Death at Disneyland

[nev]

Hey guys - this from the Melbourne Age Website this evening: Boy, 4, dies after Disney World ride Lake Buena Vista, Florida June 15, 2005 - 8:43AM A four-year-old boy died after passing out aboard Walt Disney World's "Mission: Space" - a ride so intense that it has motion sickness bags and several riders have been treated for chest pain. Daudi Bamuwamye passed out yesterday afternoon on the attraction, which simulates a rocket launch and trip to Mars. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said his mother carried him off the ride and employees helped her place him on a bench. Paramedics and a theme park worker tried to revive him, but he died at Celebration Hospital. The sheriff's office said the boy met the minimum 112cm height requirement for the ride at the Epcot theme park, which uses centrifugal force to simulate twice the normal force of gravity. An autopsy was expected today to determine the cause of the boy's death. Officials said the boy from Sellersville, Pennsylvania, was on the ride with his mother, Agnes, and a sister. During the ride, the mother noticed that Daudi's body was rigid and his legs were stretched straight out. She told detectives that she thought he was frightened so she took his hand. "When the ride ended, the victim was limp and unresponsive in his seat," according to a sheriff's office report. The $US100 million ($A131.5 million) ride, one of Disney World's most popular, was closed after the death but was reopened today after company engineers concluded that it was operating normally. In 2003, Disney began placing motion sickness bags in the ride. During an eight-month period in 2003-2004, six people over age 55 were taken to hospitals for treatment of chest pain and nausea after riding "Mission: Space," though none of them was found to have any serious problem. At that time, it was the most hospital visits for a single ride since Florida's major theme parks agreed in 2001 to report such problems to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Updated figures were not immediately available. One other death was reported at Disney World this year. A 77-year-old woman who was in poor health from diabetes and several mini-strokes died in February after going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at the Magic Kingdom. A medical examiner's report said her death "was not unexpected". Signs warn visitors about the intensity of the "Mission: Space" ride. "For safety you should be in good health, and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness or other conditions that can be aggravated by this adventure," one sign on view last year said. Signs also warn pregnant women not to go on the ride. Disney officials said in a statement after the boy's death that they were "providing support to the family and are doing everything we can to help them during this difficult time." - AP

[Skipper]

I am kinda bewildered as why parents would want to take a 4 yr old onto it - I doubt a kid of that age could grasp the nature and the concept of it whether they meet the height requirements or not its not at all aimed at children. Went on this for the first time just a few days ago and loved it!!!!

[GoGoBoy]

Some parents are disgraceful. You can see them fighting with ride operators at theme parks (often when they're child is well below the height restriction). They think the world is coming to an end if they can't get their child on a particular ride

[scott]

Of course, it's not the park's fault at all, there are plenty of warnings that people see before boarding the ride.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

i am perplexed as to why an orange county sheriff officer commented on the accident, being that orange county is the home of Disneyland in Anaheim California, whereas Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom, is located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, several hundred miles away?

[nev]

Because Disneyworld is also in Orange County, FL

[ScReAMmachine!]

Some parents are disgraceful. You can see them fighting with ride operators at theme parks (often when they're child is well below the height restriction). They think the world is coming to an end if they can't get their child on a particular ride

I agree. People need to understand why these restrictions are in place. Nevertheless, my sympathy to the family involved in this horrific incident. WDW however should have treated the incident far more seriously than it did. From that article, re-opening the ride so soon after a fatal accident was not appropriate.

[rappa]

I actually disagree... Keeping the ride closed unnecessarily is only going to serve to make a bigger deal out of the incident. Yes it is tragic that the child died but at the end of the day it was not the fault of a problem with the ride. If the ride was to stay close it would appear that the ride was at fault and reduce the publics faith in the safety of the park, that is something no operator ever wants...

[Guest jesus]

iTTTT was AT WDW IDIIIOTTTT! I DIED ONCEEEE

[Zamperla]

You have to remember also, that Disneyland has a huge volume of traffic. Up to 80,000 people per day is not uncommon (as it was when I was there on Christmas eve). I think it was appropriate to re-open the ride after the appropriate clearance in this case, since the unfortunate incident was not related to a malfunction of the ride.

[Adam]

Just an update to this thread.

