page_title: Oakwood Theme Park
section_title: Hydro Incident
hierarchical_section_title: Oakwood Theme Park / Hydro Incident
caption_attribution_description: English: Oakwood Theme Park, Pembrokeshire Hydro
context_page_description: Oakwood Theme Park is a theme park in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
  Oakwood opened in the late 1980s as a very small family park with BMXs, a wooden fort, a 3D-style cinema experience show, go-karts and a water chute ride. The park later incorporated four large thrill rides: Megafobia, Vertigo, Drenched and Speed which was a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster with a 97-degree drop. It was the first Euro-Fighter in the United Kingdom and was at that time the steepest roller coaster in the UK. The 85-foot-tall CCI-built wooden roller coaster "Megafobia" was rated by enthusiasts soon after its installation as amongst the best in Europe. In 2016 it celebrated 20 years at Oakwood.
context_section_description: In April 2004, a 16-year-old was killed after falling approximately 100 ft from the top of the Hydro ride. The accident was attributed to human error after CCTV footage showed staff had not checked the rider's restraint was in a safe position. The ride was closed until the next season, when it reopened with more secure over-the-shoulder restraints instead of lap bars.
  In 2006, the coroner's tribunal into the accident returned a narrative verdict on the death with some indication that the accident was more the result of the restraints being improperly secured by staff as opposed to fundamentally inadequate in and of themselves. The inquest reported that CCTV footage taken at the ride before the boat left clearly showed that the victim's lap bar was in an "open and unsafe position". Other CCTV footage showed both operators had failed to properly check that passengers were secure.
  On 18 May 2007 the Health and Safety executive reported that Oakwood would be prosecuted, and in February 2008 the HSE charged Oakwood for not ensuring that guests were properly and safely restrained. The case against Oakwood was committed for trial at Swansea Crown Court on 7 July 2008 where Oakwood pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety Act 1974. On 18 December, the park was fined £250,000 in addition to £80,000 legal costs, a penalty which was described by the victim's close family as inadequate. High Court Judge Justice Lloyd-Jones who passed the sentence had earlier commented that safety breaches at the theme park had created "the potential for really serious injury to very large numbers of people".
  In 2011 Hydro was renamed "Drenched".
caption: Hydro
exif: {}