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Thu 4 Aug, 2005 01:05 pm
Boy found dead on amusement park ride
Thursday, August 4, 2005; Posted: 9:18 a.m. EDT (13:18 GMT)
RYE, New York (AP) -- A 7-year-old boy was found dead in the water of a boat ride at an historic amusement park Wednesday after he didn't emerge from a tunnel, authorities said.
The boy apparently climbed out the boat and got caught in the conveyor belt of the Ye Old Mill, a boat-in-the-dark ride, at Playland in Westchester.
The ride that killed the Norwalk, Connecticut, boy, whose name was not released, is "one of our most benign," County Executive Andrew Spano said at a news conference.
The ride consists of 14 boats propelled into a tunnel. The water is 2 1/2 feet deep at its deepest, and instructions tell riders to stay seated and keep their hands inside their boats.
The boy, who was at the park with his mother, got on the ride by himself after passing the 42-inch height requirement for riding alone and was the only person in his boat, Spano said.
The ride and nearby attractions were shut down after the child's death. Spano said the state Department of Labor would investigate the death, which was the park's second in 15 months.
In May 2004, a 7-year-old girl was killed on the park's spinning Mind Scrambler ride. Investigators concluded that the girl wriggled free of a restraining bar, knelt on the ride's seat and fell soon after it started.
Playland, a National Historic Landmark, opened in 1928. The amusement park scenes in the movie "Big," starring Tom Hanks, were filmed there.
The park has more than 50 rides, a pool and a beach on Long Island Sound, and receives more than a million visitors a year.
call me crazy, but just because a 7 year old can meet the height requirements, does that mean he's responsible enough to ride the ride alone
There's a lot of blame here and at least two places to put it.
The mother made the decision to allow her son to ride unaccompanied. She's the one who would know whether or not her son was the sort to follow safety instructions when not directly supervised.
The amusement park set up No Argue Standards with their height requirement. They either did or did not instruct the Ride Operators to keep an eye out for signs of obstreporous, break-the-rules kids.
Home/School/Outside Activities all allowed this child to think that breaking the rules might be acceptable in some circumstances.
Very sad.
I swear, sometimes the things you write are just ludicrous, Noddy. You always have plenty of blame to assign, don't you? Just precisely what does an "obstreperous, break-the-rules kid" look like? How was the person operating the ride to have spotted such a child? Really, you go too far . . .
Setanta--
How about a kid who gets into the gondola, reaches down to dabble in the water, stands up and knees on the seat, unfastens his seat belt--or plays with the fastening....?
I've seen carnies order kids who behave this way off carnival rides--sometimes not even returning the ticket.
I'm not saying definitively that the Ride Operator had any such clues to go by, but most seven-year-old kids are all-of-a-piece. Unsafe, childish behavior doesn't erupt without warning.
Noddy- Sorry, but I disagree with you here. Ride operators are not the police. Sometimes kids may behave perfectly BEFORE the ride starts, but then carries on where adults cannot see them. So there is no way of really telling.
I would think that if there is a ride that could potentially cause injury or death to an active child, that the youngster should be accompanied by an adult, up to about the age of 10.
I would not trust a 7 year old alone in a dark tunnel.
I am 56 Phoenix, and I wouldn't recommend trusting me in a dark tunnel.......
Phoenix--
As I noted, we have no way of knowing whether the child exhibited any testing-testing behavior that the operator of the ride overlooked or ignored.
You are absolutely right about not allowing a seven year old in the tunnel alone.
My point is that an accident happened and a child died. I'm not going to blame the child, but I think responsibility rests with the adults who did not out-think, out-wit the child.
Possibly the kid was ADD.
Just as possibly the kid was a highly creative type who wanted to know what would happen if he crawled out of the gondola and into the water. Seven-year-olds are still very vague about the borderlines between fantasy and real life. I'm betting that the kid didn't expect to encounter dangerous machinery--he wanted to investigate the Chamber of Horrors up close and personal.
In either case, he is dead because of adult oversight.
I feel that after making sure riders are inspected and found to be properly secured in the ride is where the operator's responsibility ends and the un-supervision of the child is where the parent's responsibility begins.
Sounds like "video game babysitter" parents to me.
What would ADD have to do with it?
Would that justify the outcome? Would that make his actions make sense?
Boys will be boys...and some boys die being stupid boys.
Period.
I've evaded death numerous times, and I still make stupid boy mistakes at 30.
I have all the scars to prove it, but no headstone.
Yet.
I agree that 7 years old is to young to go on a ride like this alone, but I see this as just an accident.
It's very sad when I hear of a child dying.
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