A WATER park where an 11-year-old schoolgirl tragically drowned is set to close.
Youngster Kyra Hill died at a birthday party after vanishing under the water at Liquid Leisure near Windsor, Berkshire, in August 2022.
PAKyra Hill died at a birthday party after vanishing under the water at Liquid Leisure in August 2022[/caption]
PALiquid Leisure is set to close in November – more than three years after Kyra’s death[/caption]
A coroner ruled that the schoolgirl’s death was ‘unlawful’
Emergency services were scrambled to the popular leisure centre at 3.55pm, when Kyra was reported missing.
The schoolgirl was discovered more than an hour later and rushed to nearby Wexham Park Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A coroner ruled that the schoolgirl’s death was “unlawful”, pointing to gross breaches of health and safety at the water park.
Owner Stuart Marston, who was fined £80,000 after Kyra’s death, has now announced the centre will be closing down in November.
Mr Marston said: “It is with great sorrow to announce that Liquid Leisure will be sadly closing after 24 years of trading.
“As the director and owner, I would personally like to thank all of our customers (past and present) who have shared and enjoyed many great memories here at the lake in Datchet.”
He confirmed the decision was made after landlords chose not to renew the lease.
Earlier this year, an inquest heard several water features had signs describing them as “shallow”.
But some of the “sharp drops” in the water measured as much as 4.5m, with Kyra drowning in a body of water 2.68 meters deep.
Commenting on the poor signage, Senior Coroner Heidi Connor said: “In fact the only sign present warned of shallow water.”
Ms Connor went on to describe the signs as “falsely reassuring.”
Berkshire Coroner’s Court heard young children were also permitted to swim without buoyancy aids.
The lifeguard who attended was unable to rescue her as the staff at Liquid Leisure were only qualified to perform “surface-water rescues.”
Last month, her heartbroken parents spoke out about the horror of watching their daughter take her last breaths.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Kyra’s father Leonard told how his daughter sunk below the murky water three times.
He described seeing CCTV footage showing a 17-year-old lifeguard fail to act while standing in the exact spot where his daughter drowned.
He said: “Kyra sunk three times. She never came back up the third time.
“I’ve watched the CCTV and I can see Kyra sinks the first time and the lifeguard moves on her chair slightly to the left.
“Kyra brings herself back up. She sinks a second time… the lifeguard moves slightly to the right.
“The third time Kyra sinks, the lifeguard is in her pinpoint location.
“There’s a pool of bubbles… Kyra’s last breath that the lifeguard is standing in. She doesn’t dive under.”
Kyra’s parents are now battling for tighter safety measures at leisure centres as they look to prevent another tragedy.
They say that the lifeguard should have been able to rescue their daughter and have called for better training to be provided.
Leonard told how he felt the lifeguard was “never going to dive under” to save his daughter.
He added: “She was not able to dive under because she wasn’t trained.
“She was only trained for surface rescue.”
Good Morning Britain / XLeonard described seeing the lifeguard standing in a ‘pool of bubbles’ at Kyra’s ‘pinpoint location’[/caption]
Her heartbroken parents spoke out about the horror of watching their daughter take her last breaths Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