(Wednesday, November 16, 2005) The 4-year-old boy who died after riding Disney World's "Mission: Space" ride in June had a pre-existing heart condition, according to his autopsy report. The report, released by the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office, concludes that the boy died as a result of the condition, which affected his heart's left ventricle. The boy's family was unaware of the boy's condition. 'Mission: Space' is a $100 million thrill ride that simulates a rocket launch. It is billed by Disney as the "ultimate interactive thrill-packed adventure [that] is as close as you can get to blasting off into space without leaving Earth." The park's website warns riders that they "should be in good health and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness, or other conditions that could be aggravated by this adventure." Signs posted near the attraction post similar warnings, and advise guests to see the ride attendant for "further cautionary information."

[coasterlover]

Nine guests have been killed on Disneyland attractions since the park's opening in 1955. All the deaths (save the most recent) were the result of guests who apparently ignored safety instructions and/or defeated rides' safety mechanisms. May 1964: Mark Maples, a 15-year-old Long Beach, CA, resident, was killed when he tried to stand up on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Maples (or his companion) foolishly unbuckled his seatbeat and attempted to stand up as their bobsled neared the peak of the mountain. Maples lost his balance and was thrown from the sled to the track below, fracturing his skull and ribs and causing internal injuries. He died three days later. June 1966: Thomas Guy Cleveland, a 19-year-old Northridge, CA, resident, was killed when he attempted to sneak into Disneyland along the Monorail track. Cleveland scaled the park's sixteen-foot high outer fence on a Grad Nite and climbed onto the Monorail track, intending to jump or climb down once inside the park. Cleveland ignored a security guard's shouted warnings of an approaching Monorail train and failed to leap clear of the track. He finally climbed down onto a fiberglass canopy beneath the track, but the clearance wasn't enough -- the oncoming train struck and killed him, dragging his body 30 to 40 feet down the track. August 1967: Ricky Lee Yama, a 17-year-old Hawthorne, CA, resident, was killed when he disregarded safety instructions and exited his People Mover car as the ride was passing through a tunnel. Yama slipped as he was jumping from car to car and was crushed to death beneath the wheels of oncoming cars. June 1973: Bogden Delaurot, an 18-year-old Brooklyn resident, drowned trying to swim across the Rivers of America. Delaurot and his 10-year-old brother managed to stay on Tom Sawyer Island past its dusk closing time by climbing the fence separating the island from the burning settlers' cabin. When they decided to leave the island a few hours later, they chose to swim across the river rather than call attention to their rule-breaking by appealing to cast members for help. Because the younger brother did not know how to swim, Delaurot tried to carry him on his back as he swam to shore. Bogden Delaurot went down about halfway across the river. The younger boy remained afloat by dogpaddling until a ride operator hauled him aboard a boat, but Bogden was nowhere to be found. His body was not located by searchers until the next morning. 7 June 1980: Gerardo Gonzales, a recent San Diego high school graduate, was killed on the People Mover in an accident much like the one that had befallen Ricky Lee Yama thirteen years earlier. Gonzales, in the early morning hours of a Grad Nite celebration, was climbing from car to car as the People Mover entered the SuperSpeed Tunnel adjacent to the former America Sings building. Gonzales stumbled and fell onto the track, where an oncoming train of cars crushed him beneath its wheels and dragged his body a few hundred feet before being stopped by a ride operator. 4 June 1983: Philip Straughan, an 18-year-old Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident, also drowned in the Rivers of America in yet another Grad Nite incident. Straughan and a friend -- celebrating both their graduations and Straughan's eighteenth birthday -- had been drinking quite heavily that evening. They sneaked into a "Cast Members Only" area along the river and untied an inflatable rubber maintenance motorboat, deciding to take it for a joyride around the river. Unable to adequately control the boat, they struck a rock near Tom Sawyer Island, and Straughan was thrown into the water. His friend travelled back to shore to seek help, but Straughan drowned long before his body was finally located an hour later. 3 January 1984: Dolly Regene Young, a 48-year-old Fremont, CA, resident, was killed on the Matterhorn in an incident remarkably similar to the first Disneyland guest death nearly twenty years earlier. About two-thirds of the way down the mountain Young was thrown from her seat into the path of an oncoming bobsled, her head and chest becoming pinned beneath its wheels. An examination of Young's sled revealed that her seatbelt was not fastened at the time of the accident, but because she was riding alone in the rear car of a sled no one could determine whether or not she had deliberately unfastened her belt. 24 December 1998: In a tragic Christmas Eve accident, one Disneyland cast member and two guests were injured (one fatally) when a rope used to secure the sailing ship Columbia as it docked on the Rivers of America tore loose the metal cleat to which it was attached. The cleat sailed through air and struck the heads of two guests who were waiting to board the ship, Luan Phi Dawson, 33, of Duvall, Washington, and his wife, Lieu Thuy Vuong, 43. Dawson was declared brain dead two days later and died when his life support system was disconnected. This accident resulted in the first guest death in Disneyland's history that was not attributable to any negligence on the part of the guest (it was the result of a combination of insufficiently rigorous ride maintenance and an insufficiently experienced supervisor's assuming an attraction operator's role) and prompted a movement for greater government oversight of theme park operations and safety procedures. 5 September 2003: A 22-year-old man, Marcelo Torres of Gardena, California, died, and several other guests were injured, when a locomotive separated from its train along a tunnel section of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Torres bled to death after suffering blunt force trauma of the chest. Anyone know of any deaths at Australian Parks? or serious injuries? I know of the Luna Park deaths on the ghost train and the drowning at Adventure World, what others have happened?

