Water Park
In this photo, Iain Balshaw of England enjoys the waterslide at the Wet 'n' Wild theme park the Gold Coast, Australia, Oct. 28, 2003. Getty Images/David Rogers

A new $45 million water park in Dublin, California, called “The Wave” opened its doors, Saturday, to a terrible start as one of the very first riders of its “Emerald Plunge” waterslide was flung off its edge and landed on solid concrete.

The incident was caught on camera, as the 10-year-old boy, who excitedly got on the newly constructed ride slid right off the left side, onto the concrete floor and went onto skid quite a distance on the cement, East Bay Times reported. Although he sustained nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises, the kid was visibly shaken, according to the witnesses who were present at the scene.

The parents of the boy decided not to press charges or call the ambulance, preferring to have the water park’s first aid staffs check their son out. However, according to ABC7, the boy was later taken to a hospital which released him in just a short while.

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'I was standing there, he seemed to be shook, but seemed to be okay. Came right up and immediately went into the First Aid room and was assessed by staff,' Dublin Assistant City Manager Linda Smith told ABC 7.

The green-colored Emerald Plunge is a three-story high slide with an 80-degree angle drop, Mail Online reported. Next to it is the Dublin Screamer that drops riders through a trap into an enclosed tube, through which riders exit very close to the ground.

A small wall of water cakes the ground near the bottom of both the slides where the riders come sliding down at break-neck speeds.

According to KRON, instructions set in place for riding the slide states that the rider’s arms and legs must be crossed all through the ride, which did not seem to be the case of the 10-year-old boy. It is not yet clear if he failed to follow the rules from the beginning or whether his legs had come undone during the ride.

A short while before both the rides where closed down following the accident, a young girl’s reaction, after she had ridden The Emerald Plunge, was noted down by East Bay Times reporter Gary Peterson who attended the inaugural day of “The Wave” in order to review it.

According to him, the girl, who was among the first few riders of the slide, came out of it with a “distressed look” on her face.

“‘Not everyone came out smiling,’ I scribbled in my notebook,” wrote Peterson.

Emerald Plunge will remain closed until a full evaluation is done and it is deemed safe for children again. There is already a height limit set in place, which is – riders have to be a minimum of 48 inches tall. Talks are on regarding whether they need to have a weight limit in place too.

This is by no means the first horrifying accident that has happened in a water park. In August 2016, Caleb Thomas Schwab, a 10-year-old boy, was decapitated while riding the 168-foot-tall Verruckt ride in the Kansas water park, Schlitterbahn, New Braunfels, Texas.

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