A five-year-old boy fell off the Twist-N-Shout water ride at the Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park (Picture: Facebook/Lake Winnie)
A five-year-old boy fell out of a water slide at an amusement park as guests watched in horror.
The incident occurred at the Twist-N-Shout water ride at the Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park on the Fourth of July.
A visitor to the park, Ginger Bence, told WZTV on Wednesday that she and her family saw the boy ‘fly out’ of the colorful water slide.
‘I don’t think I’ll ever forget it,’ said Bence.
She said workers at the park blew whistles and that the boy’s father carried him to get medical treatment.
‘I thought, “Is he alive?”‘ said Bence, who estimated that the boy fell about 20 feet.
Lake Winnepesaukah on Thursday stated that ‘a child at our water park riding in a double tube sustained an injury’.
‘All safety guidelines were observed at the time an adult and the child entered the tube,’ stated the amusement park.
The boy was treated on site and taken to a children’s hospital for further care.
It was not immediately known what injuries the boy suffered.
The Catoosa County Fire Department and state of Georgia both confirmed the accident occurred on Tuesday.
Catoosa County spokesman John Pless told WTVC that they are not investigating the incident as a crime.
Just four days before the boy fell, Lake Winnepesaukah tweeted its ‘spotlight attraction of the week’ as the Twist-N-Shout and highlighted its ‘exhilarating tube slides’.
On Thursday, a spokesman for Lake Winnepesaukah said the water slide had reopened after state officials inspected the rider tubes, foundation of the ride and signage.
But Bence is skeptical about returning to the amusement park ever again.
‘Just thought… everything could have been done a little differently,’ she said.
The boy’s fall follows at least a couple other incidents on rides in the US within a week.
On Sunday, eight riders on the Fireball rollercoaster at the Forest County Festival in Wisconsin were left hanging upside for hours when the cars suddenly stopped.
And last Friday, a father at the Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina, observed a large crack on a pillar of a rollercoaster that moved as riders whizzed by.
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Amusement park guests reportedly watched in horror as a five-year-old boy flew off a water slide ride.