Oh wow! Scary stuff. It only takes a second taking your eyes/hands off your kids for stuff like that to happen.
Reminds me of my first trip back as an adult with my DH in 1999. We were there without our kids who were just little guys at the time. We were on PotC with a family sitting in front of us. There was a little boy (maybe 5 or so) sitting on the left side of the boat, his slightly older sister sitting next to him (she seemed to be maybe 6 or so), the dad, and then the mom on the right side of the boat. We had listened to this family thru the whole line leading up to getting on the boat. The kids were both sorta cranky & tired, the little girl kept saying she didn't feel good, the mom was grumpy with the dad giving him all sorts of lip all the way along fussing at his every effort to interact with the kids, and the dad was just sorta meandering doing his best but you could tell he didn't really know what to do with his cranky kids. Neither of the parents were thinking when they let their little boy sit on the outside of the boat without an adult right next to him. So here we are on PotC with these little kids in front of us. Hubby whispered to me when we all sat down to watch the little boy by the edge. Both of us thought he was too little to be on the outside and he seemed mighty fascinated with that water just over the side of the boat. We start moving along...the little girl is really whining about her belly and crying a little. Down the drop and she's really carrying on now. Then she got quiet. I thought she was now interested in the scenery. Nope. That was the quiet right before she blew chunks into the bottom of the boat. The girl started wailing in between heaves. Mom is trying to reach over Dad to help her while she's shouting orders to the dad to pick up the backpack. Dad is just sitting there obviously shocked by his spewing child and not knowing what the heck to do with that. Meanwhile, that little boy decided he wanted nothing to do with his sister or the mess she was making. He hops up onto his seat, put a foot on the edge, and was on his way out of the boat when I reached forward and caught him. I pulled him back to us and sat him down. Mom & Dad looked back and thanked me. Then I reached over the seat and spent the rest of the ride trying to help the little girl be still and get the situation under control. What a mess. I felt bad for the family. Definitely a case of parents not thinking and not being in a position to keep a handle on their kid. If I hadn't caught that little boy he'd have hopped right on into the water. I guess he thought anything beat being yacked on. :lol: Scared me pretty good. We definitely watch other kids around us. I've seen some really clueless parents. Then sometimes totally unexpected things can happen in an instant. All it takes is turning your attention away for a second.