The Most Dangerous Water Slides You Never Knew Existed

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

The VertiGo is a 108-foot tall water slide at Aqualandia in Benidorm, Spain. Riders get dropped through a trap door, down a steep slide, and into the water, which sounds like quite a rush as long as you make it through the trap door. Wait, what? According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation, British tourist Jamie Norman enjoyed the VertiGo so much he went down it three times, but the third time was not like the others because the trap door failed to open all the way, crushing his arm, legs, and face. "As I fell I felt it scrape all down my legs and arms and then smack into my face. When I got to the bottom the pool was full of blood," he said.

Okay, so that's horrific, but then Norman was treated by an on-site doctor and rushed out of the park with some free zoo tickets for his trouble. Also, the VertiGo was reopened about 10 minutes later, which neither seems like enough time to clean up blood or to fix a malfunctioning trap door.

Incidentally, this is the same water park (though not the same slide) where another British tourist broke his back in July 2019. Twenty-three-year-old David Briffault was riding the "Splash" slide when he hit the water and was knocked unconscious. Briffault broke two vertebrae in the accident.The park's response? "[Briffault] did not follow the guidelines for the slide." You must sign away all kinds of rights when you go in these places.

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