11 year old girl dies at drayton manor theme park

cheesyboy · 10 May 2017 at 12:06

Haggisman said:
What safety measures? An overwhelming majority of roads in this country have no barrier whatsoever to prevent a child from running across them, but when it happens, no one goes blaming the council for not having a 6ft fence across preventing it.

Well, we lower speed limits near schools and built up areas, don't we?

And that line was more of a general point about children's personal judgement of risk.

Haggisman said:
Sitting in a fibreglass carriage hurtling downwards at 80mph attached to rails by only a few plastic wheels is inherently risky.

As I said, the actual risk is negligible (as evidenced by the rarity of theme park accidents), but it is still there (as evidenced by the fact they DO occur)

Yes the risk is there. But no it's not 'part of the thrill' as you suggested. You don't get more thrill on Smiler because you think it might chop your legs off.

cheesyboy · 10 May 2017 at 12:07

dowie said:
I don't blame them for not exactly being too sympathetic in a self inflicted case like that, especially as there was no real harm done other than a kid getting wet. Other than maybe fetching the kid a towel or taking them somewhere to dry off (especially if it is a cold day) I don't see that there is much more to do on their part towards the kid/mum. Obviously on their side they'll need to review tapes, see how it was able to occur and presumably conclude it was the result of him standing up.

Suicide is self-inflicted. Do you offer no sympathy there either?

Nitefly · 10 May 2017 at 12:08

antijoke said:
Nah, they'll bring in a law banning theme parks outright, the public can't be trusted to not die so let's ban them, ALL OF THEM.

I think your reaction is funnier in respect of the hysteria emerging within this thread, than the implied joke at the expense of the government

As I mentioned earlier, if they let children on the ride without an adult (contrary to any park policy), or similar, then I anticipate the park will get a rather stinging slap on the wrist - will all depend of the facts of course, but we can't say for sure that the park is totally blameless yet. I'm sure an enquiry of sorts will let us know what happened.

mmj_uk · 10 May 2017 at 12:08

The DM is highlighting the fact that no teacher was on board, I bet the school get blamed as well.

dowie · 10 May 2017 at 12:08

cheesyboy said:
Suicide is self-inflicted. Do you offer no sympathy there either?

What on earth has this got to do with suicide?

This was a kid falling in the water and getting wet. The 'near death experience' you mention is about the same as a kid running across a road on the way to school and getting beeped at by a car.

cheesyboy · 10 May 2017 at 12:09

dowie said:
What on earth has this got to do with suicide?

Your reasoning for no sympathy being due was that it was self-inflicted. I wondered how far you took that philosophy.

dowie · 10 May 2017 at 12:09

cheesyboy said:
Your reasoning for no sympathy being due was that it was self-inflicted. I wondered how far you took that philosophy.

It isn't even comparable. I didn't say no sympathy either but not too sympathetic - and my reasoning wasn't confined to it being self inflicted either but the lack of harm too! Frankly it is irrelevant and off topic to start some silly discussion about suicide.

cheesyboy · 10 May 2017 at 12:15

dowie said:
It isn't even comparable. I didn't say no sympathy either but not too sympathetic - and my reasoning wasn't confined to it being self inflicted either but the lack of harm too! Frankly it is irrelevant and off topic to start some silly discussion about suicide.

It seems just as irrelevant that it was 'self inflicted'. Why should that garner less sympathy for a young boy?

antijoke · 10 May 2017 at 12:26

Nitefly said:
I think your reaction is funnier in respect of the hysteria emerging within this thread, than the implied joke at the expense of the government

As I mentioned earlier, if they let children on the ride without an adult (contrary to any park policy), or similar, then I anticipate the park will get a rather stinging slap on the wrist - will all depend of the facts of course, but we can't say for sure that the park is totally blameless yet. I'm sure an enquiry of sorts will let us know what happened.

Huh? I'm just messing about with how much we get decisions made for us like a sugar tax and a ban on adverts for fast food before nine etc. I'm not being serious....

dowie · 10 May 2017 at 12:35

cheesyboy said:
It seems just as irrelevant that it was 'self inflicted'. Why should that garner less sympathy for a young boy?

You really do want to carry on taking this off topic don't you?

