AN 11-YEAR-OLD girl’s tragic death at a water park has been ruled “unlawful” by a coroner.
Kyra Hill, 11, died after drowning in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure in Windsor.
Kyra Hill sadly drowned at the Liquid Leisure park in Windsor[/caption]
The park was found to have poor signage near deep water pools[/caption]
Senior Coroner Heidi Connor concluded that there were gorss breaches of health and safety at the park.
The inquest heard that several water features had signs which described them as “shallow” despite there being “various sharp drops”.
Some of the drops measured as much as 4.5m.
Commenting on the poor signage, Ms Connor said: “In fact the only sign present warned of shallow water.”
She added that young children were permitted to swim without buoyancy aids and that parents were not advised to attend with a ratio of one adult per four children.
Rachel Marcus, representing Kyra’s family, asked Ms Connor to consider a charge of gross negligence manslaughter by Liquid Leisure owner Stuart Marston.
She also called for an additional charge of corporate manslaughter.
Liquid Leisure’s representative, Angus Withington KC, said that the company was a “separate and distinct legal entity” to Mr Marston.
He added that the firm was “responsible for all of the activities”.
Mr Withington also said that there were “no national or international standards or any specific health and safety legislation” which would allow a coroner to decide if the “arrangements were a breach of duty or a gross breach of duty”.
