Alligator grabs two year old at Disney World

[Lejuan]

Safe to say that every man and his dog'd know about not going near the water now, signs or no signs

 

[devilof76]

Shame that this child was the cost.

 

[YoNoSe]

Safe to say that every man and his dog'd know about not going near the water now, signs or no signs

Having been to WDW many times I can say without cynicism that it won't be long before those signs are ignored. This may be an American thing but it does seem (cynic hat back on) that a large portion of our population believes "that doesn't apply to ME." Or maybe it stems from the "if I do this really fast, I will evade the danger" instinct. But it will happen.

 

[devilof76]

Saw a story on the news this morning about a 5-6 year old attacked in his backyard (Colorado) by a mountain lion. His mother fought it off.

 

[YoNoSe]

I don't mean this to sound glib but I keep thinking of something that happened in EPCOT. We were walking behind a kid, pre-teen age, who had a hot dog. A large bird swooped down and stole the hot dog right out of his hands. He had been trailing behind his family and he ran to them. My wife and I thought it was funny because his family probably wouldn't believe it but we saw the whole thing.

 

[ali032373]

Having been to WDW many times I can say without cynicism that it won't be long before those signs are ignored. This may be an American thing but it does seem (cynic hat back on) that a large portion of our population believes "that doesn't apply to ME." Or maybe it stems from the "if I do this really fast, I will evade the danger" instinct. But it will happen.

I absolutely belive the signage will change. But when people ignore the sign the argument will be you knew or should have known that people would ignore the sign and should have taken measure x, y, z on top of that. Or the person will say i never saw the sign- it was too dark. Somethinglike that. Not saying i agree with that but thats what will be argued. A lot of times the standard turns into you should protect people from themselves.

Going off topic a bit, but One of the peoblems with the US tort system is that there's no barrier or risk to suing someone. As the plaintiff you get to bring total BS. The only risk is that a jury awards you nothing. In which case you walk out with nothing (same as what you came in with). As a defendant if you argue BS (as an example here, disney claiming they knew nothing about gators) the jury will punish you in the form of a higher verdict. You will be seen as avoiding responsibility. Or believing that the jurors are so stupid as to buy your BS. You will be punished in the form of dollars. So with nothing to lose, people sue any chance they get. And why not? Whats the worst that could happen?

And i can tell you even if there was a flashing neon sign on that beach with an alligator biting someone in water, disney would still get sued. And they'd still pay something just because it's a horrible event and they'd want to keep this out of the news. Maybe they pay much less, but the PR cost would be waaay too high not to get rid of that case asap.

 

[YoNoSe]

Local news just did a story about new signage.

 

[Collectorcol]

^ That works.

'Stay away from water' and 'No swimming' are two completely different things as far as I'm concerned.

 

[YoNoSe]

^ That works.

'Stay away from water' and 'No swimming' are two completely different things as far as I'm concerned.

I would disagree but obviously the fact that we disagree is indicative of the problem.

 

[Collectorcol]

 

[filip629]

Ignoring the liability issue, I think we can all agree that the signs are certainly more descriptive and informative than the old ones. They give parents and guests more information than the old signs did and I think bring more awareness to the general public. That's not a bad thing in my book.

 

[DinoDB1975]

Post script to this tragedy:

"Disney has wiped out references and depictions of alligators and crocodiles from its storied attractions at the Magic Kingdom in Florida in the weeks after a 2-year-old was killed in an attack at a resort, according to reports.

The Miami Herald reported that cartoon alligators and crocodiles have been removed from shows and parades, and a popular one-liner warning parents to watch their children or “the crocodiles will” is no longer told on the Jungle Cruise ride at the Magic Kingdom.

Walt Disney World Resort Vice President Jacquee Wahler confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday that the company “made changes out of respect for the family.”

“We did this two weeks ago immediately following the incident,” she said via email."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...id=hp_no-name_hp-in-the-news:page/in-the-news

 

[The Ween]

Oh well. I'll keep my opinion to myself.

 

[Khev]

Well hopefully a mouse never kills anyone at the park.

 

[Collectorcol]

Yeah, that's a bit silly.

 

[azurepred]

If my kid were eaten by a gator in this situation, those "changes" would be meaningless to me.

 

[The Ween]

If my kid were eaten by a gator in this situation, those "changes" would be meaningless to me.

They would to me too because I could never go there again....ever!

 

[a-dev]

Well hopefully a mouse never kills anyone at the park.

 

[crows]

Well hopefully a mouse never kills anyone at the park.

or a duck...

 

[mfoga]

or a duck...

Even worse a princess LOL