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Drayton Manor Park

Agreed. Children should be supervised.

I would say it is down to the park to place this rule on a risk and ride by ride basis.

Because as a teacher, parent, carer or whatever, you expect the rules placed by a park for specific rides will be more than sufficient in keeping someone safe. It is expected that when you go to a park you will be kept safe by the park, and the rules in place account for the unpredictable nature of humans upto a certain viable extent.
 
DistortAMG said:
Because as a teacher, parent, carer or whatever, you expect the rules placed by a park for specific rides will be more than sufficient in keeping someone safe. It is expected that when you go to a park you will be kept safe by the park, and the rules in place account for the unpredictable nature of humans upto a certain viable extent.
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The rule is stay seated. Yes it was found that some signage was worn and no longer clear in this case. But supervising adults should take responsibility for ensuring that children under their care follow the rules.

This is why it isn't very clear cut as there are several factors at fault in the case of the Splash Canyon incident.
Some signage was old and worn out, others didn't explicitly state the danger faced if you don't follow the rules (according to the report).
CCTV wasn't adequately monitored and no warnings about remaining seated were given.
A child stood up. Neither the ride operator or the supervisor adult (although I'm not sure if one was even present) stopped them.
The operator didn't see this happen on the CCTV and take action.
The child (potentially following instruction from a bystander) attempted to climb the wet slippery lift hill.
The park didn't have adequate life-saving training or equipment.

In my opinion their decision to attempt to climb the lift hill was the main factor that lead to a fatality. But if the CCTV was monitored properly and proper training given, someone should have intervened and thrown life-saving equipment before they attempted to climb that.
 
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Why was the boat allowed to leave the station in the first place with no supervising adult in the boat?

Why was signage worn and not readable?

Why was CCTV not monitored?

Why did it take so long for any member of staff to realise a guest had fallen in the water?

Why did the staff have no first aid/water recovery training?

Those are the questions that come to my mind.
 
You see. Many members of the ECC climbed Spalsh Canyon's lift hill, when it was dry with no water, after a total walk through of the ride, with Colin Bryan. I remeber it being mentioned, how slippy the lift hill was. So I can only imagine what it was like being wet and with fresh summer algie on.

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I went to Drayton Manor today and it was really good despite Maelstrom and Shockwave being closed (Maelstrom due to high winds)! They seem to have left some equipment on the Splash Canyon site and there's a new wooden ladder down to the trough been built ( i saw this from the top of Stormforce 10 which broke down 3 times) and it's in a sorry state but there's been algae cleaned out of the trough near the zero g roll on Shockwave! G-Force is going to be replaced i've heard from the staff, they just don't know what and i also met Shawn today and he wasn't happy with Shockwave and Maelstrom being closed and he said he'd probably spend all day at Apocalypse!
 
I can just imagine the responses to staff turning away 17 year olds for not being old enough on a rapids ride.

I take the view that whoever allows the child to go to the park or onto the ride alone is making the decision they are responsible enough. That's an aside from any of the parks basic safety failings though.
 
pluk said:
I can just imagine the responses to staff turning away 17 year olds for not being old enough on a rapids ride.

I take the view that whoever allows the child to go to the park or onto the ride alone is making the decision they are responsible enough. That's an aside from any of the parks basic safety failings though.
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Alton Towers normally only have a height restriction, but during school trip season they do put in place a rule now where there needs to be one over 18 in every boat.
Kids on school trips are more likely to play up compared to when with their own parents so it makes sense Alton have taken this action following the Splash Canyon incident.
 
Burbs said:
So along with all the other rides that are shut/removed, Shockwave and Maelstrom too? Christ there's barely anything to do there as it is!
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That's why I ended up doing Stormforce twice lol ! But yh there's not much option for continuing as there were only 5 thrill rides open ( apocalypse wasn't running stand up with a floor btw)!
 
Been to Drayton Manor today and been talking to staff in the Zoo and theme park area.
The new owners are going into the park this week and looking at plans for the 2021 season.
The main reason they brought the park was for the Zoo and Thomas land.
They want to make Thomas land the biggest in the world so they gonna keep to the original plans of a tea cup ride based on the Lady Jane Hatt character going on the former Blue Mountains/Terrance ride site. Work started on the site in Feb then they had the flood, Lockdown and going into Administration. Depending on the Covid rules for next year a new Thomas 4D movie will go into the cinema.
There construction signs gone up all around the G force site with yellow markings on the ground.
The Aviary work has restarted again and hopefully will be finished for the Christmas event. They also hope to start work on the penguin enclosure during the closed season for it to open next season.
The Reptile house they want to make it bigger and use the former indoor section of the Dinosaur land as a aquarium.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Been to Drayton Manor today and been talking to staff in the Zoo and theme park area.
The new owners are going into the park this week and looking at plans for the 2021 season.
The main reason they brought the park was for the Zoo and Thomas land.
They want to make Thomas land the biggest in the world so they gonna keep to the original plans of a tea cup ride based on the Lady Jane Hatt character going on the former Blue Mountains/Terrance ride site. Work started on the site in Feb then they had the flood, Lockdown and going into Administration. Depending on the Covid rules for next year a new Thomas 4D movie will go into the cinema.
There construction signs gone up all around the G force site with yellow markings on the ground.
The Aviary work has restarted again and hopefully will be finished for the Christmas event. They also hope to start work on the penguin enclosure during the closed season for it to open next season.
The Reptile house they want to make it bigger and use the former indoor section of the Dinosaur land as a aquarium.
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When I went last Monday, I was talking to the staff and they said they know g force will be replaced but they don't know when and they don't know what so they're probably deciding now!
 
Back in the 90s Drayton Manor was rivalling Alton Towers and in parts was possibly even better than AT.
In the early 90s they opened Pirate Adventure, Splash Canyon, Shockwave then Stormforce 10. Mostly well-themed attractions that were of similar or better quality to what Alton was doing, even if not to the same thrill level as Nemesis.
Then there was Apocolypse, which is good but not quite as exciting as Oblivion was at Alton Towers and that was probably the beginning of Alton getting the bigger thrill rides while Drayton remained the smaller park.

The major focus on Thomas Land throughout the 2000s and 2010s is probably both the saving grace and the downfall of the park. They couldn't compete with Alton and Thorpe on massive rollercoasters, but equally it felt like after Excaliber didn't work so well they stopped trying on the Disney-style themed attractions either (other than Thomas).

Its a shame as its a great park, but with the major focus on Thomas at Drayton I think Chessington manages to be still be slightly more interesting to me overall appealing despite that parks flaws too.
Although overall it feels like Paulton Park is probably at the level Drayton was getting to in the 90s.

It will be interesting to see what this focus on the Zoo brings. There are a lot more zoos than there are theme parks, just in the midlands they have coemption from Dudley, Twycross, WMSP and then Chester, Woburn and more aren't far. I assume Looping are hoping that Thomas Land remains the main draw.

Personally they need to re-do Pirate adventure or another decent themed ride that can rival things like Gruffalo as having "Disney-style" family rides is what will make them stand out from the thrill based theme parks.
 
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