Girl crushed to death at amusement park after 400lb wooden statue falls on her: 'The statue was not fixed properly'
A 10-year-old girl was crushed to death by a 440lb wooden sculpture after she climbed on it at the Dubovy Gai amusement park in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, on March 8.
The victim, Anna Zhdan, was left with a broken skull and later died in a hospital the next morning after the chainsaw-carved statue of a bear and a child toppled onto her. The family was celebrating International Women’s day at the amusement park when the incident happened. The little girl was playing in a children's park while her parents were in an outdoor cafe 300 yards away.
A video shot by a witness shows Anna lying motionless on the ground minutes after she climbed the wooden statue, which was not firmly fixed to the ground and as a result, collapsed. The video also films the girl’s father calling her name continuously while begging paramedics to save his child.
Soon after the accident, Anna was taken to the intensive care unit of Zaporizhia Regional Children's Hospital in critical condition. With a broken skull, she also suffered internal bleeding and multiple bone fractures to her legs, arms, and ribs. Addressing the media, a spokesperson for the hospital said: “The girl's condition was extremely grave. She died without regaining consciousness the following morning after the incident.”
A negligence case has been filed against the amusement park. It was reported that the management had known about the sculpture posing a threat to the visitors as it was not fixed properly, but they did nothing to remove it.
However, the park’s director, Oleg Komarenko, defended himself by saying that there were warning signs banning children from climbing the sculpture.
Residents have also accused the park’s management of negligence as they claimed the wooden statue was installed in 2013 and has fallen several times since then. Nadiya, a regular visitor to the park, said: “The bear fell not for the first time. Children toppled it over several times during the last few years and it was a miracle that nobody was killed back then.” She added that every time the wooden bear collapse, the park workers put it back without even fixing it to the ground.
Local reports stated that the park has now removed all wooden sculptures from the area after the tragedy.