Family Raises Safety Concerns After Child Encounters Alcohol, Flooded Floor in Riverview Park Restroom
A Quincy father says his 7-year-old son quickly left a public restroom Sunday afternoon after finding conditions that made him uncomfortable. Photos provided to Quincy Current show beer inside the restroom and water covering portions of the floor.
QUINCY, Ill. What began as an ordinary Sunday afternoon at Riverview Park became a troubling experience for one Quincy family after a young child entered a public restroom and immediately returned to his father saying he did not feel comfortable inside.
The father told Quincy Current that he took his three children to Riverview Park at approximately 4:30 p.m. Sunday to enjoy the pleasant weather. After the children had been playing for about 15 minutes, his 7-year-old son went into the men’s restroom.
The boy returned almost immediately.
Rather than simply continuing to play, he told his father that something inside the restroom made him uncomfortable and asked him to come look.
What the father found raised several safety concerns.
According to photographs provided to Quincy Current, an open beer bottle was inside the restroom along with another unopened alcoholic beverage. Water was also covering portions of the restroom floor, apparently coming from a disconnected water line beneath or near the sink.
The father documented the conditions and later provided the images to Quincy Current.
Several Potential Safety Hazards
None of the conditions independently establish how the restroom came to be in that state or how long it had remained that way.
It is not known who brought the alcohol into the restroom, who opened the bottle, or whether the disconnected plumbing was the result of damage, maintenance problems or another cause.
What is clear from the photographs is that the restroom was accessible to park visitors, including children, while those conditions were present.
Standing water on a restroom floor can create a potential slipping hazard, particularly for children or older visitors. An open alcoholic beverage in an unsupervised public restroom also raises concerns about what young park users could encounter while using facilities intended for families and the general public.
A Family Park on a Busy Sunday Afternoon
Riverview Park is one of Quincy’s longstanding public parks and regularly attracts families, walkers, children and other visitors to enjoy the stunning river views, particularly during favorable weather.
The incident occurred in the middle of a Sunday afternoon rather than late at night or during a period when the park would normally be empty.
The photographs alone do not establish when the water line became disconnected, how long the alcohol had been inside the restroom or whether the conditions had already been reported.
Those are questions that remain unanswered.
The photographs he took show why the child came back out.
