Girl injured on Lightwater Valley rollercoaster

[Ollie]

A five-year-old girl has been injured on the Ladybird rollercoaster at Lightwater Valley.

The incident occurred at approximately 2:30pm on 5 June, and came to light this afternoon in the Ripon Gazette.

The newspaper quoted the park’s general manager Mark Bainbridge as saying: “The girl put her foot outside the carriage and it became trapped between the carriage and the platform when it came back in to stop.

“We called an ambulance and the girl was taken to hospital, and informed the Health and Safety Executive of an accident on site.”

The girl’s injuries are understood to concern ligament and cartilage damage to her ankle.

The HSE has confirmed that it was called to the site and had begun an investigation.

It is understood that the ride has remained closed since the accident.

http://riderater.co.uk/?p=1893

 

[Ian]

I wonder if she put her foot outside the ride whilst it was in motion or if the ride set off with her foot out.

 

[Tim]

I am shocked. Shocked to my core.



...To open this thread and see it happened on the Ladybird

 

[Lofty]

I wonder if she put her foot outside the ride whilst it was in motion or if the ride set off with her foot out.

It mentions "When it came back to a stop", so it sounds a though she did it when it was moving. Oh well, another accident that was caused by the people who were injured. How many more will there be by the end of 2012?

 

[EnigmaHyena]

That was completely her fault but I bet the family are blaming the park and have already told The Sun about how a park employee grabbed their precious child BY THE HAIR and swung her in circles above his head before CATAPULTING her towards the train resulting in her foot being RIPPED from her leg.*

I was expecting it to be something really tragic related to The Ultimate or at least Twister. Silly kid!

*Written in true over-exaggerating Sun style. Complete with BOLD words for tracksuit-clad readers to get an idea of the horror.

 

[Mackem Lad]

I wonder if she put her foot outside the ride whilst it was in motion or if the ride set off with her foot out.

It was whilst the ride was in motion.

Her injuries did require surgery but she looks to be well on the road to a full recovery.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ian]

Silly girl.

I demand that all roller coaster trains turn into cages and travel at no more than 5mph to prevent this thing from happening again. :roll:

 

[furie]

Doing the whole "as a father" thing, it's actually your worst nightmare. Kids can be utterly unpredictable, so you have to make sure that they understand why they should do things like "keep arms and legs inside the cars at all times", but without scaring them or making it look like it might be a thrill to break the rules.

We don't want to have extra "adult ride stopping leg guards" added to the ride, but sometimes you really just can't stop kids from doing stupid things.

Expect huge "DON'T PUT YOUR FEET OUTSIDE THE CAR" signs on the station now at the very least.

Anyway, glad to hear she's recovering nicely and I have a suspicion that she'll be a lot more respectful of moving objects in the future.

 

[T0M]

That was completely her fault but I bet the family are blaming the park and have already told The Sun about how a park employee grabbed their precious child BY THE HAIR and swung her in circles above his head before CATAPULTING her towards the train resulting in her foot being RIPPED from her leg.*

I was expecting it to be something really tragic related to The Ultimate or at least Twister. Silly kid!

*Written in true over-exaggerating Sun style. Complete with BOLD words for tracksuit-clad readers to get an idea of the horror.

Love this so much :lol:

I can't see the park being found at fault for anything here, it's simply a case of incorrect supervision or sillyness - if you can accuse a five-year-old of completely understanding the safety implications of sticking your legs out.

The HSE may issue an improvement notice and we could see silly side bars or something fitted.

 

[Kata1]

Do you know if the park has been sued yet? Because this was completely not the parks fault.

 

[furie]

Do you know if the park has been sued yet? Because this was completely not the parks fault.

It's not in the US

It takes a lot to be able to bring a case forward over here, and you need to wait until a full report has been completed before you can start pushing for compensation.

It's something that I had an argument with UC about. Over here, essentially you are innocent and have to be proven guilty of something before people can sue. So there are bodies in place (like the HSE) who determine the facts and present findings.

Once somebody is "guilty", then compensation becomes part of it to decide what any injured party is owed.

In the States, it's more "I'm an injured party and the defendant has to prove that they're not culpable otherwise they pay me". It's a very subtle difference in the way we handle civil cases.

 

[T0M]

^ Yes, for example, it was five years after the park's Twister accident that the case came to court and a verdict was given.

 

[Kata1]

Oh, good.

 

[Mushroom]

A small change has been made...

 

[Ethan]

Looks like getting in will be a bit of a bummer then...

 

[Ian]

Meh, I've already got the cred.

At least it'll prevent it happening again.

 

[Mushroom]

It is on the side where you are not getting in or out

 

[Ollie]

Surely that defeats the point though as she put her leg out the other side which is why it got stuck between the train and platform.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

I assume that half the time parks make irrelevant amendments to be seen to have done something to stop it happening again in the eyes of the media and the victim, because there's actually nothing they can do within reason.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Surely that defeats the point though as she put her leg out the other side which is why it got stuck between the train and platform.

The park probably now enforces a "kids on the inside" rule to prevent it happening again...