Toddler injured by flying inner tube

The 13-month-old girl was hit Sunday at Fred Howard Park after the tube spun off a personal watercraft.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 16, 2002

TARPON SPRINGS -- Thirteen-month-old Layla Walzak plopped herself down in the sand Sunday afternoon at Fred Howard Park and splashed her hands in the gentle waves.

Her parents were nearby, enjoying a picnic and keeping an eye on the toddler. As Layla's mother watched, the idyllic scene turned into a horrifying spectacle. An inner tube being towed by a personal watercraft was slung directly toward the beach.

"The tube just came out of nowhere. It ran right over her," said Tracy Walzak, 35, a Tarpon Springs letter carrier who lives in New Port Richey. "I saw everything happen. I couldn't do anything. . . . You just can't get there fast enough."

She and her husband, Dean, raced to Layla. She wasn't breathing.

"She was just lifeless. I thought she was dead," Mrs. Walzak said.

Then she heard a wonderful sound: Layla started crying. The toddler was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, where she was being treated Monday for a broken nose and fractured skull.

The blond, blue-eyed girl was in the intensive care unit after having a series of tests. Doctors don't think she will have any brain damage, Mrs. Walzak said. She was listed in good condition Monday evening.

The person driving the watercraft, Justin Lott, 23, of Holiday, was given a misdemeanor citation for not using an observer or mirror while pulling another person on an inner tube, said Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The man on the inner tube, Wayne Patrick Kendall, 21, of New Port Richey, was not cited, Morse said.

Morse said Lott was making a quick 360-degree turn about 4 p.m. Sunday, which caused a slingshot effect with the tube.

The watercraft did not belong to Lott or Kendall. It had been listed as stolen. Fish and Wildlife investigators are looking into the case. Morse said he did not know whether Lott and Kendall were involved in the watercraft theft.

Morse would not release details about the size or type of the watercraft because the investigation is ongoing.

Lott and Kendall could not be reached for comment Monday.

Layla's grandmother, Judy Hatcher, said the accident proves to her that personal watercraft are too dangerous.

"They should be banned or something," said Hatcher, who lives in New Port Richey. "I would think there would at least be a specified place, out of the way of any beach area."

For Mrs. Walzak, the image of her child being run over by the tube is too vivid and fresh for her to forget. She is consoled by the fact that her other two children did not see it happen.

"I don't think I'll ever see a beach again," she said.

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