A former Wanganui woman can expect little joy over her five-figure claim against the Wanganui District Council for injuries allegedly suffered by her daughter on the Splash Centre hydroslide.
Pania Nicholson, 9, lost a front tooth when riding the "black hole" hydroslide at the Splash Centre earlier this month while holidaying in Wanganui.
Her mother, Linda Nicholson, says the slide is hazardous, and that the risk is inadequately managed by Splash Centre staff who, she says, also failed to properly investigate the accident.
Ms Nicholson, who lives in Sydney, is claiming $11,000 in compensation from the district council.
She says her daughter will need expensive, ongoing dental treatment as the tooth was one of her adult teeth and when she was old enough, Pania would have to have a transplant.
Ms Nicholson said while ACC would pay some costs, they would only pay for services within New Zealand.
That would mean Pania and her mother would have to make a number of return trips to New Zealand for the specialist dental treatment, or stay in New Zealand for several weeks and it was those costs that contributed to the $11,000 she was seeking from the Wanganui District Council.
On Ms Nicholson's list of expenses were 10 days' loss of wages for herself, several phone calls to her Sydney home, the purchase of a web cam so she and Pania could make videophone calls to family back home, shoes for Pania, cab fares, food and fuel costs and $7000 for the future tooth transplant.
Ms Nicholson said she had met council officers to air her complaints and concerns but got no result. They had simply "dismissed" her allegations and her letter requesting compensation.
And yesterday, the council confirmed it did not intend to make any payout.
Deputy properties manager Greg Morris, who was one of those who met with Ms Nicholson, said a review of the incident revealed "no act or omission" by the council that contributed to the accident.
The operation of the pool and hydroslide complies with all the relevant legislation, Mr Morris said.
The hydroslide also had a very good safety record.
Mr Morris said that from January 1 until the day of Pania's accident, there had been just six recorded accidents on the hydroslide, none of which were serious.
During that period almost 18,000 people had used the slide. The actual number of rides is unknown but could be in the hundreds of thousands because there was no restriction on the number of times ticket-holders could ride.
"Given the very low accident rate, there doesn't appear to be any need to improve the safety of the slides," Mr Morris said.
"However, should some practical new way of operating them come to our attention, we would naturally look to adopt it."
Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws was blunt in his assessment of Ms Nicholson's claim.
"My own daughters, aged four and five, regularly use the hydroslides and there is no issue of safety.
"I suspect that a financial motive drives this particular complainant."
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