You're talking about the expression of a subjective human emotion - do you really not understand that, in the case of a minor incident, someone might have less sympathy for something that was said to be 'your own fault' or 'brought on yourself' than had it occurred to someone through 'no fault of their own'?

since we're off topic on this - if you don't understand this idea of having less sympathy towards someone when they were partly to blame for the consequences of a minor incident how about this:

If a kid gets scratched by a cat do you have the same level of sympathy towards the kid whether they were minding their business or actively provoking/teasing the cat before being scratched?

Gimpymoo · 10 May 2017 at 12:38

darael said:
So the ride is dangerous because Vikki's son can't follow instructions? Right, let's close the thing down because it's so lethal.

The interview is here:

She says her son "Half stood, half waved"? No mention that she told him to "Sit the **** down".

cheesyboy · 10 May 2017 at 12:42

dowie said:
You really do want to carry on taking this off topic don't you?

You're talking about the expression of a subjective human emotion - do you really not understand that, in the case of a minor incident, someone might have less sympathy for something that was said to be 'your own fault' or 'brought on yourself' than had it occurred to someone through 'no fault of their own'?

since we're off topic on this - if you don't understand this idea of having less sympathy towards someone when they were partly to blame for the consequences of a minor incident how about this:

If a kid gets scratched by a cat do you have the same level of sympathy towards the kid whether they were minding their business or actively provoking/teasing the cat before being scratched?

Who's off topic? We're talking the reaction of Drayton Manor staff to an accident on one of their rides, to which you felt their showing a lack of sympathy was warranted because it was 'self-inflicted'

This isn't subjective human emotion, it's corporate behaviour.

dowie · 10 May 2017 at 12:44

Gimpymoo said:
She says her son "Half stood, half waved"? No mention that she told him to "Sit the **** down".

and she did naff all herself when he did fall in but rather another member of the public next to her pulled the son out...

dowie · 10 May 2017 at 12:46

cheesyboy said:
Who's off topic? We're talking the reaction of Drayton Manor staff to an accident on one of their rides, to which you felt their showing a lack of sympathy was warranted because it was 'self-inflicted'

This isn't subjective human emotion, it's corporate behaviour.

You asked a question about sympathy - I answered a question about sympathy. Sympathy is a human emotion.. and yes this is now becoming a really pointless and off topic discussion - yet you still persist.

cheesyboy · 10 May 2017 at 12:48

dowie said:
You asked a question about sympathy - I answered a question about sympathy. Sympathy is a human emotion.. and yes this is now becoming a really pointless and off topic discussion - yet you still persist.

Well, no. You made a statement about sympathy, so I asked a question about sympathy.

And it doesn't seem pointless or irrelevant, since every third post in this thread is along the same lines: "it's her own fault".

dowie · 10 May 2017 at 12:49

cheesyboy said:
Well, no. You made a statement about sympathy, so I asked a question about sympathy.

And I answered a question about sympathy...

And it doesn't seem pointless or irrelevant, since every third post in this thread is along the same lines: "it's her own fault".

questions about suicide or questions about why people feel less sympathy when things are self inflicted are going off topic IMO

C.R.A.Z.Y · 10 May 2017 at 13:13

Rides designed for kids should have safeguards in place to make it physically impossible for stupid or naughty kids to make bad decisions that result in death!
Kids being kids is not an acceptable excuse for fatality's at a theme park!

Skiddley · 10 May 2017 at 14:14

C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Rides designed for kids should have safeguards in place to make it physically impossible for stupid or naughty kids to make bad decisions that result in death!
Kids being kids is not an acceptable excuse for fatality's at a theme park!

In that case we had better build 10ft high fences around every road, just in case a child doesn't look whilst crossing.

We can't remove all risk.

Dis86 · 10 May 2017 at 14:18

Skiddley said:
In that case we had better build 10ft high fences around every road, just in case a child doesn't look whilst crossing the road.

Better yet, tether them to their beds. Stairs can be dangerous too. So can floors. Slips, trips and falls being the number 1 cause of accidental death and all that.

robgmun · 10 May 2017 at 14:21

cheesyboy said:
Suicide is self-inflicted. Do you offer no sympathy there either?

Please don't bring the debate about Suicide in this thread, otherwise i'm likely go into a massive rant about the selfish act and how i have little to no sympathy for those people.