National News
Lifeguards noticed that the girl was in distress and tried to rescue her, according to the park.
A 9-year-old girl died Thursday night while using a wave pool at Hersheypark in Pennsylvania, where lifeguards tried rescuing her after seeing her in distress, park officials said.
It was not clear whether the girl, whom authorities did not name, had drowned or had experienced another issue.
The wave pool, which is known as The Shore and holds 378,000 gallons of water, remained closed Friday. It gradually deepens from zero to 6 feet, according to the amusement park’s website.
John K. Lawn, the CEO of Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, said in a statement Thursday night that safety was the park’s top priority.
“Our hearts break for this child and the child’s family,” Lawn said. “In the coming days, we will conduct a thorough internal review and cooperate fully with the authorities.”
A person who was visiting the park at the time told television station WGAL in Pennsylvania that they saw lifeguards performing CPR on the girl to no avail.
The park said that the girl was rushed to Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but could not be saved.
The Police Department in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, which Hershey is part of, said in a statement Friday that it was assisting the amusement park and the Dauphin County coroner’s office with a review of the girl’s death.
The coroner’s office and county did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
David Sassaman, a spokesperson for the Hershey Volunteer Fire Department, said that the agency was briefly dispatched for a medical assistance call to the park Thursday night, but that request was canceled.
Hersheypark, the largest amusement park in Pennsylvania, has its own team of emergency medical technicians.
Park officials said Friday that at the time the girl died, more than 100 trained lifeguards were on duty in the water park, which is called The Boardwalk and is included with amusement park admission.
Ten of them were stationed at the wave pool, according to the park, which said that those lifeguards are trained in deepwater lifeguarding, basic life support, automated external defibrillator, or AED use, supplemental oxygen support, CPR and first aid.
The park also said that complimentary life vests are available to all guests. It did not say whether the girl was wearing a life vest.
Wave pools, a popular attraction at water parks, can use compressed air, paddles or other ways to generate tidal activity that mimics oceans. It was not clear what kind of system the one at Hersheypark uses. Some wave pools, which can become busy, have posted warnings about potential hazards to inexperienced swimmers.
In May, a water park in Georgia closed its wave pool for several days after some swimmers reported feeling like they had experienced an electric shock. In 2019, a wave pool in China malfunctioned, injuring dozens of people.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.