Family of boy killed on bike at FW suing WDW

[stacktester]

Have to agree with you. It must be unimaginably horrible to lose a child this way. I'm sure those parents are second guessing themselves all over the place. Must be a case of...'If only we had....' or 'if we had just told him no'. Perhaps bringing suit against Disney is their way of allowing themselves to feel that someone else is guilty of wrongdoing, rather than feeling that they, themselves, could have done something differently.

I mean, seriously...the sidewalk was too close to the road??? It was a tragic accident, no one at fault.

Very true. I'm not trying to be insensitive to the family, I just think suing someone for your not taking the correct measures to properly supervise the child is wrong. This could've happened had the parents been next to him but the fact the kid left the sidewalk and steered in the road wasn't the bus drivers fault.

 

[luckycharm19335]

The whole situation is so very sad!
And now will just continue to get even more sad.
There are no winners no matter how this all turns out.

 

[heathriel]

I saw this on the news yesterday, and I wondered about the helmet thing too. Driving across the country, I've seen kids on bikes without their helmets - and I've even seen MOTORCYLISTS without their helmets.

I know I look like a total dork, but I don't even get on my segway without putting my helmet on.

(And I have the older, safer model, not the lean-steer that has been causing so many accidents lately.)

 

[DisCamper]

Law in Florida anyone under 16 must wear a Helmet Disney even has it posted

 

[doombuqqy]

I agree the parents needed to be more responsible and I am pretty sure they are living with that everyday. I believe if Disney is found negligent ( which I believe is false) the parents will feel they were not responsible and think their guilt will go away. I also believe they too not just the lawyers are seeing $$$$$$. I understand the feeling of security when at Disney but I don't think all your parenting skills and intuition go out the window. I feel terribly for the parents and in no way could imagine what they are going through, I pray that thay have peace and all their pain goes away. But I also pray for the bus driver which I am sure has put themselves through hell. I have a little experience in this area, I work on an ambulance for the county and was involved in a simalur situation (outcome was minor I will not bore with the details) although it was clearly not our fault you still feel the guilt. Every night you relive it while you are trying to go to sleep. It is miserable and I hope they don't blame themselves and Disney has arranged counseling for the driver ( I am sure they have done all of that) because now they are going to have to go back and recount everything that has happened when all you want to do is forget .Hopefully this will be over soon and everyone can start healing.

 

[Disneylitch]

I feel horrible for the family and can't imagine what they are going through. However, it seems in our society that it's never "our" fault. That includes our kids. When a kid gets a bad grade in school, it is always the teachers or schools fault. It's not our childs fault or our fault. No matter the outcome, it is a no win situation.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Donnie has hit on the major points and I agree with him.
Whats happening is common, the family is trying to make sense of something that cannot be made sense of, its a horrible nightmare tragedy that happened at the Fort instead of out in the real world. Things like this happen and I dont think its anyones fault, second guessing will not solve anything and neither will this lawsuit, unfortunately, part of the grief process is to blame someone.
I seriously doubt it will ever go to trial, the lawyer is probably fishing for an early out of court settlement.

 

[wak648]

The real victim in this whole situation is the bus driver. I hope by now he/she has been able to put this tragedy behind them and just have it as a bad memory. But now they are going to have to relive this hell that they went through.

If anything I hope that this make Disney start to enforce some of their own rules for safety.

 

[ftwildernessrick]

Bad brakes - not enough rest breaks, that just some nonsense that attorney's at Greed & Greed come up with to make a few bucks off someone elses grief & tragedy.

I am not a big believer in bicycle helmets, and one would probably have had no effect in this case, since it was probably a crushing injury.

Guard rail on the side walk path? That is just another - whatever. I know in our state any bicycle with a tire diameter of 20 inches or greater is considered a vehicle & is not allowed to ride on a side walk. Less than 20" is considered a toy & can be. Of course it is not enforced in most places and children do ride on the sidewalk with what ever bicycle they have.

There is no way to protect against every set of possible incidents that could possibly occur, no matter what you do. Just think of all the hundreds of thousands of miles bicyclists have driven around the Fort over all the years. That is a pretty good safety record even with this one tragic incident.

I feel for the parents, their anger, grief, frustration, but you can't put a dollar sign on the loss of a child, especially when I believe that there was no negligence on anyone's behalf. It was just as it is - a very tragic accident.

 

[Trackey79]

That poor family went to Disneyworld expecting to make wonderful memories and have a great time together. They went home CHILDLESS. I think at this point the suit is about getting Disney to stop denying any responsibility for the accident; and to require Disney to at least take some small preventitive measure (ex. a guard rail) along that tricky stretch on the bike path in their child's memory.
Were the parents neglectful? Perhaps. However, at Ft Wilderness it's easy to get swept up in the feeling that you are in a very special, safe, child santuary where everyone is safe and having fun. And the little boy was't that young... Alot of people regularly let younger children ride their bikes around with friends/cousins at Ft Wilderness.
So I think it's mean to be bashing these parents. They've been hurt enough already. Whatever Disney ends up giving them is nothing compared to what they've lost. I think Disney should show a bit of compassion now and then instead of hiding behind their large team of attorneys when they're right and when their wrong.