[Slick]

Very interesting stuff. To my first hand knowledge, while all the Gold Coast parks haven't had any fatalities, there's been some very close shaves, such as the Thunderbolt first loop incident where riders "nearly" got stuck upside down when something like a wheel shattered, but even alot of the situations that you do see on the news are very over-rated. Two events come close to mind when the Skylink chairlifts at Dreamworld got hit by strong winds and a tree fell onto one of the support beams. Of course no one was even scratched by the tree, but the media certainly drew out the "long amount of time for the cherry picker to reach each of the 40 carriages.." even those there was about four pickers and about 16 people on the ride. The other was some of the Wipeout incidents that left riders upside down. Thing is, you can easilly manually overide the Wipeout in an emergency situation so the locking pins are detatches and it naturally flips up. Still, thirty minutes upside down and everyone survived? Gee, no head trauma that one.

[Richard]

Wet'n'Wild experienced what I believe was their first fatality a few years ago when a man drowned in the wave pool.

[kennykoala]

Wet'n'Wild experienced what I believe was their first fatality a few years ago when a man drowned in the wave pool.

one of the maintance workers also got electricuted to death, not long after callypso beach opend, he was working on a power box, i have a video with the news story still i think. I also remember about 5 years ago someone fell from the chairlift at DW, i can remeber seeng that on the nes and the kept showing the ground were the person hit the ground in koala country.

[Wazza1]

one of the maintance workers also got electricuted to death, not long after callypso beach opend, he was working on a power box, i have a video with the news story still i think. I also remember about 5 years ago someone fell from the chairlift at DW, i can remeber seeng that on the nes and the kept showing the ground were the person hit the ground in koala country.

A small kid drowned in the pool at Wonderland a few years back as well

[rollercoaster rod]

Believe it or not,not one person has died IN a Disney park ever. How can this be so? have a read of this to find out. http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/declare.htm Hows that of image?

[Slick]

I was referring more to "ride based fatalities" but a loss is still a loss. And this person who apparently fell out of one of the Skylink carriages was obviously an idiot anyway. Even someone like me who does things like bunjee jumping and whatnot and who sill goes to the park fairly often has fealt uneasy about that ride when the cables started to jump up and down from some tosser teenagers in front swaying around and acting like fools. Insurance nightmare in the end for those lovely little steel rod "restraints" though.

[Adam]

rollercoaster_rod, the site you supplied says that the rumor is false.

Claims: Disney can legitmately claim that no one has ever died at one of their theme parks, because they always ensure that accident victims are removed from park property before being declared dead. Status: False.

So according to them, people have died in a Disney park before.

[Bussy]

It is fairly common to read newspaper reports about accidents involving a death, unless the person is confirmed dead at the scene (in the opinion of the attending ambulance officers there is no chance of revival), you will very rarely see "died on route to hospital" but more commonly "died at hospital". This is because the majority of ambulance officers are not qualified to pronounce death and what they will do will perform CPR on the patient until they arrive at the hospital where a qualified doctor will pronounce the death. Before anyone says that that is a load of crap I heard that directly from an ambulance officer. "The Bus is now leaving for Ambulance Ground, South Australia"

[mnemo]

Found this li'l gem while trawling... www.rideaccidents.com hmmm.. check it out.

[PattieBoi]

:S I don't feel like riding Mission: Space anymore!