San Antonio Water Slide Drowning in 1980 (Houston, Salado: closing, live, fencing)

[I was there]

I know this reply is about 12 years late and about an incident that happened 30 years ago...
But I WAS THERE the night that boy climbed into the water-slide pump system. He was playing with his friends and surprising them when they came down the slides into the splash pool.
That was the last night that water slide was ever open.

[I was there]

Correction... The drowning took place 40 years ago!
But I can remember it like it was yesterday.

It was closing time and his friends were asking the owner where their friend would have gone.
He said "I don't know but he's not here"

[I was there]

It wasn't until they back-flushed the pumps a few hours later that they found him.
And it was chicken wire (with space above it) not chain link fencing to keep people out of the pump system. The pump system was under the walkway/bridge leading back to the top of the slides.

[Azure110]

Here is some more info posted here in the past on what the place is called and what happened.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/2648920-post2613.html

https://www.city-data.com/forum/2651927-post2615.html

[I was there]

Thanks Azure. I also know for a fact that the boy was not cutting in line because it was near closing time and the only five people there were my friend and I, the boy who drowned and his two friends... and the property owner/manager).

He and his friends were playing a game, hiding at the bottom of the slides and waiting, then startling their friends as they came down the slides.

I am certain that the boy who drowned thought that under the bridge, beyond the chicken wire was a great place to hide to scare his friends. He had no idea that's also where the pump intake was, or how powerful the suction would be. A very sad result but I'm sure it helped future water rides avoid similar tragedies.

[Cuero]

Poor kid. May he rest in peace. I bet you will never forget that day, as much as you probably wish you could.

[majorpenalty]

The water slide did not close in May of 1980. I moved to San Antonio in August of 1980, and the slide was still open then. Sometime during my first year in town, I rode my 10-speed bike down Hwy 281 to the slide, and enjoyed it. The 281/San Pedro connector was already in place and the water slide sat right by the 281/San Pedro intersection by Heritage Drive.

[fritos56]

You sure the water slide was by US281 / San Pedro. We came back here in 1971 when my dad was stationed at Randolph AFBase.We had lived here off and on since the 1950s,when he was stationed at Security Service on Kelly AFBase(now joint base SA). He retired in 1975 after 33 years in the US Airforce.Anyhow, I remember the incident, because it was on the news.There was also along the IH 35 South Access Road by Salado Creek, a waterpark.Have forgotten the name ,but there was one there.This is i believe the place where the tragedy happend.The Pace picante sauce factory was on the opposite side. And if you follow the access road, you come over by Fort Sam Houston Army Base. Off the access road is Region 20, which is part of the State of Texas educational system.

[TXsurburbanmom]

It was definitely the one on San Pedro. My friends and I went there the summer before. I moved away and when I talked to my friends back here it was huge news that it happened where we’d been. I still have a vivid image of the slide in my mind probably in part because it was the first water park I’d been to and because of the tragedy the next summer. We were the same age as the boy who died so it became one of those freak things you remember all your life. That was of course before we were bombarded with 24 hour news stories from all over the globe.

[Cuero]

What was that place like, was it big like Splashtown -- the place on I35 by Ft Sam Houston (JBSA) -- or just a couple of slides and that's it? I looked and couldn't find any news articles on the incident online.