Conference koolit::disney

    I saw on the early morning news, that a mother and son were in a
    small boat (maybe one of the water sprites) and somehow the small
    boat collided with the larger ferry boat.  They were able to save
    the son but not the mother.
    
    Carla

    I just finished a conversation with a friend who worked the situation.
    Apparently a mother and son were in a watersprite and they collided
    with a ferry.  The sprite hit the ferry up near the front and to
    the side.  The sprite tipped over.  The son was ok, but they couldn't
    find the mother.  Divers were sent in to search the Seven Seas Lagoon
    and they found her about 1 1/2 hours later.  Apparently she was
    not a pretty sight to look at.
    
    The rest of the day the ferries did not run and they had to run
    extra monorails and trams to handle the crowds in the Magic Kingdom.

    Has there been any determination as to how this happend ?
    Did the watersprite stall in the Ferry path, or were the people
    in the sprite just paying no attention at all to what they were
    doing. The watersprites are not very fast, especially with two on
    board, something like this should never have happend. I know everytime
    I have rented a boat at Disney I have seen people doing plenty of
    things with the boats that are dangerous,especially between the
    Contemperary and Discovery Isl, but this is just too much. I have
    always had great fun riding these boats, to me it is part of every
    Disney trip. I hope they don't do away with them because of this.
    
    
    

    
�                                                              I have
�   always had great fun riding these boats, to me it is part of every
�   Disney trip. I hope they don't do away with them because of this.

    I feel the same way.  It's always one of the parts of Disney I
    remember enjoying a lot.  I feel very bad for the victims.  We
    already have a note on how the rapid growth of WDW has been affecting
    service.  Maybe it's affecting safety, too.  Maybe they really are
    expanding too much for their own good.
    
    People do a lot of dangerous things on these Sprites, though.
    Everyone seems to love riding the ferry wakes for thrills.  Seems 
    to not be the case here since she hit the front of the Ferry (how 
    *did* that happen?).
    
SEAN/BEER=LABATTS

    I've also enjoyed going out on the Water Sprites  myself.    But one of
    the things I would always  notice  was that recklessness of some of the
    drivers (it always takes just one to wreck the experience).  

    I remember seeing young tenager as well as some adults over the various
    times  I rented, who would come rather close to the various Ferries  as
    well  as  their  friends,  or  parents who let the 5-8 year old do  the
    driving while  they  watch  the screenery.  Most of the time the Disney
    patrol would catch those offenders, but not always.
    
    I'd be curious to find out who was driving etc.
    
    Claude

	Whenever I used the water sprites, I was told to put on a life
	jacket.  I assumed you had to wear one, although I would have
	worn one anyway as an example to my kids.  I wouldn't want them
	to think they could ride without one.

	I wonder why the mother wasn't wearing one.  It appears that it
	might have saved her life.

	--Jay

    I would think that Disney would insure that all who use the Sprites
    would be required to wear a life jacket. Seems only right that a
    successful company such as Disney would be careful of liability.
    
    My family isn't interested in much of the water activities down there
    ..........especially now.
    
    Mike

    I guess it said in the paper down in Florida (so my parents say) that
    they will not remove the sprites and other boats because of this one
    accident.  It supposedly is the first one they ever had over all the
    years.
    
    

    I live on Long Island, which is where the victim comes from, here
    is the official story on what happened.  There were 4 or 5 families
    vacationing together at the Grand Floridian and everything was just
    wonderful until.........the victim and her son went out in a sprite
    to video tape their friends water skiing and such.  The son claims
    that they were wearing their life jackets when they left the dock
    (which is required by Disney), the woman apparently removed her
    life jacket in order to film her video.  They emerged from between
    two islands and crashed into the ferry.  One of the passengers on
    the ferry dove overboard to save the child but couldn't locate the
    woman, after 2 hours of searching, her body was recovered.  This
    is how the story appeared in Saturday (October 14) Long Island Newsday
    paper.
    
    Ellen
    

    I still have a few questions,
    
    How old was the boy?
    
    Was the boy driving, while the Mother was video-taping?
    
    Most states  have  a  law  in  which  based on hp of the motors the age
    minimus  for  drivers.    In Florida I believe it's 12yrs since that is
    what Disney  enforces  as  the  minimum  age  for  singles in the Water
    sprite.  If  I  remember  my  boating  safety  course  I took this year
    correctly, NH requires the operator of a boat to be 12(maybe 13) yrs or
    older for motor's under 25hp  and  16yrs  or  older  over  25hp  unless
    accompanyed by a responsible adult.
    
    Claude

    From what the Newsday article said, the boy was 8 years old.  When
    they left the dock the mother was driving but I would imagine in
    order for her to take the video the boy must have taken over for
    his mom.  There was no mention of who was actually driving at the
    time of the accident.

    I was in WDW when this happened. We were coming back to the Grand
    Floridian hotel on the monorail when we saw all kinds of ambulances and
    people next to the lagoon where the ferry boat was. Our experience
    was that we also rented the sprites the day before, and they did not 
    ask our daughters age, insisted on life preservers, and made us sign 
    a waiver. We felt that the sprite drivers were daring and always speeding.
    I even had to tell my daughter (in her separate boat) to be more
    careful and slow down.
    
    As far as the accident goes, we heard the mother was driving, she did
    have a lifevest, and she just didnt know how to get out of the way of
    the bigger boat. We heard nothing about a video. We felt quite bad
    about it. I think the park is not adjusting to the increasing crowd
    level all-in-all. They do not consider traffic when renting the
    sprites. Each hotel has many of these sprites and if they rented all of
    them at once it would be a mad-house.  Not saying it was the crowd that
    made the accident happen; Im just saying that the whole resort is
    changing and Disney needs to get a handle on it before it gets out of
    hand.

    If the mother had her lifevest on they how and why did she drowned,
    and how come it took so long to recover her body?
    

    Talking to me friends who work there, the mother went under the
    ferry and got caught by the propellers of the ferry.  From the boat,
    the mother was found in the reeds along side of the 7 Seas Lagoon.
    
    Joel
    

    The family is suing Disney for $240 million!

    Remember the boating accident on the Seven Seas Lagoon??  Well the
    family of the victim is suing for $240 Million.  Disney offered
    the family a "seven-figure settlement" but the offer was refused.
    An Orange County Sheriff said the mother and her son were wearing
    life preservers when they left the Grand Floridian Resort Marina
    in their rental boat but that she was not wearing the preserver
    when her body was recovered for the man-made lake.  It sounds to
    me like the woman was partly at fault for not wearing her preserver.
    
    Ellen Maron

    Does anybody know the current status of this lawsuit?
    
    Did they ever find the lifejacket, had it been damaged by the
    boatprops?
    
    Lifejacket or not, it sounds like those props were the lethal
    instrument in this accident. Boating can be so dangerous if you are not
    careful. What a tragedy.
    
    DM