Accident of sorts at Disney in Florida, may be upsetting

[CheerfulYank]

A two year old was dragged into the lagoon by an alligator a few hours ago and hasn't been seen since.

It's so awful I feel like I can't breathe. I cannot imagine how scared he/she was and what the parents are feeling.

Accounts vary but apparently they were sitting on the beach either waiting for fireworks or having movie night. It's just too awful. I'm sure it was supposed to be a wonderful trip and now this.

I know the chances that child will be found alive are almost nothing, but I am hoping against hope that he or she is. I just cannot imagine.

lack of previous incidents does not mean WDW are not liable for this and should take immediate steps to prevent it happening again. the fact is the signage was woefully inadequate, as i say probably because actually spelling out the danger means theyd have to admit that theres a risk of serious harm, which i imagine doesnt fit with their image

so they stick up a no swimming sign and assume people would of course know it meant there are alligators, not that its just dirty, deep etc

and perhaps alligators are more prevalent now than before. i think its quite lazy thinking to just say its not happened before so its not their fault. their resort, their land, their fluffy signage, their fault imo. not that it will fix this current issue but hopefully they will ensure the risks are spelled out now, i mean jesus, McDs have to warn us that coffee is hot yet a body of water accessible by people with gators in it just has a shitty No Swimming sign?

lifesalongsong It's a massive lake. There isn't one part of it that is any safer or more dangerous than any other. There are no barriers. It is a beach on a lake. There were witnesses.

I'm not entirely convinced that "clearer" signs would make much difference.
So you don't think there is a significant difference between
"No Swimming" and
"Danger - Alligators. Do Not Enter The Water."
I would be a lot further back from the edge of the water if I saw the second sign.

No swimming=could equal dirty contaminated water

Danger:gators in water. Death likely= Keep the hell away from the lagoon

No possible mix up at all

As I said earlier, my children have been on a Disney hotel beach, and asked to paddle. I said no, because:

We were all tired after a long day
We didn't have a change of clothes for after the inevitable accident
We were running late for tea and dd1 would have got in a flap (ASD)
We didn't have a towel to dry off afterwards to put shoes/socks back on (again, ASD issue)
The signs said No Swimming so I assumed non-clean water, and my children being my children at least one of them would have ingested some and I didn't want upset tummies.

And probably a few other minor reasons, all of which may well have not been an issue for another family.

I could easily see that if we were on a beach after dark, waiting for the fireworks, the dc could have gone paddling - what better way to keep small children entertained in the dark while waiting for something to start? (We haven't watched the fireworks from the beaches only because it doesn't suit us die to SN).

Yes, thinking about it it should be obvious. But in several visits it hasn't occurred to me, or to dh.

I was in Florida a few years ago. We went by coach to the Kennedy Space Center. On the way there, there were loads of alligators by the road , next to a small but long swamp.
In the park there was a lake which was full of them and we saw one ambling through the car park.

How awful. So there were at least four of then in the lake.

This doesn't strike me as seeming dangerous at all.
Watch it from 0.45, and also from 6.05

what a shame, although I thought it was common knowledge that there were shitloads of alligators in florida, and you need to stay away from the water. One of the reasons ive never been tempted.

not common knowledge to me, at all!

Awful. I'm from Texas. We have plenty of alligators, as do all the southern coastal states (I've even eaten alligator), but wouldn't expect people from a place like Nebraska to be aware of how common they are.

I agree that I didn't know there could be alligators there having never been to that part of America myself. I think that's possibly the problem though - WDW could be of the opinion that it's common knowledge whereas the parents could be like me and unaware of the potential risk. WDW might assume there's no need for explicit signage, the parents might assume that it's safe due to lack of explicit signage.

I do think it's a tragic accident but I'm at least glad to see that the parents aren't being blamed on this thread. There are some nasty comments directed at the parents on Twitter.

was just about to start a thread on this but saw one has started.
Wondering why there is no uproar of the four innocent gators who have been killed like the mother and the gorilla

I am from the UK and even I know Florida has Gators, even places they say are okay to swim is not okay

So you don't think there is a significant difference between
"No Swimming" and "Danger - Alligators. Do Not Enter The Water."

Yes, I think there's a difference - I just don't feel that signs would necessarily have prevented this tragedy, no matter what they said

Hindsight's a wonderful thing, but gators have been around since the days of the dinosaurs and aren't going anywhere any time soon. Awful as it is, sometimes when we share the same space accidents will happen - not that this makes it any less dreadful for the poor family of course

By the way, Merritt Island (the site of Kennedy Space Centre a PP mentioned) is actually a designated nature reserve. Seems a bit ironic given the high tech aspects of the place, but there you go ...

It would appear that American law suggests you cannot legally enter water with a No Swimming sign - so it doesn't really matter what the sign said.

It does in the sense that people may have paid more attention to an alligator sign rather than a no swimming sign but from a legal liability point of view, it doesn't.

I was a bit torn on whether it should be made clearer for people not from the States but we don't expect other countries to tell us their laws. When people visit countries that ban alcohol or women driving or gambling, they are expected to know, so I suppose this should be the same.

I'd hoped something would be found by now. Its such a devastating freak event.

I just don't feel that signs would necessarily have prevented this tragedy, no matter what they said
I don't understand your thought process.
You think a parent would still go paddling with a 2yr old if there were signs warning that there were alligators in the water?

"Wondering why there is no uproar of the four innocent gators who have been killed like the mother and the gorilla" in this instance though they would need to kill the gators in order to ascertain whether or not any one of them was the one who took the child - iyswim.

I was on the beach at Polynesian in January. I didn't notice any no swimming signs let alone any warning about alligators. I knew florida had them but I didn't really process that knowledge as being relevant in the sanitised environment of disney. Naive, in retrospect. If it had been warmer I woukd probably have paddled.

As it was it was freezing - down jacket, hat scarf and gloves were the order of the day!

I don't see what difference it makes which gator killed the child at this point.

We were there a few weeks ago.....I was discussing with DH this morning of we would have let the DC's dip their toes in the water, I think we probably would have. In my mind the risk of open water is germs and a strong currant not alligators. I realise this is daft considering every water way in Flotida is a risk but I think I'm guilty of the 'not at Disney' feeling. Desperately sorry for the family and to be honest Disney as they are so safety conscious and this will be a terrible blow.

Lilac it doesn't matter which but they want an answer for the family.
I don't really understand - initial posts were saying no eye witnesses but then later posts implied the parents were both there and in fact tried to save the child. Which us the case?

Lilac because they will need to recover as much of the body as possible.

Also because this gator had obviously lost his fear of humans enough to go snatch one. So he/she is a danger.

I know the boy was paddling, but even if he had been at the edge of the water on dry land there is nothing to say the alligator would not still have taken him.

I cannot imagine what his father went through trying to wrest him from the alligator's jaws.