Owners of Dreamworld theme park have rejected claims they are liable to pay $1 million in damages to a mother whose young daughter allegedly suffered a gruesome genital injury on a water slide.
The girl, 8, was sliding down the Full6 ride at Dreamworld’s sister park WhiteWater World on the Gold Coast in November 2020 when the slide turned ‘red with blood’.
She had suffered a severe vaginal tear which required two operations and four nights in Logan Hospital.
The girl’s mother, Sarah – who claims her PTSD following the incident forced her to drop out of a nursing course – is suing the theme park operators for over $1 million for lost earnings, general damages and PTSD.
The girl, 8, was sliding down the Full6 ride at Dreamworld’s sister park WhiteWater World on the Gold Coast (PICTURED) in November 2020 when the slide turned ‘red with blood’
The girl (pictured) suffered a severe vaginal tear which required two operations and four nights in Logan Hospital
But the parent company, Ardent Leisure, denies the girl’s injuries were their fault and submits that the girl’s mother has no entitlement to damages.
They claim that since the unusual injury was not a foreseeable risk, they did not have a duty to protect the girl from it, according to The Courier Mail.
‘No reasonable risk assessment performed by Ardent could or would have identified the risk of harm,’ the defence states.
Ardent also said that the damages sought ‘are excessive and wholly disproportionate to the true nature and full extent of the injury suffered by (Sarah) resulting from the incident’.
The mother, who is from Logan in Brisbane’s north, is also suing Swimplex Acquatics, who designed and built the ride but they are yet to file a defence.
No date has been set for the hearing.
The 2020 incident came just a couple of months after Ardent was fined $3.6million for negligence following the deaths of four people who were killed on the Thunder Rapids ride in 2016.
Kim Dorsett’s children Kate Goodchild and Luke Dorsett, his partner Roozi Araghi, and NSW mother Cindy Low were killed when the amusement park ride malfunctioned, on October 25, 2016.
The tragedy unfolded when a water pump malfunctioned causing water levels in the ride to fall dangerously low.
The victims’ raft collided with another after becoming stuck in the low water.
It partially flipped, flinging the group into the mechanised conveyor that moved the rafts.
Ardent Leisure were ordered to pay $3.6million in fines after pleading guilty to safety charges over the tragedy.
Content source – www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
