A Chinese tourist is suing theme park giant Village Roadshow for more than $2m after she was allegedly trapped in a water slide at Wet ‘n’ Wild on the Gold Coast and slammed by another rider, fracturing her spine.

Yanfei Xu, 32, has launched a Supreme Court lawsuit over the accident on the AquaLoop slide at the Oxenford water park in September 2023 which saw her taken away by ambulance.

The AquaLoop, a famed trapdoor slide where riders dropped 18m at up to 60km/h down four separate intertwined chutes, was dismantled in 2024 to make way for new slides.

In her claim, which Village Roadshow Theme Parks is defending, lawyers for Ms Xu said she was at the theme park with her partner Leon Zhou when the accident happened.

The claim says both intended to ride the slide, with Ms Xu going first. However, she did not clear the tube and instead slid backwards into the slide near the “escape hatch”, the claim states.

It alleges that two slide operators failed to identify that Ms Xu was still “trapped”, with one dismissing Mr Zhou’s concerns that his partner had not exited the slide.

That operator then launched another rider onto the slide, who hit Ms Xu at “high velocity”, the claim alleges.

The claim alleges the AquaLoop had “an inherent design fault” because riders became stuck, creating the risk of collision.

It alleges both water slide operators acted contrary to the park’s written policy and clearing process by failing to identify that Ms Xu was stuck in the slide and by releasing another rider when she was still inside the tube.

Optical sensors on the slide also failed or were overridden, the claim alleges. It also alleges that Village Roadshow misled Ms Xu via an audio message and evacuation procedure sign that represented the slide would stop automatically in the event a rider was not ejected.

The claim alleges riders not being “catapulted through the loop” was a common occurrence on the AquaLoop, with about 728 such incidents in the month leading up to the accident.

There had also been a number of similar incidents or “near misses” on the slide, including one in 2017 when two riders collided.

The claim alleges that following the incident involving Ms Xu, one water slide operator was sacked and Village Roadshow was issued with an improvement notice by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland over inadequate risk management for the AquaLoop.

It states that following the accident, Ms Xu was taken by ambulance to Gold Coast University Hospital where a CT scan revealed fractured vertebrae and other injuries.

According to the claim, Ms Xu developed “escalating psychological symptoms” and endured “pain, suffering, inconvenience and loss of amenities of life”.

The claim states she worked as a reactive marketing manager for games developer giant FunPlus but lost her job in March 2024 after being bedridden for weeks and taking sick leave. She had since moved to Australia and found work in a duty free outlet at Melbourne Airport.

Ms Xu is seeking a total of $2,341,551.78 in damages.

In its defence, Village Roadshow admits Ms Xu suffered injuries in the incident but says their nature and extent are disputed and must be determined based on medical evidence at a trial.

Village denies the AquaLoop had an inherent design defect because any water slide designed to propel riders upwards “carries with it an inherent risk”.

The theme park operator says it had mitigated the risk of collision by ensuring the slide had an escape hatch and implementing and training staff in a written policy and clearing process.

It says the incident was solely caused by the two water slide operators’ “momentary inattention and inadvertent noncompliance” with procedures and this did not breach the company’s care guarantee to patrons.

Court filings reveal mediation between the two parties has failed.

https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/queensland/village-roadshow-sued-for-2m-after-tourist-allegedly-trapped-hit-on-slide/news-story/a70764519c2b6082afd395fd223dc714

The only thing I have to say is to this

19 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

It says the incident was solely caused by the two water slide operators’ “momentary inattention and inadvertent noncompliance” with procedures and this did not breach the company’s care guarantee to patrons.

Haven't we learned from TRRR that placing sole reliance on operator compliance with procedures is a recipe for disaster?

Staff should not have been able to override the sensors without a manual \ visual inspection first, or attendance by a supervisor \ maintenance with an override key.

This is an absolute cop-out from Village as far as i'm concerned.

It makes sense as to why the slides were abruptly closed then removed

Thank goodness nobody was killed. WnW is doing a great job carrying the rest of the theme parks through winter.

As for the incident, it's premature to start pointing fingers. The courts haven't established the facts yet, and none of us know exactly how that slide's control system operates or who, if anyone, had the authority to reset or override it.

No matter how advanced the PLC or safety system is, there still comes a point where a person has to reset faults or return the ride to service after a stoppage.

The ground operator should be required to open and close the escape hatch to reset the PLC. Manually resetting the sensor so that the ride computer can reset itself is the way it should be done.

