe places to be. More accidents happen at home using everyday appliances etc...

These unfortunate events are just news fodder for the media to sell stories

I presume that the H&S will look into whether there was enough reasonable safeguards in place both by DMP and the school and also whether either of them broke any H&S rules

At the end of the day, what ever age the children where, they are simply just children and are in the care of the school during the school trip and it's down to the teachers to ensure that they are properly supervised and would have been given a briefing before entering the park on what is expected from them including following the instructions on the ride boards
 
After my post this morning and discussing this tragic incident with my wife she made a good point that if two people were changing seats there wouldn't be enough room for two people to pass between the handgrip and seat so maybe changing seats one was standing on the seat while the other moved over? I really hope this wasn't the case but a school really has to make sure there is an appropriate ratio of children to adults to stop children doing such things as it's not the children's fault if they make a decision like that when they are at school or out with school because they are completely responsible for that child during school times. Health and safety will not only look at the theme park's procedures but also the school's health and safety assessments when planning the trip. This I know as when my children go out for a trip with their school I've seen all the paperwork the teacher , headteacher and school governors have to sign off before trips

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State schools have a much higher level of duty of care nowdays, every activity has to have a written risk assesment produced, regardless of whether the activity is on school property or not, gone are the days where primary school children are allowed to roam free in parks, I don't know if the same rules apply to Academies.

Just because a teacher would have got slapped off the ride 20 years ago doesn't mean the same thing would be allowed to happen today, we have become such a risk averse society.
 
The fact that schools are allowed to take students to theme parks during term time has always irritated me, especially when parents would get a fine and a slap on the wrist if they were to take their own kids in school time.

Feel very sorry for the girls family and staff involved, this was obviously a tragic accident.
 
To be fair, I can understand it if it's a reward for pupils going 'above and beyond' in some aspect in their studies, or if it's an end of school year breaking up thing. No need for just a general day out for a laugh in the middle of the school year though.
 
I would suggest there is importance in school trips. Friendship groups develop in different ways when outside the school building.

Also Drayton have a pretty cool offering for schools if they take it up, they have a KNex coaster that they use to explain the physics of a coaster.
 
My school always ran a school trip to AT near the end of the summer term and we were always told where the teachers would be hanging around and to follow the rules of the park. We generally went around in groups of 4-6 without a teacher escorting us, if you think of the size of most theme parks and the fact that the average school will take 2-3 coaches full of kids just think how many teachers you would have to take along to make sure all the kids were supervised all the time. These trips are usually run by High Schools and at that age the kids are trusted to get themselves to and from school on their own so why shouldn't they be able to go around a theme park on their own. The parents will have had to sign a permission slip to say they are happy for their kids to go on the trip and that letter will most likely explain how they will be planning to supervise them, it's not like the school can just take them.

I think its a good thing for schools to take kids to these places, they get massively reduced tickets and for some kids these trips are their only opportunity to go to these places.

I think we have to accept this is a tragic accident and I dont think the school should be criticized for not having a teacher on the boat, like a lot of you have already said they were above the height restriction to go on unsupervised.

I think something could be retrofitted to the boats such as doors or netting to offer a little more protection where the steps are but I hate the idea of lap belts. It might keep some people seated but to be honest I think that would be the people who are likely to stay sat anyway. People who want to move will undo the seat belts and move anyway. Also if the boat was to capsize I think the lap belts would be more of a hazard. I have had to do training where I had to undo a seat belt under water and its not easy, and that was when I already had my hand on the buckle before going into the water and I knew what was coming. I would think most people when suddenly found upside down in fast flowing water would struggle to undo a belt.
 
I'm sorry but that suggestion by the Express, who are on a crusade against theme parks these past few days, is nothing short of ludicrous. And until the cirmcumstances have been fully understood it is not known if a life jakcet would have made any difference to the outcome of this terrible accident.

:)
 
bluesonichd said:
That's gonna effect throughput me thinks if they decide this
"The Sunday Express understands that safety officials are looking into whether life jackets should be issued to people using certain water rides to reduce the risk of another fatality."
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/804162/Theme-parks-water-rides-life-jackets-Drayton-Manor
Click to expand...
Maybe there could be a booth between the entry and exit paths (like baggage drops are) where queuing riders collect them from one side and exiting riders return them on the other side.
they could even put a pre-show (themed to the ride's theme) in which would explain how to put them on.
I think like jackets should only be given to "at risk" groups (e.g. young children) so waiting times/throughput aren't affected.
 
I saw that news report over the weekend, I'm not going to waste my time worrying about it. As mentioned in the above posts, its absolutely ridiculous, it will be down to the H&S to set the criteria. This is our first death on a rapid ride in this country and these rides have been around for over 30 years.

We have on average 3 deaths on our roads each day. Actually most deaths/accidents actually take place withing peoples own homes. Putting extra safety features in place will give the sense of false security, which means people are more likely to take risks. This has been proven with our cars on the road, the more the safety features a car has, it has been proven that the more you are likely to take risks and be involved in a car accident. Air-planes keep having safety features added to them and they still fall out of the sky and kill people
 
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