14/04/2025
The team at Quinneys Bush Camp wanted to share a bit of information about the incident on the Small Tyre Flying Fox that occurred in mid-January 2025.
Our hearts are heavy as we express our shock and sadness that an innocent young boy at our Holiday Park has sustained serious injuries due to the Flying Fox cable breaking. We extend our heartfelt support to Orson and his family as they go through this difficult journey. The Quinney family and staff are sincerely sorry for everything they have been through, and we wish Orson a full and speedy recovery.
When the cable snapped, the runner part of the Flying Fox fell and struck Orson in the chest/stomach area. Orson was treated by three medical personnel who happened to be camping at Quinney's Bush until first responders arrived and flew him by helicopter to Nelson Hospital. Then early morning Orson was flown by the Flying Doctors airplane to Christchurch in order to be cared for by the specialist team there as his internal injuries were severe. Orson returned home after a 17 day stay in hospital; he suffered from multiple internal injuries including a severed pancreas and resultant large cyst. The latest ultrasound scan in April showed a vast improvement and thankfully the cyst has virtually resolved. Orson is happily back to playing sport and able to consume all food types.
We want to thank the medical staff onsite, as well as the first responders, and the Quinneys Bush staff, who did all they could to help Orson during this tough time.
To give you a bit of background information, we have very experienced staff with building and engineering qualifications who inspected all our equipment just a month before the accident to ensure all amusements are in great working order. No damage was evident during their inspection and if any damage had been found along the wire, we would have replaced it immediately as we have done so in the past. We understand that if we had inspected the cable in the days leading up to the accident, we could have prevented this from happening. The cable that snapped only lasted half the time of the previous cable, which was replaced as we had noticed a bit of fraying during our inspection. Ongoing investigations are in progress, and we hope to have answers in the coming weeks to give us clarity on what caused the cable to snap so quickly, and how we can prevent this from happening again. We take the health and safety of our staff and guests very seriously, and moving forward, we will conduct more regular safety checks, especially over the busy period, to ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. To put this incident into perspective, this is the first serious accident with this particular Flying Fox in almost 30 years of operation.
Message from the Moll Family:
Orson's family are very grateful to those who leapt to help, gently guiding and supporting through the emergency, finding it amazing to feel God working wonders in the midst of tragedy. Thanks to all those who cared more for Orson's well-being rather than bemoaning the (temporary) loss of the flying fox amusement. It is certainly prevalent to ensure playground equipment be in safe working order, we wouldn't wish for any other to go through such trauma. Orson says he is thankful it happened to him rather than his younger sister (who was next in line) or another small child who could have been hurt worse. The positive outcome from this accident is that customers will in due course find an improved playground and safety practices at Quinney's Bush.
In conclusion: We are currently redesigning the Small Flying Fox runners and implementing a new inspection regime with the guidance of an MPENZ Structural Engineer, to help prevent future accidents. In the meantime, both of the Small Flying Foxes are closed while we complete this work and should be back up and running by next summer.
