Girl falls off balcony at Animal Kingdom villa

From Orlando Sentinel:

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A 6-year-old girl vacationing with her family in Central Florida fell from a third-story balcony at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas during the holiday weekend, Orange County authorities said Tuesday.

The New York girl, whose identity was not released, fell about 6:54 p.m. Monday from her family's room at the "Jambo House," said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ginette Rodriguez.

Photographs taken by a nearby witness, and provided to the Orlando Sentinel, depict giraffes and other animals nearby as paramedics aided the girl on the ground outside the resort.

The girl's father told a security officer he was in the shower when he heard his wife scream. The man said he left the room, made his way down the stairwell and jumped over a wall to get to his daughter, a Sheriff's Office report said.

Disney employees who were first on-scene said the girl was responsive and had a cut above her left eye, the report said.

Authorities said the fall appears to be accidental and the family is cooperating.
Disney describes the resort as a place where guests can experience their own "African safari adventure." The hotel's horseshoe-curved design provides views of four savannas, where more than 200 animals and birds roam freely.

The girl fell in an area where the animals do not have access.

Rodriguez said the child was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center and was later treated at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. The girl is thought to be in stable condition.

On Tuesday, Disney spokeswoman Kathleen Prihoda said, "Our primary concern is for the child's health and recovery. A Disney representative is with the family providing support."

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How terrible, my prayers are with her. This is the 2nd time this happened at AKL. Are the balcony railings lower there?

OMG prayers for this little one! How terrible.

How sad and absolutely terrifying for the poor girl and her family. Prayers to them for a quick and full recovery.

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Originally Posted by VWL Mom

How terrible, my prayers are with her. This is the 2nd time this happened at AKL. Are the balcony railings lower there?

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The balcony is not low there. They do have 2 chairs and a small glass table though. A child could easily climb up.

Prayers to the family and the little girl.

WOW....Glad it sounds she will be ok.
VERY lucky. Thats not a little fall.

I couldn't even imagine the feeling the parents went through when she fell!

I hope she makes a full recovery!

Oh, how horrible! I'm glad to see that she was not seriously hurt and that she seems to be getting better. I'm sure Disney will be largely pushing for parental supervision on the balconies for now on.

Wow this is so sad. I hope she recovers quickly

All hotel balcony railings at Disney hotels, and every other hotel I'm aware of in the US are at least standard height, required by building codes. They cannot be certified and opened for occupancy without it. A child could not fall over the railing without climbing the railing or some other item to get high enough to fall over. This is a horrible accident, but not the hotel's fault, unless the railing broke or was defective. Still I know the parents are horrified. Glad the little girl survived. Sounds like she wasn't critically injured, so fortunate.

I am sad to hear a fellow New Yorker fell but hope she is ok. I do hope her parents watch her more closely next time.

Prayers for a speedy recovery.

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Originally Posted by Disney4us2

The balcony is not low there. They do have 2 chairs and a small glass table though. A child could easily climb up.

Prayers to the family and the little girl.

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First off I pray she has a full recovery. Glad it wasn't a worse tragedy.

Having stayed at Jambo and Kidani often I can see how this would happen. The chairs and table are a easy way for a kid to climb up higher. I can easily see a kid climbing to get a better look at the animals and then falling over. This is why when we stay with DS3 and DS6 I don't leave them alone on the balcony. Especially DS3 since he is a climber.

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Originally Posted by Lakin

Oh, how horrible! I'm glad to see that she was not seriously hurt and that she seems to be getting better. I'm sure Disney will be largely pushing for parental supervision on the balconies for now on.

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One would hope parents realize not to leave children alone on ANY balcony...


Hope all turns out well for the little one.

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Originally Posted by Dulcee

One would hope parents realize not to leave children alone on ANY balcony...


Hope all turns out well for the little one.

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You would hope, right?

Poor kid.

Glad to hear that this little girl will be okay. How sad for this to happen on their vacation. Kids are climbers--all it takes is a few seconds of inattention for something like this to happen. :(

I hope she has a speedy recovery. I'd really like to hear how it happened. They call it accidental, but it really isn't. There's a cause behind it somewhere.

Sad, hope she recovers totally

What a scary ordeal for the family - glad it seems the little girl would be okay.

I think the rails are of a height required. However, given the animals in the vicinity, I would think that there is an added attraction to children wanting to climb higher to see them better.

How awful. I wish this little girl a very speedy recovery.

We have stayed at Jambo House twice and as far as I could tell the balcony was just as secure (height wise) as any of the other resorts. I hope these kinds of accidents don't cause Disney to remove the tables and chairs from their resort balconies.

From Baynews9:

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Deputies said the child was trying to reach something Monday night at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas, so she moved a small table to the balcony railing, but lost her footing and fell from the third-floor balcony.

