Fell off water slide on holiday?

[cheekymonk]

Hi there. Have just returned from holiday on the Canaries and whilst there visited the obligatory water park. I had been on several slide whilst there, not consumed any alcohol
And had taken regular breaks and had top on to avoid sunburn. Whilst I was riding on a four ring ride with my DH, DS and DD I fell out of my tyre and hurtled out of the slide at speed, banging my head, losing a fair bite of blood and suffering amnesia. The lifeguards were attentive and I was cared for until an ambulance arrived. I was then taken to hospital and had an overnight stay. I was given 6 stitches and on an IV drop as
Not allowed food or food drink due to possible scan the following day(not done). I had an X-ray and was then certified fit to fly by Dr. I had travel insurance and paid the excess.
My query is whether the park was negligent? The attendants kept us waiting at top of slide for approx 10 mins. I am very obese and I think they were unsure about allowing me to ride. However I had been on an identical ride previously and been ok and the wait made me more anxious and weaker as they kept telling me off and to hold on tighter and keep my back straight. I struggled to do this for the time they kept us waiting which was much longer than others.
My head is painful and I feel the holiday was ruined by the experience. Not sure what to do? Any suggestions?

You can't sue someone just because you had an accident - in this case you would have to prove that there was something wrong with the slide. As others have pointed out, there is always a chance of injury with these sort of things.

If you took a toddler to a playground and they banged their head coming down a slide, would you be attempting to sue the Council!??

cheeky

Yes I am laughing at you thinking anyone was negligent except yourself.

I would never laugh at someone because they are fat but using it as an excuse to try and scam some company for compensation IS a joke!

You obviously knew you were well over the weight limit as you don't have the strength to hold on.

That video was really useful oblo

Op could you tell us at what point on the ride this occurred? It looks like there are only a couple of fast(ish) dips on the video of the ride.

HENs

There doesn't need to be a written weight limit on everything. At some point people need to take responsibility for their own actions and use common sense. If you can't hold your own weight then you know you are too big for the ride.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc_nqrS6K7w

This is on a similar water slide at Center Parcs. The girl that fell out here isn't overweight and appears to be holding on. Not sure if they took any legal action but it shows it's an accident that does happen on these type of slides.

Just be careful, OP.

You've named the ride and admitted that you were "scolded" for not sitting correctly and that you felt too weak to hold on properly.

The thing is; they weren't to know that you felt like your ability to hang on was comprimised by the wait, but you did know and could have left the ride at any time.

Your anxiousness about your weight is understandable but nothing to do with them.

I'm sorry this happened to you, and I'm sorry horrible fuckers laughed at you about your weight.

She says there was a combined limit of 315kg,, I don't understand your point their was no limit. Are you saying she was wrong?

Sorry bluntness didn't see that post about combined weight limit.

Poor you, I hope you're feeling better.

26stone is very, very heavy. I'm not keen on DH getting on water slides with DS2 as the weight differential is too great. DH is over 6'5" and is 18 stone, DS2 is 9 and only 5 stone. Although I'm slightly more worried about a tube flipping over and squashing DS2, rather than DH getting hurt.

The people there wouldn't know what weight you were.

I'd just use it as an opportunity to spur you on to lose some weight for next year.

Nah it doesn't sound like they were negligent. There's an onus on the individual to do a self risk assessment, which is good as it's moving away from the blame culture.

I'm sorry people laughed at you for being large. There's some proper cunts out there

Also remember the difference in healthcare.
In the U.K. that sort of injury would be stitches, probably a period of observation and then discharge.
This is a private hospital so you get kept in longer to recuperate.
I was out on a drip when I was admitted there with something that didn't require fasting nor had caused me to be dehydrated.
I have scars on my wrists because every time i went to that hospital I was out on a drip!

I've also been on the same ride at centreparcs. If you let go you'll likely fall out. If you bang your head it will probably bleed.

There's always disclaimers about riding at your own risk.

I think you need to let this go. It was an accident. One which occurred because you shouldn't have been there, given your weight. And I say that as a significantly over weight person myself, I wouldn't do it and you weigh a fair bit more than me.
Concentrate on your recovery.