This is like taking your car to a mechanic for a fault code, and he plugs in his scan tool, resets the codes and hands you back the keys. He hasn't investigated the problem, he hasn't fixed anything - he's just made the error go away - and it will come back the next time that sensor is triggered - which in Aqualoop's case - is when you hurt someone.

Obviously the case still has to play out but it seems very similar to the crash that happened on smiler where the block brakes functioned as intended, but operators that thought they knew better overrode the PLC without a visual inspection of the ride.

Did village not learn from this accident which affected the industry worldwide? Especially when safety at the parks has been under a microscope in the last 10 years. Do fucking better village, they're very lucky that the lady wasn't killed

Edited July 7Jul 7 by Baconjack

The Smiler incident was caused by a maintenance worker. The operator did not have the authority to override the PLC. Because that's how it should be.

17 hours ago, Baconjack said:

Obviously the case still has to play out but it seems very similar to the crash that happened on smiler where the block brakes functioned as intended, but operators that thought they knew better overrode the PLC without a visual inspection of the ride.

Did village not learn from this accident which affected the industry worldwide? Especially when safety at the parks has been under a microscope in the last 10 years. Do fucking better village, they're very lucky that the lady wasn't killed

At this point, it does sound very similar to the Smiler incident. In that case, the court found Merlin criminally responsible for the failures that contributed to the crash. The individual operators and engineers were not found at fault, with the focus placed on the company’s safety systems, procedures, and management decisions.

There are similarities with the DW accident as well, where there was significant discussion around operator actions in the early stages. However, the final investigation found broader failures within the organisation’s safety management, engineering, and maintenance processes.

As with the current WnW situation, it is too early to decide who was responsible until all the facts are established. Time will tell whether the cause was related to operator actions, manufacturer issues, or failures within the systems and procedures of the organisations involved.

On 5/7/2026 at 1:14 PM, Brad2912 said:

The claim alleges riders not being “catapulted through the loop” was a common occurrence on the AquaLoop, with about 728 such incidents in the month leading up to the accident.

There had also been a number of similar incidents or “near misses” on the slide, including one in 2017 when two riders collided.

The claim alleges that following the incident involving Ms Xu, one water slide operator was sacked and Village Roadshow was issued with an improvement notice by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland over inadequate risk management for the AquaLoop.

I agree this is pretty egregious on Villages part.
If there were near misses in the past there should have been changes made to eliminate that risk, as with the statement from WPHS it appears there could be more factors that lined up that resulted in the accident.

In fairness, "728 incidents" to me is just saying there were 728 occasions where someone didn't make it through the loop. That isn't a 'near miss' IMO - though in retrospect, this incident could have occurred on any of them if staff didn't follow procedures.

The slides were problematic from day one, with rash shirts causing issues, backpack boards needing to be worn, and strict minimum and maximum weight limits. There are many potential reasons someone doesn't make it through the loop, and 728 sounds big, but ends up being about 3 per hour.

Theoretical capacity for an aqualoop is 120pph. I call serious bullshit - especially with village operations, but even a quarter of that (which would be a dispatch every 2 minutes) - 30pph still gives you 120pph across the four slides. 3 out of 120 is only a 2.5% failure rate, which isn't anything that needs attention as long as safety procedures are fail-safe (which as we now know - they weren't - but at the time, it didn't warrant any attention).

On 5/7/2026 at 1:14 PM, Brad2912 said:

There had also been a number of similar incidents or “near misses” on the slide, including one in 2017 when two riders collided.

I would assume this implies there was a similar near miss specifically in 2017, 728 incidents it’s probably the media trying to make it appear like the slides were inherently dangerous.

I think if the 2017 near miss was anything like the actual accident then that should have been enough of a reason to look for permanent solutions.

Edited Thursday at 05:02 AM4 days by Themepark Enthusist

17 hours ago, Themepark Enthusist said:

I think if the 2017 near miss was anything like the actual accident then that should have been enough of a reason to look for permanent solutions.

This was post TRRR, but not post-inquest, so the inherent flaws in 'administrative controls' hadn't been exposed yet. The procedure that these operators are accused of not following would be the controls put in place as a 'permanent solution' rather than have the slide PLC reprogrammed to prevent it

An administrative control is a management-directed measure designed to reduce the risk of a hazard by changing how or when people perform their tasks. Rather than removing the hazard or providing physical barriers, these controls minimize exposure through rules, policies, schedules, and training

The TRRR inquest made it very clear that administrative controls were a last resort, and never to be relied on if other methods are possible.