Woman's nose broken by baseball at Singapore activity park

A woman ended up with a fractured nose after she was hit by a baseball at a new indoor activity park at Suntec City.

The incident occurred while human resource manager Serene Tan, 35, was batting at the baseball activity station of SuperPark Singapore on Nov 25.

She had hit the last ball of five "pitched" by a machine when the ball ricocheted off a pillar at high speed and smashed into the right side of her nose.

The accident was captured on video by Ms Tan's husband, who was filming her batting with his smartphone at the time.

Ms Tan told The New Paper: "When the ball hit me, it was too painful to talk. I felt weak and I couldn't feel my nose.

"The blood was flowing fast, like water out of a tap. My glove was covered with blood and there was a pool of blood on the floor."

She said the machine indicated the ball that hit her was pitched at 81kmh.

Ms Tan had gone with family and friends for her first experience of SuperPark,which was launched in Finland in 2012 and opened here last month.

SuperPark Singapore said in a statement that its staff immediately provided first aid to Ms Tan and called for an ambulance.

But Ms Tan's husband opted to drive her to Gleneagles Hospital, where a scan revealed she had suffered a fracture and the bone had been dented inward.

She was discharged the next day as her nose was too swollen to be operated on. She was readmitted on Friday last week for surgery to fix the fracture.

She said the total medical bill amounted to $30,000, which was covered by her insurance.

Ms Tan, who was wearing the safety equipment provided by the park, said: "I hope the park can invest in a good full-face wire mask and cushion the surrounding pillars to reduce the speed of the balls. "

SuperPark's chief executive of Asia, Mr Mark Kumarasinhe, said in the statement: "SuperPark upholds international and professional standards of safety measures, and also implements more onerous safety standards in its Asia parks than those of Finland or Europe.

"Any injury causes us great concern. We will take a serious review with a goal of improving our safety standards to further enhance our procedures if it is necessary."

As for its equipment, Mr Kumarasinhe said full-face helmets with protective grilles could block a beginner's vision and potentially lead to more serious damage to the face or skull in case of injury.

Softball coach Gerann Ngiam said his students usually wear a helmet with a protective grid during lessons when facing a machine, which can eject balls at up to 100kmh.

After watching the video of Ms Tan's accident, the founder of Infiniti Sports told TNP: "She did not have the right posture, which could have slowed her reaction time to the ball... It might have helped better if a staff member had been present to teach participants the right way to stand."