Oh Jesus! You sound like a bloody claim merchant just after a hefty lump of cash to treat yourselves! How does the park know you weren't being feeble/couldn't be arsed holding on anymore?! This is ridiculous you had an unfortunate but entirely foreseeable accident seeng as you have admitted you knew you were probably over the weight limit,would you have preferred they weigh you?! Of course not then you'd be saying you were shamed and humiliated by the staff they can't win! They let you as an adult take responsibility for your self and make the judgement call which sadly you made th wrong one,no lasting damage learn from it and move on.

Hens, fair enough, 😃

I think I've been on that ride. I've been on a 4 person ring ride at Siam Park once as it was scary as hell and I love waterparks. You're right that it was really hard to hold on.

One problem would be that a lot of British people will not know their weight in kilos. Another will be if they aren't enforcing weight limits. Years ago I went to a waterpark in northern Spain with DP, his DSis and her DP. I went on with SIL and DP and BIL went on together. We all fell out but luckily weren't injured.

When we went on again, I saw the sign and we were probably over the weight limit, most pairs of adults would be. I was probably the lightest at about 11 stone and I think the limit per pair was about 20 stone.

But I don't know if the park was negligent, or if it is worth complaining. If you are still in Tenerife, all Spanish businesses are required by law to keep a complaints books so it may be worth asking to see that and write your complaint in there - I don't know if anyone official who cares will see it or do anything, but there is a pretty good description of the process here

This is why I am terrified of slides in general especially water slides. Your not strapped in!
Sorry you got hurt OP and hope you recover quickly but by going on the ride I would imagine you accept responsibility for holding on tight all the way down.

OP, I don't mean to be alarmist, but I had a friend whose head was bumped going down a waterslide at Adventure Island in Tampa, Florida. (She didn't fall off or anything, it was just a really steep slide where her head bumped around.)

She suffered several years of migraines and eventual had successful grain surgery!!! She is great now and racing in triathlons. So my point is: be fussy, be noisy and make sure you keep going back to the doctors if things don't seem right.

I wish you better soon and hope that in your case it al just settles down.

OP this is so awful. I couldn't imagine one of these rides could result in such injuries. And when you were on holiday too. I hope you are getting better.

I don't think you should pursue anything legal here. There's not anything obvious that they should/shouldn't have done that you can point too. They will just say that you didn't hold on or weighed too much or weren't following some rule about how you should sit etc etc. Unless other people have fallen out on that particular ride at that particular point before and they didn't make any adjustments to it? That's the only way I think you could say they are negligent. Plus there was probably a sign saying that you riding on the slides you accept the risks involved.

the lifeguards seemed unsure whether to let her ride due to this (but op isn't sure exactly what was said)

No that's pure speculation as no one knows what they were saying.

That ride looks fantastic, but hardly extreme or scary.

I don't think this has anything to do with your weight. You don't know for sure that the lifeguards were talking about you, they could have been discussing anything on the radios as far as I can make out from your posts.

You couldn't hold on, for whatever reason, and this resulted in you falling off and banging your head. If you weren't sure you would be strong enough to hold on then you should have told them, they couldn't know that.

I appreciate it's an unpleasant experience, but it sounds like an accident.

I think this boils down to one of those situations to learn from. You shouldn't go faster, no matter how heavy you are - gravity acts the same on objects of different masses. If anything, increased friction should slow you down. But you're potentially unstable.
Thankfully you're okay!

I could have held on if not made to wait so long! Why tell me off before ride has begun? I didn't fall out on The Dragon which was very similar ride! I risk assessed it based on what I knew. Like right now I don't feel safe to drive so have asked DH to do driving until I feel safe as I could potentially kill someone if concussed at the wheel. If I had assessed this as a possible outcome then I wouldn't have got on!

Where there's blame eh? Can see nothing was done wrong here (except the obvious)

Then you should have got off before the ride started.

Personal responsibility is lacking everywhere these days - it's very sad & frustrating. Don't sue.