Report Blames Youths for Water Slide Collapse

An attempt by teenagers to clog a Concord amusement park water slide overloaded the fiberglass tube, causing it to collapse, according to a federal safety inspection report.

A group of Napa High School students piled onto the Banzai slide at Waterworld, loading the tube with about 6,000 pounds, almost four times the weight it was designed to hold, concluded a report released this week by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission.

One girl was killed and 32 other students were injured when the slide fell suddenly June 2.

The weight on the slide caused a bolt to fail, which pulled the remaining bolts through the fiberglass like a zipper, disconnecting the tube at the flange, the report said.

The federal inspection also reinforces a Waterworld lifeguard’s claim that she tried to stop the students from piling into the tube--a finding included in a report by the Concord police.

Some of the teenagers contended that lifeguards did nothing to discourage their stunt.