News Editor Ajda Ender / Harrisons)
This is the moment a 20-year-old dad plunges nine metres from a water slide onto concrete in an accident that a new expert report has blamed on safety failures at the aqua park.
Video shows the moment Mehmet Keles fell from the slide in Ankara, Turkey, July 31, 2025. He died. ***Video Licence Restrictions: NEWS MEDIA PORTALS ONLY. Usage on social media is possible but we offer no guarantees. This video is offered under our ‘social and local media source’ licence. For details contact harrisons@t4hub.com
The fatal accident happened at an aqua park in the Yenimahalle district of Ankara, the Turkish capital, on 31st July last year.
Mehmet Keles poses with his child in undated photo. He died after falling from a slide at an aquapark in Ankara, Turkey. Note: Private photo. (Harrisons)
A three-person expert panel has now found that staff failed to check whether enough water was flowing down the slide to allow riders to descend continuously and safely.
Mehmet Keles poses with his family in undated photo. He died after falling from a slide at an aquapark in Ankara, Turkey. Note: Private photo. (Harrisons)
The report also found there was no safety net beneath the slide to prevent falls and no impact-absorbing surface covering the concrete below.
Video shows the moment Mehmet Keles fell from the slide in Ankara, Turkey, July 31, 2025. He died. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video. (Harrisons)
Construction worker Mehmet Keles had gone to the park with two of his brothers and two cousins when he got stuck hlafway down on the slide before his brother Ozmen Keles, 34, came down behind him.
Video shows the moment Mehmet Keles fell from the slide in Ankara, Turkey, July 31, 2025. He died. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video. (Harrisons)
CCTV footage included in the investigation shows Mehmet trying to stand up before Ozmen slides into him, knocking him off balance and sending him over the side.
Mehmet landed on the concrete below and was taken to hospital with serious injuries and died the following day.
The married construction worker was the father of a young daughter.
An initial expert report had blamed Mehmet primarily for the accident, saying he had stood up and jumped on the slide.
It found no fault with Ozmen, the water park owner or the employee responsible for the slide.
Prosecutors subsequently decided not to bring charges, but Mehmet’s family appealed.
Ankara’s 12th Criminal Judgeship of Peace overturned the decision not to prosecute the owner and slide attendant and ordered a more thorough investigation.
The new expert panel found that the slide had a complicated design which created a blind spot.
Investigators also found the park did not have electronic signalling, a turnstile or a camera monitoring system required under relevant safety standards.
The panel said the water flow had not been checked to ensure people could slide continuously without becoming stuck.
Its report also highlighted the absence of a safety net beneath the slide and an impact-absorbing floor surface.
The experts described the technical and administrative failures as significant factors in the accident and found the water park owner and slide attendant secondarily at fault.
Mehmet’s family has said it will challenge the new report as well, arguing that it was completed before all witness statements and evidence had been gathered.
Family lawyer Handan Sayan Ozgul said: “Although the expert report assesses the business owner and slide attendant as secondarily at fault, we believe it is based on an incomplete examination because it was prepared before witness statements had been completed and without all the evidence concerning how the incident occurred being considered together.
“In its current form, the report is not sufficient to clarify every aspect of the incident or to determine responsibility properly.
“We therefore request that, once the witness statements have been taken and the missing parts of the investigation completed, the file be sent to a new expert panel so that the circumstances of the accident, the safety measures at the business, the technical features of the slide, staff supervision duties and the responsibility of all parties can be examined again in detail.”
Ozmen previously said there had been a long queue because the slide had only recently opened and people were being allowed to descend one after another.
He said: “The staff did not warn us. Everyone was going. Ahmet went down, then my brother Mehmet went, and when I started sliding Mehmet suddenly appeared in front of me.
“I did not feel whether I hit him. When we reached the pool, we found Mehmet injured on the ground. There was nobody directing us and the water flow was very low.
“There was no medical worker there. A woman who had come to the park like us said, ‘I am a doctor,’ and helped.”
Ozmen said Mehmet left behind his daughter and that his wife, who was pregnant at the time, later suffered a miscarriage following his death.
He added: “From now on, we want justice to be done.”
The investigation is continuing.
(Harrisons)
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