2 Year Old Dragged into Water by Gator at Disney Resort

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it possible that they aren't suing bc Disney gave them a "small" (few hundred thousand rather than few million) settlement in anticipation of a lawsuit and they said -- that's enough, we just want to be done with this and with any involvement with Disney? Not that it makes it better or worse, but I can't imagine it feels good to hear from Disney or to hear from your atty who is talking to Disney daily; they may simply be too exhausted to want to deal with it -- even filing a complaint to up the settlement amount -- and were fine with just saying we'll take the money and be done with it?

I think they explained that they need to put their energy into helping their family heal from this. Disney probably offered them a reasonable settlement and they simply do not have the desire to fight for more. It won't bring their son back.

I feel so sad for that poor family. What a tragedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt this would have been a "small" settlement. It's a dicey proposition to offer money to a grieving family and risk the chance of insulting or enraging them.

I mean small like 900k or in the low millions, rather than $10 million. You're right -- you don't want to offer 100k and have this family look at you like you're crazy and file a lawsuit.

Honestly I'm "happy" for them that they got money (presumably). While it doesn't bring their son back, who knows how broken they are-- at least now on top of all that they don't need to worry about holding on to a job/job performance and hopefully they can just invest it and live off the returns.

[Anonymous]

Disney did not pay a small settlement. Disney paid easily into the high 7 figures, probably 8. It was in no one's interest to litigate this and have the story continue to crop up. A jury verdict with all of the sightings of gators before the incident would have been much much bigger.

There is doubtlessly a "no public statements" clause, so don't expect to hear more about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disney did not pay a small settlement. Disney paid easily into the high 7 figures, probably 8. It was in no one's interest to litigate this and have the story continue to crop up. A jury verdict with all of the sightings of gators before the incident would have been much much bigger.

There is doubtlessly a "no public statements" clause, so don't expect to hear more about this.

It's funny DCUM folks need to be told these things

[Anonymous]

its a shame that disney has to pay off the family.

Call it Mother nature at work, or natural selection...

“Melissa and I are broken. We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane."

really you struggle to comprehend why....

WHY-
aligators inhabit every body of water in florida
Aligator is at or very near the top of the food chain.
Alligator was hungry
parents let small child wander into the water at night
Parents ignored posted "No swimming signs"
Alligator gets a meal.

Disney is delusional if they think they will ever control the alligator population. Maybe they'll get some new menu items at the restaurants related to the american alligator...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:its a shame that disney has to pay off the family.

Call it Mother nature at work, or natural selection...

“Melissa and I are broken. We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane."

really you struggle to comprehend why....

WHY-
aligators inhabit every body of water in florida
Aligator is at or very near the top of the food chain.
Alligator was hungry
parents let small child wander into the water at night
Parents ignored posted "No swimming signs"
Alligator gets a meal.

Disney is delusional if they think they will ever control the alligator population. Maybe they'll get some new menu items at the restaurants related to the american alligator...

You're arguing what the family and Disney already know. Clearly the family accepts their role in this and Disney makes no claim to be able to control the gators. Like what are you even doing, you sound like an idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:its a shame that disney has to pay off the family.

Call it Mother nature at work, or natural selection...

“Melissa and I are broken. We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane."

really you struggle to comprehend why....

WHY-
aligators inhabit every body of water in florida
Aligator is at or very near the top of the food chain.
Alligator was hungry
parents let small child wander into the water at night
Parents ignored posted "No swimming signs"
Alligator gets a meal.

Disney is delusional if they think they will ever control the alligator population. Maybe they'll get some new menu items at the restaurants related to the american alligator...

You truly are warped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You truly are warped.

aren't we all.... nature at work...

2:15 "We are installing signage and temporary barriers at our resort beach locations and are working on permanent, long-term solutions at our beaches," Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said.

There is no long term solution. you cannot exclude alligators from one body of water or a particular portion of the water (like a beach) They won't be able to get rid of the alligators. you are not going stop a creature that is pretty much the same now as it was millions of years ago. Its an opportunistic feeder. In florida, even on private property the alligator is a threatened and cannot be randomly killed.

back in the late 90's the solution to nuisance alligators on property was to trap, tag, and relocate live alligators to the outer borders of the property that where under 7 feet. Since all they were doing was moving the alligator from a populated part of the property to an underpopulated part, it was not a violation of state laws.
If an alligator was captured that was over 7 feet it was given to a trapper, or if they knew the alligator was over 7 feet before capture they are not permitted to handle it and a trapper was hired.

