‘He’s traumatised’: Mother’s anguish after father and son injured on Jamberoo Action Park chairlift

A mother has criticised Jamberoo Action Park’s response to an accident earlier this month which left a father with multiple injuries and a son traumatised.

The mother of an eight-year-old boy who was involved in an accident at Jamberoo Action Park earlier this month has spoken out about how the waterpark handled the situation.

At about 10am on Friday, January 21, two passengers, a father and son aged 34 and eight were involved in an incident on the middle emergency platform halfway up the 500-metre long chairlift.

The middle emergency platform is signed ‘this deck is closed’ and is attended by a staff member.

The son, Zaide Jones, his mother Dru-ann Ingram explained, was on the lift with his father, Chris Jones, when he wanted to get off the chairlift. However, the boy miscalculated his disembarkment resulting in an multi-injury accident.

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“My sister and I had got on the chairlift about five minutes after my son and his father,” she said.

“I had no idea of what happened until halfway up when I saw my son on the ground crying for me. Zaide at the middle section did not mistake it to be where they got off. He just wanted to get off as he had had enough, probably due to the fact that my son is not comfortable with heights.

“They both fell from the platform. The employee didn’t notice at all until after my son was on the ground crying.”

The pair were assisted to the bottom of the 42-year-old chairlift via a buggy before being escorted to the waterpark‘s first aid room.

Mr Jones sustained two breaks in his left arm and a sprained ankle. He also broke his wrist which will require an operation, Ms Ingram told the Illawarra Star.

Zaide spent the night in hospital, but was cleared of any serious injuries. However, Ms Ingram said her son was “traumatised” by the event.

“I issued a complaint to management on the day,” she said.

“I was not impressed by the way they handled the entire situation.”

Jamberoo Action Park was contacted for comment.

The chairlift was installed in 1980 to service the competitors at the Australian Grass Skiing Championships. Picture: Lost Illawarra

A similar incident occurred in 2011 when then 13-year-old Mariah Foley stepped off the lift as it went over the middle platform – believing it was the final destination.

She tripped and fell to a grassed area below with the incident leading to a compressed fracture to one of her vertebrae and psychological problems, according to documents lodged in the NSW Supreme Court when she and her family sued operators of the park, in 2017.

The famous chairlift made headlines on another occasion in 2017 when a 14-year-old boy fell 10 metres to the ground after “performing pull-ups” on the lift.