O.T. Water slide accident

[A.K. Boomer]

Blows me away in this day and age we got easily predictable and avoidable things yet "engineers" that still don't know the very basics of fluid dynamics, Geeze watch a Kayaking vid or something dumbasses,

Slide just opens for the first time - then 90 minutes into it a kid goes skipping out of the side when he basically hits water that's pooling at the bottom of the run while he's still at speed, I just gave the very reason as to "why" it happened yet news says "there's going to be a full investigation into finding out just how this "anomaly" occurred

[danlb]

I had the same thought. You can see the turbulence at the base of the run causing a standing wave and it's quite clear the kid hit it fast enough to hydroplane off it like a ski ramp.

I just got back from the grocery store, and that's one block away from that water park. I should have stopped to grab a few pictures for our Internet engineers to enjoy.

The stupidity of this water park is that it's in a park where they shut down the "water attractions" for the last two years. That means a reflecting pool with small sprinklers and a few summertime sprinklers for kids at the kiddie climber area. That city also spent $33 million for the water slide. Sigh.


Dan

[garyhlucas]

Actually you described how it happened. The why is likely to be way more complicated. Like was that water supposed to be there, or be that deep? How does the weight of the rider affect what happens? Was the water supposed to drain? Was there too little or too much time between riders? Was the previous rider large or small maybe leaving behind excess water?

[A.K. Boomer]

the size of the people going down before or after should not be an issue, again if it is then that too is poor design,

there's either too much water being used, more than needed to make the slide effective

or the ramp angle is too abrupt and should have tapered more at the bottom, could be a combo of the two,

but when copious amounts of water fall down a steep slope then hit a mild horizontal there will be pooling, only way to get rid of it is either reduce the amount of water output AND/OR don't create an abrupt horizontal - taper it in,

there's the both the how and the why.

what you don't ever want to do is see this effect and then let people use it --- dumbasses...

[Willy]

Yeah, dumb asses is right, probably an understatement!
Who the heck designs/engineers this kind of crap anyway?
Better yet who passes this stuff off as being safe? Is there some kind of water park safety standard that must be met before kids can go there by the thousands and be the ultimate go, no-go gauge?

I was going to leave a link to the video that I saw on the news but after Googling "water park accident" I had so many video hits that it looked more like a public shaming of the water park industry. Pick one.
Unbelievable and totally unacceptable!

[Optics Curmudgeon]

Three miles from Shadow Cliffs, which closed its water slides due to declining use a few years ago. In Dublin's case they tried to blame the kid for not having his arms and legs crossed. The slide should be safe in any body configuration.

[danlb]

The video shows he was clearly in the right position.

[wierdscience]

Cheap fix,just bond some foam padding to the concrete and charge $5 more

[danlb]

Cheap fix,just bond some foam padding to the concrete and charge $5 more

Do I have to split the consultant's fee with you if I bring that to city hall tomorrow?

Dan

[A.K. Boomer]

That city also spent $33 million for the water slide. Sigh.


Dan

Yeah but they did get almost 90 minutes of use out of it so money well spent right?


it's crazy, kinda was searching for why this was so upsetting to me and think i found the trigger, years ago I witnessed live coverage of that Olympic bobsled tragedy - they had just opened the newly designed track for qualifying and right off one of the athletes flew off a side and hit a massive steel beam and was killed instantly,

I will never forget the site and the sound the beam made, it was so brutal they took the coverage off the air for later news reports,,, now I will readily admit I do not have what it takes to design a bobsled course - very complex, but I do think they should have safety nets on all outside turns and such esp. when massive support beams are just feet away...

The water slide thing is very basic, this should never even be a remote possibility even if the kid was trying his best to climb out while sliding down - he's lucky he had a nice lofty obstacle free landing, perhaps he would have hit some reinforcement beams if he got stuffed under the other slide more?

someone besides just the kid needs to feel extremely fortunate even if they get banned from ever designing crap again...

[TGTool]

Reminds me of a story from years ago. I'm relating from memory so I haven't gone back to fact check it.

As I recall, the US bobsled team had contracted with Ford to design a bobsled for them, not just a traditional design, but really look at the engineering. So the new one was quite different. Among other things the runners were rubber mounted so it was much quieter. If fact, it was so quiet it was nicknamed "The Ghost". So they had two of them built for the Olympic trials. On the first run, it was so much faster the team were unprepared and it went right off the run on the upper side and was destroyed. No loss of life. Much sobered the team brought out the backup machine and resolved to start over again VERY carefully. So on this run they went much much slower and the machine fell off the inner side of the turn since they hadn't enough momentum to stick to the wall and the second machine was destroyed as well.

[Dan Dubeau]

I believe it. Ford has vast experience in designing vehicles that need a push downhill to go anywhere. lol

[enginuity]

I believe it. Ford has vast experience in designing vehicles that need a push downhill to go anywhere. lol

At least the engineers circled the problem.

[Royldean]

Are you sure you're not thinking of Geoff Bodine and the "Bo-Dyn" bobsled project?

[TGTool]

I believe it. Ford has vast experience in designing vehicles that need a push downhill to go anywhere. lol

And can go really fast if it's a good hill and ice conditions are right?

To be fair I do give them credit for some successful efforts like the GT40 (with help from Lola).