According to park officials, a 9-year-old girl died Thursday night while utilizing a wave pool at Hersheypark in Pennsylvania. Lifeguards attempted to save her after noticing her in difficulty.
The authorities did not identify the girl, although it was unclear if she had drowned or had encountered another problem.
The Shore, a wave pool that can store 378,000 gallons of water, was still closed Friday. The website of the amusement park states that it progressively deepens from 0 to six feet.
In a statement released Thursday evening, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts CEO John K. Lawn stated that the park’s first focus was safety.
“We are deeply saddened for this child and their family,” Mr. Lawn stated. We will work closely with the authorities and carry out a comprehensive internal examination in the next few days.
A park visitor at the time told Pennsylvania’s WGAL television station that they witnessed lifeguards unsuccessfully trying to revive the girl.
The girl was taken to Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but was unable to be rescued, according to the park.
In a statement released on Friday, the Hershey-affiliated police department in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, said it was helping the amusement park and the Dauphin County Coroner’s Office with an investigation into the girl’s death.
A request for comment on Friday was not immediately answered by the county or the coroner’s office.
According to Hershey Volunteer Fire Department spokesperson David Sassaman, the department was temporarily called to the park on Thursday night to provide medical assistance, but the call was canceled.
Emergency medical technicians are employed by Hersheypark, Pennsylvania’s biggest amusement park.
More than 100 certified lifeguards were on duty at the time of the girl’s death in The Boardwalk, a water park that is part of the amusement park entrance package, according to park officials on Friday.
According to the park, ten of them were assigned to the wave pool. The lifeguards are educated in CPR, first aid, automated external defibrillator (A.E.D.) use, basic life support, supplemental oxygen assistance, deepwater lifeguarding, and basic life support.
Additionally, the park stated that all visitors are entitled to free life jackets. Whether the girl was wearing a life vest was not mentioned.
Wave pools, a common feature at water parks, can create ocean-like tidal motion using paddles, compressed air, or other methods. The type of mechanism used by the one at Hersheypark was unclear. Some wave pools, which can get crowded, include signs alerting novice swimmers to possible dangers.
A Georgia water park suspended its wave pool for a few days in May after swimmers claimed to have received an electric shock. In 2019, dozens of people were hurt when a wave pool in China broke down.