Warnings at places like waterparks are usually posted for good reasons and should not be ignored. If you choose to ignore them, there may be serious consequences. One couple found that out the hard way.

Claire Vickers and her friend Barry Douglas both broke their legs and feet after ignoring the warning signs on a waterslide at a waterpark. They were drunk at the time, and they decided to sneak into the waterpark. Vickers admits that it was her idea. She said, “Everybody does it.” Yet they both admitted that they knew they weren’t supposed to be at the waterpark.

Since the waterpark was closed, there wasn’t any water in the waterslide. They had to add some water to try to make it slick enough to have the waterslide effect. On this particular trip down the waterslide, Vickers and Douglas went down the slide together.

They didn’t have any obstacle getting up the slide’s ladder. There were chains, but the chains weren’t locked and were easy to remove.

Everything was fine until they made it to the end of the slide and realized something horrible. Even though the slide wasn’t barricaded off very well on the ladder part, the end of the slide where you would usually enter the pool was completely blocked off with a steel barricade.

It was such a strong impact that Vickers said, “My bone came straight out my leg.” As far as her other leg, Vickers “shattered every single bone.”

While Vickers and Douglas both suffered very serious injuries as a result of going down the closed waterslide, it could have been much, much worse. They initially thought about going down the waterslide head first. Vickers is thankful they changed their minds. She said if she had gone down head first, “I wouldn’t be here.”

Douglas passed out after going down the slide, and for awhile, Vickers “thought he was dead.”

They were stuck in the waterslide tube together for over 3 hours before someone finally heard their calls for help. Eventually, someone heard them and called the police to report that someone had broken into the waterpark.

Watch the video below to learn more about what happened when Vickers and Douglas broke into the waterpark, how long their recovery is expected to take and why Douglas considers the incident “life-altering.”

Have you ever made a decision you regret when you were drunk? Do you think the waterpark should prosecute Vickers and Douglas for breaking in? Do you think Vickers and Douglas are right that the accident is partly the waterpark’s fault for not locking the waterpark securely and not blocking off the slide better?