Theme park denies liability for $1m slide injury suit

The owner of the Dreamworld and White Water World theme parks has rejected claims it is liable to pay $1m to a mum whose eight-year old daughter allegedly suffered horrific internal injuries on a water slide.

The girl was “bleeding profusely” after the incident on the Fully 6 water slide at White Water World.

The owner of the Dreamworld theme park has rejected claims it is liable to pay $1m to a mum whose eight-year old daughter allegedly suffered horrific internal injuries on a water slide.

In its defence, filed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on August 23, stockmarket-listed Ardent Leisure Limited admits that the Logan girl left slide three of the Fully 6 water slide “bleeding profusely” on November 22, 2020.

They also admit that the girl spent four nights in Logan Hospital and that her mother required treatment from psychologist Mary Janetzki.

The mother states in her claim that her daughter lost 500mls of blood before an ambulance arrived and suffered blood spotting for three weeks.

But the operator of the WhiteWater World theme park, at Coomera on the Gold Coast, denies the girl’s injuries were caused by their negligence.

They submit that her mother Sarah - who claims to have suffered a 19 per cent whole person impairment with post traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder - has no entitlement to damages.

Sarah's eight-year-old daughter suffered internal injuries after riding one of Dreamworld's WhiteWater World slides. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ardent, which has a market capitalisation of $225m, denies it was negligent and says that because the significant tear or rupture of her vaginal wall was not a foreseeable risk, they did not have a duty to protect the girl from it.

“No reasonable risk assessment performed by Ardent could or would have identified the risk of harm,” the defence states.

Sarah’s claim for damages states that her daughter crossed her legs at the start of the ride but that “due to the forces encountered by her body while making the descent her legs became uncrossed by the time she reached the splashdown area.”

In its defence, Ardent states that although its staff instructed riders to lay back with their feet downwards and their legs crossed on the slide, this was not a rule that was “essential ... for safe use” by Swimplex Aquatics Pty Ltd, the slide builder and designer, rather it was a “control measure” Ardent voluntarily imposed.

Sarah with her daughter in hospital after the accident.

The eight-year-old in hospital. Photo: Supplied

Sarah has also sued Swimplex Aquatics but they have not filed a defence.

The claim concedes that the eight-year old girl “was inattentive to the attendant’s instructions and was obviously looking away when the attendant gave the instructions” on two occasions.

Sarah claimed she suffers from anxiety and feelings of guilt for the accident, intrusive thoughts, nightmares, sleepless and hypervigilant towards her kids.

In November 2020 Sarah was working as an aged care enrolled nurse for Lutheran Community Care and Kincare earning $1140 per week and she was studying to become a higher-paying endorsed enrolled nurse.

She claims her PTSD forced her to drop out of her course and quit both her jobs.

She is claiming a total of $1,027,561 in damages including lost earnings for the past three years of $250,170, general damages of $70,050 and future lost earnings of $583,100.

Ardent has hit back in its defence stating 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”.

“There is no evidence that Sarah intended to complete either course before the incident,” the defence states, adding that her alleged pre-incident income was excessive and not backed-up by documents filed as part of the legal stoush.

Ardent states their medical expert has assessed Sarah with an impairment of 5 per cent instead of the 19 per cent she claims.

“Any inability of (Sarah) will have to work, study or earn and income in the future will be caused, or at least be partly caused by her pre-existing and significant history of anxiety and depression,” the defence states.

No date has been set for hearing.