Since 1948 there have been 383 alligator bites. 126 superficial wounds requiring nothing more than first aid and 257 (including 23 deaths) that required treatment at a hospital.. theres one alligator for every 15 humans...the fact that they've only bitten 383 is pretty good odds if you are human...

Yes its a shame that the kid died. Its a shame that it happened at disney, but not worthy of a 7 figure payout.... (assuming it was that much)

[Anonymous]

While it was "only" one kid to Disney and to the rest of the public -- for this mother and father it was one of their "only" two kids. THAT is what requires a 7 figure payout. The fact that their lives are forever changed and all the milestones they wanted/planned with him will never happen.

[Anonymous]

We were just there over the weekend. The night boat parade (electrical water pageant) on the lake STILL has the alligator chomping. It really gave me the heebie jeebies. I can't believe they didn't take that piece off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VirVTJdCrwA

It's around minute 4 in the video. Yep, still there as of Saturday night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While it was "only" one kid to Disney and to the rest of the public -- for this mother and father it was one of their "only" two kids. THAT is what requires a 7 figure payout. The fact that their lives are forever changed and all the milestones they wanted/planned with him will never happen.

and someone else is always to blame, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While it was "only" one kid to Disney and to the rest of the public -- for this mother and father it was one of their "only" two kids. THAT is what requires a 7 figure payout. The fact that their lives are forever changed and all the milestones they wanted/planned with him will never happen.

and someone else is always to blame, right?

Not always, but in this case -- yeah -- Disney shares SOME blame. The parents have blame too. What happened wasn't a total freak act of nature that EVERYONE knows about - like if this kid had been running around in lightening. They have lightening in every state in the U.S. and if you choose to run around in it, it's your own issue. Here -- there was a danger that was very specific to Florida that people from other states simply don't know about; Disney knew about the danger as it had been dealing with the alligator population since Disney was founded. Yet it chose to put up no fencing. It chose to put up one small "no swimming" sign. It chose NOT TO mention alligators on any of its signs. Sure the parents shouldn't have allowed their kid to touch the water, but how were they to know that a fake lake at Disney has alligators. They likely had no way of knowing that the fake lake meets up with a real body of water someplace and alligators swim in from there. For all they knew it was constructed as a giant "pool" which doesn't touch any natural bodies of water -- and not being Floridians they can't be expected to know that alligators can get into that too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While it was "only" one kid to Disney and to the rest of the public -- for this mother and father it was one of their "only" two kids. THAT is what requires a 7 figure payout. The fact that their lives are forever changed and all the milestones they wanted/planned with him will never happen.

and someone else is always to blame, right?

Not always, but in this case -- yeah -- Disney shares SOME blame. The parents have blame too. What happened wasn't a total freak act of nature that EVERYONE knows about - like if this kid had been running around in lightening. They have lightening in every state in the U.S. and if you choose to run around in it, it's your own issue. Here -- there was a danger that was very specific to Florida that people from other states simply don't know about; Disney knew about the danger as it had been dealing with the alligator population since Disney was founded. Yet it chose to put up no fencing. It chose to put up one small "no swimming" sign. It chose NOT TO mention alligators on any of its signs. Sure the parents shouldn't have allowed their kid to touch the water, but how were they to know that a fake lake at Disney has alligators. They likely had no way of knowing that the fake lake meets up with a real body of water someplace and alligators swim in from there. For all they knew it was constructed as a giant "pool" which doesn't touch any natural bodies of water -- and not being Floridians they can't be expected to know that alligators can get into that too.

And the family is from Nebraska so they probably had no clue how ubiquitous alligators are to FL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I imagine Disney quietly settled with the family and they decided this was enough.

+1000 So glad both sides kept this out of the courts.

[Anonymous]

http://wtop.com/travel/2016/08/disney-builds-stone-wall-at-lake-where-alligator-killed-boy/

Disney officials told the Orlando Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2aLV0t9 ) for a story published Sunday that the barrier wall is part of the new security plan following the death of 2-year-old Lane Graves of Omaha, Nebraska. The boulder wall is going up along the beaches of the Seven Seas Lagoon where several resorts are located.