JAEN, Nueva Ecija – The family of a 26-year-old bakery worker whose left knee was injured when a go cart he was riding in a huge amusement park allegedly had mechanical trouble on Christmas Day decried alleged apathy of its management.
Rosalie Baltes, a resident of Barangay Nabao here, said physicians at a public hospital in Cabanatuan City recommended on Thursday a surgical operation on the knee of her son-in-law Joel Lacurte amid pains a couple of days after Dr. Wilfredo Areola put a cast on it at a room in Carron Dreampark in Barangay Sto. Cristo, San Isidro on the eve of Dec. 25.
Baltes said Lacurte and a group of relatives and friends went to the amusement park at about 8 p.m. and drove a cart at its Indianapolis section.
Baltes said that the gasoline-fueled cart apparently developed trouble in its accelerator. “Namakat daw ‘yung silinyador kaya nagdire-diretso at hindi gumana ang preno,” the said. The cart reportedly rammed into the concrete fence.
Areola said in his report that he treated Lacurte “due to pain and swelling of left knee secondary to trauma after hitting on a hard object when he was driving a go cart at Carron Dreampark.
He diagnosed Lacurte to have “fracture, patella left,” and the cause as “vehicular accident.”
Baltes lamented that while Lacurte was brought and examined at the emergency hospital in Cabiao town, park officials brought him back to the park and conducted the casting at a room containing monitors for close circuit television cameras.
After the procedure, they were told Lacurte has to rest for two months and was given a few capsules of pain reliever.
“Gusto kong humingi ng tulong e hindi ko magawa dahil nagagalit sila,” she said.
But Ramon Santos, the park owner disputed Baltes’ claims.
He noted that it was his ranking park official, Juan Edgardo Arboleda, who rushed Lacurte to the hospital. The physician who performed the procedure was also the park’s official doctor, he added.
“They were also told to return after ten days to have his condition checked,” he added.
Santos said the management responded to the accident prudently even as Lacurte supposedly violated their rules by entering the park and driving the cart while under the influence of liquor.
He said Lacurte could have pressed the gas instead of brake.
