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Epidemiologic Notes and Reports Fatality at a Waterslide
Amusement Park -- Utah
On August 16, 1985, a 14-year-old male, his younger brother,
and
two friends went swimming at a large waterslide amusement park in
Ogden, Utah. The children were playing in one of the
slide-receiving
pools (splash pool) where the depth was 4 feet. The 14-year-old
(weight 134 lbs. (61.0 kg.), height 5 ft., 2 in. (1.59 meters)) was
hanging onto the pool edge, dangling his feet over the submerged
opening of the middle of three drain pipes, when he let go and
disappeared into the pipe. Once inside the pipe, he was carried
horizontally 93 feet, where he lodged in a 90-degree vertical bend
inside the pumphouse (Figure 1). After 15 minutes, he was located,
but resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful. An autopsy
determined
the cause of death as drowning.
The waterslide park was constructed in 1984. Water from all
six
slides in the park drained into the splash pool where the boy was
playing. The water then traveled by gravity through the three
12H-inch diameter polyvinyl pipes to a pumphouse where it was
pumped
to the top of the slides. The pipes were located in the side of
the
pool beneath a recessed overhang. Park employees reported that the
cast iron grates covering the pipe inlets repeatedly fell off
during
the early part of the summer of 1985 because the cement eroded and,
thus, was inadequate for holding the anchoring screws. As a
result,
the grates were removed. There were no other design features of
the
drainage system to prevent entry into the pipes.
Lifeguards were on duty at the time of the incident. The park
was
the seventh waterslide park designed by a company in Washington
State,
and its design met all local and state standards at the date of its
opening in 1984. However, the park performed no routine checks of
safety items.
An investigation of the death was led by the Weber-Morgan
District
Health Department, which had the statutory responsibility under
Utah
Code to "identify injury problems and develop standards for the
correction and prevention of future occurrences." The final health
department recommendations were (1) any drainage pipe with a
diameter
greater than 6 inches must have protective grating and backup
entrapment prevention features that are approved by the health
department before installation; (2) grates must be attached by a
corrosive-resistant, secure anchoring system and must be attached
so
they cannot be removed by bathers; and (3) there must be a written
record documenting monitoring of pool safety features.
Reported by M Nichols, MD, C Heninger, R Schwartz, O Orton,
Weber-Morgan District Health Dept, S Patterson, Building
Inspection, S
VanderHeide, Sheriff's Dept, V Gabrenas, Attorney's Office, Weber
County, F Jackson, Utah Dept of Health; H Walters, Intermountain
Region, US Forest Svc; Div of Injury Epidemiology and Control,
Center
for Environmental Health, CDC. Editorial Note
Editorial Note:According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC), this is the third reported death associated with
a
waterslide amusement park. The first death reported to the CPSC
occurred in 1980 and was similar to that reported here: a
13-year-old
male became entrapped in an 8-inch by 24-inch pool drain. The
other
reported fatality was a 35-year-old male who fell off a corkscrew
turn
in a waterslide.
In most waterslide splash pools, the drainage pipe inlet is too
small to allow entrapment. Because six slides were installed, a
large
volume of water was recirculated, and the pipes draining the Ogden
waterslide were unusually large. A safer alternative design would
be
to have more pipes with smaller diameter.
This problem extends beyond waterslide amusement parks. Since
1983, CPSC has received 10 reports of serious injury and three
reported deaths associated with swimming-pool or hot-tub drainage
systems. All 13 reports involved children 14 years of age or
younger. In six of these incidents, including all three
fatalities,
the cover to the drain pipe had been removed. In all 13 incidents,
the suction holding the child against the drain pipe opening or
entangling hair was the primary cause of injury.
Recirculation and drainage systems may remain a source of
serious
injuries or deaths unless operators ensure that all drainage or
recirculation pipes are adequately covered at all times to prevent
the
possibility of entrapment. Also, adequate safety standards for the
design and operation of recreational waterslides, spas and hot
tubs,
and swimming pools should be adopted by state and local
authorities.
These standards should focus in particular on proper design
features
to prevent injuries caused by entrapment.
Disclaimer
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