I feel absolutely awful for the loss these parents have suffered. BUT being at Disney does not relieve them of their duties as parents. And maybe especially at Disney do we as parents need to be more diligent than ever.

With so many people going in and out of the Disney property on a daily basis there is no way I would for a minute let my children go off without adult supervision. Heck, I do not even let mine go to the bathrooms in the Fort without me or hubby. (And my oldest is almost 14 and very responsible.) I am so very sorry these people lost their child, but IMO they take absolutely no responsibility for the fact that their young child was not properly supervised. And truly believe that had they been with him when this happened, he would most likely still be here today. (When we are just walking with our kids - anywhere there is traffic around - we ALWAYS make sure the kids are on the inside and hubby and I are closest to where the traffic is.) I am not a perfect parent by any means, but parents using common sense would help to avoid a lot of accidents involving their children.

How is this child not being supervised properly Disney's fault? And as you said, there is no amount of money that can make up for the loss of their child, so what is the real point of this suit? As others have said, I think it is mostly coming from the point of greed by some attorney.

 

[Trackey79]

This is exactly what's wrong with this country when people think somebody else needs to give them something because they didn't protect you. Do some preventative measures and a lot of things wouldn't happen like this.

Exactly!!! I could not agree with you more!

 

[Todd Packer]

Not taking rest breaks, that's not going to fly. Every once in while they may go a little over, but it's not by much and it doesn't happen that often. I don't do the internal routes at the Fort so I'm not sure how they schedule breaks. If it's the same as the external buses, it's computerized. When you are assigned a bus, your name is entered into the system. After that, the computer tells the coordinator when it's time for a break. One of the drivers major complaints is that they get broken too soon.

As for maintenance, we complain about why didn't they fix this or that, but it's always very minor things, nothing to do with safety. We do an intensive Brake test before we move the bus in the morning, even though someone drove the bus to the hub, sometimes just hours before. We also do a brake test at the end of the day, even though we've been driving that bus for hours. Just about every day I'll hear or be told, take your bus to Vehicle Maintenance, it's a call in bus. The bus is out of service for servicing.

The buses at the Fort are some of the newest buses. They never, ever use the older RTS buses. Drivers are forever taking buses out of service during the day. It's our call, and good drivers will exorcise it. I don't see either one of those issues being a winner. I wouldn't be working there if I thought the buses were unsafe.

I think they'll go after the driver for not being observant enough and not reacting quick enough.

Magicbus, I would like to give you a piece of advice that I learned the hard way. I had a similiar accident happen to me and my business with a fatality involved. You might want to delete this thread because it can and will be used against Disney to show that some times rules are bent or broken. You could get pulled right into the middle of this case and forced to go through a sworn deposition based on this single post.

The thing I came up against is this, We did nothing wrong BUT the jury will say that "Yes Disney did nothing wrong but the poor child paid for his mistakes with his life" so there will be money awarded and a lot of it.

It's just the way the game is played by Amoral lawyers Plain and Simple.

 

[Bourquefam]

That poor family went to Disneyworld expecting to make wonderful memories and have a great time together. They went home CHILDLESS. I think at this point the suit is about getting Disney to stop denying any responsibility for the accident; and to require Disney to at least take some small preventitive measure (ex. a guard rail) along that tricky stretch on the bike path in their child's memory.
Were the parents neglectful? Perhaps. However, at Ft Wilderness it's easy to get swept up in the feeling that you are in a very special, safe, child santuary where everyone is safe and having fun. And the little boy was't that young... Alot of people regularly let younger children ride their bikes around with friends/cousins at Ft Wilderness.
So I think it's mean to be bashing these parents. They've been hurt enough already. Whatever Disney ends up giving them is nothing compared to what they've lost. I think Disney should show a bit of compassion now and then instead of hiding behind their large team of attorneys when they're right and when their wrong.

I certainly can't comment on the motive of the suit---but I hope it is the reason that you've given. It's very sad how many people try to profit off of others. As a small business owner, it is frightening! But still, if this had happened to my child on that same stretch of roadway---I have no idea how I'd react. I imagine I'd be so grief-stricken I'd want someone to pay for my child's life. But I also know that I have an amazing support system of family & friends who would keep my actions in check (and perhaps this family doesn't have that or is being influenced by many who are telling them that this is the route they should take). We just don't know because thankfully we haven't had to deal with this horrific tragedy.

