Georgia: Boy, 5, “flies” out of amusement park water slide | US News
A five-year-old boy fell off a water slide at an amusement park in front of horrified guests.
The incident happened on July 4 at the Twist-N-Shout water attraction at Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park.
A visitor to the park, Ginger Bence, recounted WZTV reported Wednesday that she and her family saw the boy “fly out” of the colorful water slide.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget it,” Bence said.
She said workers at the park whistled and the boy’s father carried him for medical treatment.
“I was like, ‘Is he alive?'” said Bence, who estimated the boy fell about 20 feet.
Lake Winnepesaukah said Thursday that “a child riding in a double tube at our water park suffered an injury.”
“When an adult and a child entered the subway, all safety guidelines were observed,” the amusement park said.
The boy was treated at the scene and taken to a children’s hospital for further care.
It was not immediately known what injuries the boy had suffered.
The Catoosa County and Georgia State Fire Departments both confirmed the accident happened Tuesday.
Catoosa County spokesman John Pless told WTVC that the incident is not being investigated as a criminal offense.
Just four days before the boy fell, Lake Winnepesaukah tweeted its “Spotlight Attraction of the Week” as Twist-N-Shout and highlighted its “exciting tube slides”.
On Thursday, a Lake Winnepesaukah spokesman said the waterslide had reopened after state officials inspected the ride tubes, ride foundation and signage.
But Bence is skeptical about ever going back to the amusement park.
“I just thought…everything could have been done a little differently,” she said.
The boy’s fall follows at least a few more incidents at rides across the US in the past week.
Eight riders on the Fireball roller coaster at the Forest County Festival in Wisconsin were left hanging upside down for hours on Sunday when the cars suddenly stopped.
And last Friday at Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina, a father observed a large crack in a pillar of a roller coaster that moved as riders whizzed by.
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