Even if you know how the video will end, it is still difficult to watch. Somewhere up on Hersheypark’s closed monorail track, a young child is pacing back and forth like a lost child in a parking lot, only he is about forty feet above the ground. People are waving their arms down below. Some are yelling “Stop!” while others are yelling “Keep going!” He covers his ears. That gesture is instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever encountered a scared child, and it is the portion of the video that usually sticks in your memory.
The story of what transpired on August 30 has been told enough times that its general outline is recognizable. Shortly after five o’clock in the afternoon, the boy and his parents were split up. He slipped past a barricaded turnstile and a chained entrance into the secured monorail station, which the park claims had been closed for the day, while employees searched. Before going onto the track, he remained there for about twenty minutes. John Sampson, a visitor, scaled a snack stand’s roof, pulled himself up onto the rail, and carried the child down. Hersheypark reports that the boy returned with his family unharmed by 5:28 p.m.
That’s the neat version. The intermediate version is the one that has been quietly bothering people for weeks. It’s a long time—twenty minutes. Enough time to consume a funnel cake. Apparently, it was long enough for a child to enter an area of the park that was supposedly off-limits, sit there unnoticed, and then emerge onto a piece of elevated infrastructure in front of thousands of visitors. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that a park employee did not perform the rescue. It came from a father with good instincts and three children.
To his credit, Sampson has been remarkably reserved about the entire situation. He told NBC News, “Being a dad of three gives you a big different perspective on everything,” which is the kind of statement made by someone who truly prefers not to be on television. The video’s cheers, strangers yelling directions, and the woman filming with a trembling phone all have the feel of a community making do with a safety net that the park was unable to provide that afternoon.
Speaking with parents online and reading the comments beneath the videos gives me the impression that this incident hit harder than it might have a year ago. Timing plays a part in that. A little more than a month prior, a nine-year-old girl drowned in the Hersheypark wave pool. The death was later determined to be accidental, and authorities stated that the park had adhered to safety procedures and that the pool was significantly under capacity. Whether justified or not, two unrelated incidents at the same park within about thirty days are the kind of coincidence that affects public opinion.
Contrary to what the headlines portray, the larger industry discussion that has been simmering since the rescue is more complicated. Stricter regulations regarding access and face coverings have been implemented in some parks, such as Kings Dominion and Dorney Park. Some haven’t. The fact that the chain at the turnstile is frequently more symbolic than structural is somewhat unsettling, and there is no national standard for how secure a “closed” ride actually has to be. It’s really unclear and likely varies from park to park whether the solution is better fencing, more staff, or a combination of the two.
Something more subdued than the policy debate persists. It depicts a child covering his ears up there, and in about four seconds, a stranger decides to pursue him. Parks is going to make statements. Protocols will be examined. Right now, it’s unclear if anything significant will change.