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Deputies say the girl's father was in the shower at the time, but the mother saw the child fall and tried to grab her, but was unable to get to her in time.

The girl was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital with minor injuries. She was later released from the hospital.

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Looks like she's okay.

Glad to hear she will be ok. If I were Disney I would move the table and chairs to one spot and secure them to the ground. You know kids are going to want to look over at the animals and with the chairs and table easy to move they just might try it.

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Originally Posted by minnie04

Glad to hear she will be ok. If I were Disney I would move the table and chairs to one spot and secure them to the ground. You know kids are going to want to look over at the animals and with the chairs and table easy to move they just might try it.

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Just as a general note--children should be supervised on a balcony at all times. We don't know for sure if the mother had been doing that but I think she needs to keep a closer eye.

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Originally Posted by minnie04

Glad to hear she will be ok. If I were Disney I would move the table and chairs to one spot and secure them to the ground.

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As an adult who most often travels without children, I would not be happy with this.

Moving the table and chairs (or bolting them down) will NOT prevent this type of accident. It's like when people say they take the table and chairs off the balcony and bring them in the room to prevent their kids from climbing on them. Well, you've just brought something into the room that kids can CLIMB on to reach that "up high" balcony door lock. Also, there are chairs IN the room, which can easily be dragged out.

Nothing replaces adequate supervision. If your kids are prone to disobeying you, or they are prone to daredevil antics, don't book a balcony room, or be prepared to supervise them out there ALL the time.

The part of this story that gets me is "the mom saw her fall and tried to grab her." What? So, basically the mom was close enough to "grab" her, but not close enough to realize she was in a dangerous situation to begin with? Sounds to me like mom let the kid stand on a chair or table and was actually on the balcony with her (probably distracted by looking at the animals) and her kid took a tumble. Also, what was the kid "reaching for"? Was she trying to pet a giraffe? This story is weird. My guess is that mom wasn't really on the balcony, but her story is that she tried to grab her on the way down. Right.

Luckily, there are surveillance cameras at the AKL, so it shouldn't be too hard to ascertain exactly what happened here.

I'm glad she'll be ok. As other have said, nothing beats adequate adult supervision but those of us with experience with kids know that it only takes a second of your back being turned for kids to get into trouble. Let's give her parents the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe this truly was a simple accident. Sometimes they really do happen, even with the best of parenting.

I know that it is a parent job to watch every move kids make especially on a balcony. I just thought it might be a good idea for Disney to cover their back side.. lol this way no one can say "well if Disney had done this or that" this wouldn’t have happened, because you know that's coming. I guess the surveillance tape will show exactly what happened. We had one of the kids on our trip in 2004 climb from one room to the other. He was 8 and a daredevil we never even saw him coming he just should up on our balcony. Our rooms were side by side. Needless to say I was Shocked!!! His parents were right there in his room and got upset with him, but it was so quick and easy for him to climb around the poles. We were on the second or third floor. It would have been a bad fall, thank God he didn’t slip.

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Originally Posted by minnie04

I know that it is a parent job to watch every move kids make especially on a balcony. I just thought it might be a good idea for Disney to cover their back side.. lol this way no one can say "well if Disney had done this or that" this wouldn’t have happened, because you know that's coming. I guess the surveillance tape will show exactly what happened. We had one of the kids on our trip in 2004 climb from one room to the other. He was 8 and a daredevil we never even saw him coming he just should up on our balcony. Our rooms were side by side. Needless to say I was Shocked!!! His parents were right there in his room and got upset with him, but it was so quick and easy for him to climb around the poles. We were on the second or third floor. It would have been a bad fall, thank God he didn’t slip.

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Of course we sense you're a responsible parent I just think as protocol parents need to watch their children. Parents fail to watch their children in the parks and on the Disney buses alone. I don't know how many times I have seen children running around me while I wonder where are their parents? If parents can't handle their children in parks what makes them think it's any different on a private balcony.

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Originally Posted by minnie04

We had one of the kids on our trip in 2004 climb from one room to the other. He was 8 and a daredevil we never even saw him coming he just should up on our balcony. Our rooms were side by side. Needless to say I was Shocked!!! His parents were right there in his room and got upset with him, but it was so quick and easy for him to climb around the poles. We were on the second or third floor. It would have been a bad fall, thank God he didn’t slip.

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Having lived in Central Florida near Spring Break mecca (Daytona Beach), this type of activity from college students usually produces at least one fall (and sometimes fatality) a year. I can imagine how horrified you were when an 8-year-old did it!

It's true, parents are only human; sometimes they let their guard down for a few seconds and accidents happen, some worse than others. In a situation like this the outcome could have been so much worse, but thankfully it wasn't. That child had a guardian angel looking after her.