My post below about the staff's response to a safety problem in a local theater got a lot of attention. (By the way, the theater director called and reported that the cause was fixed: The loose seats had gotten "ungaffed" from the others in the row.) But the story also prompted a note from Melissa Mattison, one of my favorite doctors, who reported on a even more poor staff response to a huge safety hazard at Windham Mountain Adventure Park.
See a recent feature about what happened to my daughter in NY last weekend. My seven year old daughter jumped onto "The Big Air Bag" and the bag wasn't positioned correctly. It was too far out from the platform. Her fall was broken by the bag - thank goodness! But instead of staying on the bag, she was thrown off the bag and on the ground. Thankfully she doesn't appear seriously injured but she landed on her head in a mud puddle, came up bleeding (cut mouth/gum), scraped up and down her arm and leg and covered in mud.
Here's the video of the event:
Melissa continues:
Here is a link to a Yelp review I did to also ‘get the word out’. Yelp can be a powerful way to affect change in the commercial world, but until staff at facilities adopt a different stance towards safety it seems it will take time to truly change things.
Here's the pertinent part of the Yelp review:
Here's where it gets even worse. The staff operating this ride did NOT stop the ride. They would have let my 5 yr old jump right after if I hadn't stopped her. The staff did not inquire how my 7 yr old was. She picked herself up and we walked together up the hill to the main lodge/bathroom area and NO ONE who worked there asked us a single question or stopped us. I cannot imagine they didn't see this happen. There weren't that many people there, my daughter was crying loudly and was a mess (bleeding, muddy). Another parent there asked me if she was okay, as she was concerned. After we washed out the cuts in the bathroom, the manager of the facility (Alexander) came up and asked us what happened. (I think one of the other parents must have said something to him.) When we told him his response was, "You signed the waiver didn't you?" and then he went on to say, "This has been working fine all summer."
See a recent feature about what happened to my daughter in NY last weekend. My seven year old daughter jumped onto "The Big Air Bag" and the bag wasn't positioned correctly. It was too far out from the platform. Her fall was broken by the bag - thank goodness! But instead of staying on the bag, she was thrown off the bag and on the ground. Thankfully she doesn't appear seriously injured but she landed on her head in a mud puddle, came up bleeding (cut mouth/gum), scraped up and down her arm and leg and covered in mud.
Here's the video of the event:
Melissa continues:
Here is a link to a Yelp review I did to also ‘get the word out’. Yelp can be a powerful way to affect change in the commercial world, but until staff at facilities adopt a different stance towards safety it seems it will take time to truly change things.
Here's the pertinent part of the Yelp review:
Here's where it gets even worse. The staff operating this ride did NOT stop the ride. They would have let my 5 yr old jump right after if I hadn't stopped her. The staff did not inquire how my 7 yr old was. She picked herself up and we walked together up the hill to the main lodge/bathroom area and NO ONE who worked there asked us a single question or stopped us. I cannot imagine they didn't see this happen. There weren't that many people there, my daughter was crying loudly and was a mess (bleeding, muddy). Another parent there asked me if she was okay, as she was concerned. After we washed out the cuts in the bathroom, the manager of the facility (Alexander) came up and asked us what happened. (I think one of the other parents must have said something to him.) When we told him his response was, "You signed the waiver didn't you?" and then he went on to say, "This has been working fine all summer."