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Drayton Manor Park - Splash Canyon Incident

dickie001x said:
Two boats got stuck in the tunnel. Another boat hit them causing one to capsize which resulted in the boy being scraped along the side of the channel, resulting in him losing his ear (which was later found but was by then too late to be reattached).
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Pretty certain this isn't right at all.

The boat the injured boy was in struck a rock which was placed central in the channel prior to the tunnel. This catapulted him out, striking that rock and severing his ear. The rock was removed prior to reopening. The boat never capsized and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say another boat was involved, although I don't know that for sure.

The speed of the turntable will always create a natural gap between the boats as they accelerate away once they free from it. The chances of them being near each other that early in the ride are minimal as it is all fast flowing until after the caves. If boats being near each other were that dangerous the design of the rest of the ride would be amended to prevent it, but it wasn't and they do collide safely even with the spacing on the conveyor. I believe the spacer was always there. Thunder River was from from being the first of its type, spacing the boats to allow easy boarding and constant flow was well established in the type before this installation.
 
Does anyone on remember when troublemakers hit Alton Towers and they were messing around in the water of Battle Galleons holding onto the shark as it went round. They were also in the rapids water. There was a video on YouTube but can’t find it now.
Well the park get a chance to defend itself next week?
 
Sauron97 said:
I'd love it if everyone were so rational, but I think that there are enough people that lack common sense in the country to warrant the need for warnings and monitoring on the ride and I'm sure that historical CCTV images showing the number of idiots not following the rules would confirm this. The park admit that it was clearly an issue that none of the misbehaving was observed despite it occurring during the entirety of the course in every hot spot. Had the warning been given, that could of changed everything.
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LOL if only there was a link between increased warnings and monitoring and a persistent increase in people not using common sense....
 
IanSR said:
LOL if only there was a link between increased warnings and monitoring and a persistent increase in people not using common sense....
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That's not what I said though. If you had literally no warnings or signs whatsoever, which is the scenario I was describing (no CCTV, and no signage), then you are going to have darwin award types of people who exploit the lack of warnings as they can't compute the danger without it being told to them. This is Britain, where you get a bunch of idiots roping up a tesco trolley to a car and doing donuts at night, or putting fireworks up their backsides and setting them off for the 'laughs' (ok a warning probably isn't going to make a difference there but the general point stands that some people are just dumb). If it was me and you, different story. But I don't think we can give complete responsibility to some types of people in this country and expect them to live particularly long lives. We need some form of warning. I'd argue the signs on the ride are perfectly fine in my personal opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with your general point, which is why I noted that it's stupid for the H&S executive to say that the signs needed to SPECIFY that you might die if you fall out (derp), and the idea that there 'weren't enough signs' is stupid also, if that point is even being made. So long as the message is there and delivered, that's what matters.
The most important point is that the operator should of noticed the behavior given it happened across the whole course, and not just at the hot spot at the end.
 
I wonder if she had come out near the start. How easy would it have been to get from the ride platform to the area round the tunnel?
Can you easily get all around the ride within mins of her falling in.
I think if it had happened straight away the park would have got off more lightly but cause it was near the platform makes it worst.
 
Been scanning some bits and pieces in tonight, the Alton guide from 1987 shows a lad stood up on the rapids. I imagine that would not have been done for a long time prior to the Drayton accident and never since.

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Mrs Jones has completed her summing up of the evidence.

She is now directing the jury on the law and the conclusions they are able to reach and what aspects of Evha’s death they have to reach a conclusion on.

They must record things such as Evha’s personal details, the medical cause of death and how and when she came about her death.

A conclusion can be a brief one, such as “accidental death” of “death by misadventure” or they could write a narrative verdict instead
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It seems that the cause of death could be labelled as 'death by misadventure'.
 
Ciaran said:
It seems that the cause of death could be labelled as 'death by misadventure'.
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As someone who has sat in on several coroner's hearings I'm willing to bet on a verdict of death by misadventure on this however HSE will still prosecute despite this due to the safety failings by Drayton
 
I think for all involved that would be a real shame. Neither Drayton nor the family can move on until this is tied up.

From Drayton's point of view, it has been mentioned by numerous people that they are holding off all investment until the size of fine is known
 
IanSR said:
Thorpe's Rapids had two capsizes within its first few months of operation, the one everybody knows about that resulted in the kid loosing an ear, and a first one that was an empty raft a few weeks before. It's the reason for the makeshift tank stoppers that they added in the water by the viewing area.
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Thanks for clarifying. Yes I remember the Thorpe Park Rapids boats capsizing being reported in the news back then resulting in a boy losing his ear. I was going to post this, but I couldn't find any clarification on the net apart from that the boy fell out.
 
GaryH said:
So, accidental death.... Does this mean alton will turn the waterfalls back on next year I wonder
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I doubt we will see any effects on the UK water rides now since the people in the raft trying to get eachother wet or standing to avoid getting wet was a direct cause of this incident.
 
Well the family of Evha has given a statement. They blame the park for not keeping a eye on visitors on the CCTV and for not having safety items and training. They also blame the school for not travelling with the girls on the ride.
The Park have confirmed that the ride will be reopening but not to everything that needs to be put into place on the HSE form and they are happy for the ride to reopen.
 
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To some extent I'm glad that it's reopening, but on the other hand I kind of just want it to be torn up at this stage. I just don't see the point in having rapids rides in the UK any more after all of this.
 
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