We were visiting the Fort for the first time when the accident occurred, though I didn't mention that in my recent trip report. I did, however, mention my son and I walking from the back of the campground all the way to the front on our first day there. That was almost a week before the accident. On that same day (a week before the accident), I told my husband about that particular part of the sidewalk and how (IMO) dangerously close it is to the road. I even put my son on the inside of the walkway bc he and I were laughing and kidding around and I got really nervous everytime a bus passed by that something like this would happen.

We could all pick this apart for days and weeks---just like when it first happened. We all have our own opinions of who's at fault, etc. Free country/ free speech and all that. But regardless of who's at fault, I hope Disney does put up some type of guardrail in that area or possibly re-direct the sidewalk. There should be some good to come out of such a tragic accident.

My prayers continue for the grieving family, the bus driver and the witnesses.

 

[clkelley]

The entire situation is sad.

 

[Bourquefam]

And I want to be clear that I'm of the opinion that it wasn't anyone's fault. It was an horrible, horrible accident.

No, I don't let my children out of my site---but many people do---especially at Fort Wilderness. I know I found myself wondering if I'm too overprotective after seeing soooooo many kids riding their bikes freely from place to place. Have any of you, as parents, never allowed your kid(s) to do something and then second guessed yourself? I try to be the best parent ever. I try to allow my kids enough freedom to gain independence while offering enough supervision to be safe. Parenting is so tough---and I just don't think it's fair of anyone to slam these parents for allowing their son to ride off alone.

It was an accident. A horrible, horrible accident.

 

[stacktester]

I'm sure a monetary award will be given. It's funny how the happiest place on earth becomes the lawsuit capitol lol.

As far as feeling like you're safe, this is the same campground where a man met a young girl online and had sex with her in the laundry room of a comfort station. You're not even safe at home people. Just minutes ago I saw a garbage truck turn around in my cul de sac and fly back past my house. I've yelled at them dozens of times and they don't listen. You have to protect yourself these days and use common sense.

 

[stacktester]

And I want to be clear that I'm of the opinion that it wasn't anyone's fault. It was an horrible, horrible accident.

No, I don't let my children out of my site---but many people do---especially at Fort Wilderness. I know I found myself wondering if I'm too overprotective after seeing soooooo many kids riding their bikes freely from place to place. Have any of you, as parents, never allowed your kid(s) to do something and then second guessed yourself? I try to be the best parent ever. I try to allow my kids enough freedom to gain independence while offering enough supervision to be safe. Parenting is so tough---and I just don't think it's fair of anyone to slam these parents for allowing their son to ride off alone.

It was an accident. A horrible, horrible accident.

Not trying to take this to a bashing party but I see people driving fast in loops and in the whole campground. People just don't care and all they want is to get where they want to be. IMHO I'm just starting to believe people are devolving lol. Things that evolve get better, people aren't getting better.

I know if I was pulling my camper through the fort and hit a child it would forever haunt me. The greatest benefit of this is people hopefully will learn to watch their kids better and not leave them unattended.

 

[Bourquefam]

I'm sure a monetary award will be given. It's funny how the happiest place on earth becomes the lawsuit capitol lol.

As far as feeling like you're safe, this is the same campground where a man met a young girl online and had sex with her in the laundry room of a comfort station. You're not even safe at home people. Just minutes ago I saw a garbage truck turn around in my cul de sac and fly back past my house. I've yelled at them dozens of times and they don't listen. You have to protect yourself these days and use common sense.

I totally agree with you that we need to protect ourselves and use common sense. This world we live in is so crazy and if I let myself think about it too much it scares the heck out of me. People are just crazy.

But no matter how much we try or how hard we want to, we can't protect our kids from every harm. As someone else said, this "accident" could have happened just the same, even if the parents had been with their son on that walkway. Only they would have witnessed it take place. I don't think the bus driver could have done anything differently and I don't know what happened with the boy. As I said before, we could pick it apart all day long and it wouldn't do any good. We'd be at the same place again speculating what and who and why. Yes, people should watch their children. Yes, people should be held accountable for thier actions and, yes, Disney is exploited bc they are Disney and people are crazy & greedy.

 

[liv luvs disney]

This situation is just tragic no matter how you look at it. I can't and don't even want to imagine what this family has gone through. I can honestly say there is no way to predict what I would or would not do if I were in their shoes. However, this lawsuit does not surprise me even though I don't agree with it. We all know this family will walk away with a hefty sum of money that will never, ever fill their void.

 

[Lil' Lisa]

This situation is just tragic no matter how you look at it. I can't and don't even want to imagine what this family has gone through. I can honestly say there is no way to predict what I would or would not do if I were in their shoes. However, this lawsuit does not surprise me even though I don't agree with it. We all know this family will walk away with a hefty sum of money that will never, ever fill their void.

Well said. I totally agree.