[Mac+]

Boy - 4 - dies after Disney World ride.

As reported in The Age.

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. AdvertisementAdvertisement "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

What an absolute tragedy.

What does a multi-national corporation actually *do* to support a family who just lost their son on one of your rides?

I can't really imagine that this will fade away.

[Maciej]

I can, there really isn't much space for litigation - I don't believe. I'm sure the corporation is providing the family with great accommodations until everyone figures out what to do. Probably first class airfare home, although I don't think there is much they can really do. Legally I do not think they are responsible in any way...

[staph]

Originally Posted by Maciej I can, there really isn't much space for litigation - I don't believe. I'm sure the corporation is providing the family with great accommodations until everyone figures out what to do. Probably first class airfare home, although I don't think there is much they can really do. Legally I do not think they are responsible in any way...

There's possibly an arguable negligence case, although it would be an interesting one. The death of the victim problematises the case… I'm not sure how that would play out in the US legal system.

[Koodari]

Would have been more interesting if you had posted this after the autopsy results were in. Now, we don't know anything really.

I expect the ride is statistically far safer than an average car trip to work or school, or a number of other everyday activities.

[Mac+]

Well, we'll have to wait for the autopsy results, but damn ... a 4 year old kid, dies on a joy ride.

I feel for the family, but am also intrigued by the potential consequences for Disney and rides like this. OK, it was not a fault of machinery, the ride works perfectly normally apparently and it is open for business the next day. That's big business I guess.

Are they now going to put a sign outside of the ride:

Number of days since last accident - XXXX
Number of days since a customer required hospitilasation - 138
Number of days since a customer ... well, you can see where I'm going.

??

Originally Posted by Koodari I expect the ride is statistically far safer than an average car trip to work or school, or a number of other everyday activities.

Yeah, but I don't pay to drive to work or ride to school. I think that being statistically safer is not enough. Nobody wants to buy a ticket for potential death ... especially if it is their four year old child. Bungee jumping, skydiving and other extreme sports - the participants are willing adults who are responsible for their actions and are briefed on a full safety session before their next jump I presume. This was a family on a trip to Disneyland.

I'd love to know the findings of the risk assessment that Disney performed on the ride. Sure it's pure bad luck, but seriously, if they're offering sick bags in the ride and six people were admitted to hospital during an eight month period during 2003-2004 shouldn't they have re-assessed their position on still offering the ride? I don't know - I'm curious for discussion about this.

[staph]

Originally Posted by Mac+ I'd love to know the findings of the risk assessment that Disney performed on the ride. Sure it's pure bad luck, but seriously, if they're offering sick bags in the ride and six people were admitted to hospital during an eight month period during 2003-2004 shouldn't they have re-assessed their position on still offering the ride? I don't know - I'm curious for discussion about this.

It's been a long time since I did first-year law, but here's my potted summary of negligence. This may be subtly different to US law.

In order to prove the tort of negligence, one must prove that:

(1) the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care;

(2) that the standard of care which the defendant owed to the plaintiff was not satisfied; and,

(3) that the injury to the plaintiff was both reasonably foreseeable to the defendant, and caused by the defendant's actions.

Here (1) is satisfied by the fact that Disney invited people onto their premises/rides, and (3) is satisfied because the history of accidents made the injury foreseeable, and the death was (probably) caused by the ride (pending autopsy). Bear in mind that the plaintiff having some kind of congenital weakness that made the injury worse is not a defence — the law is that you have to take your victims as you find them.

The contention would therefore be over the standard of care, what it was, and whether it was breached. You can do a number of things to help satisfy the standard — policing the health of those going on your rides, putting up warning notices with give meaningful information to people entering your rides, having emergency procedures in place in case something goes wrong, adjusting the ride to minimise the risk of illness/injury etc. Whether or not Disney can get away with this is very much dependant on the facts of the case, and how much evidence they can bring to show that they put a real effort into preventing this kind of incident.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Mac+ Yeah, but I don't pay to drive to work or ride to school.

Really? You didn't pay for a car (rollover lawsuits), pay taxes for roadwork (lawsuits for faulty bridges that collapse), or purchase a bus fare (lawsuits for driver negligence)?

I think that being statistically safer is not enough.

Saf*ER* is the best anyone is *ever* going to be able to do. *SAFE* doesn't exist.

Nobody wants to buy a ticket for potential death ... especially if it is their four year old child. Bungee jumping, skydiving and other extreme sports - the participants are willing adults who are responsible for their actions and are briefed on a full safety session before their next jump I presume. This was a family on a trip to Disneyland.

Yes, and legally the decision belongs to the informed and willing *parents*. They were there, they escorted the child onto the ride.

Obviously either the child had a condition the parents were not aware of, or the ride's restrictions need to be re-assessed. My money is on the former, to be honest. Sad situation.

[Unch]

Originally Posted by Mac+ Boy - 4 - dies after Disney World ride. As reported in What an absolute tragedy. I can't really imagine that this will fade away.

Sadly it probably will, like many other deaths at Disney theme parks. At least this time the child was seen by a paramedic (if they really were a paramedic), which hasn't always been the case before.

I'm surprised they reopened the ride the next day, well more shocked that they closed it down, which again hasn't been the case before.

[Powerdoc]

I took the "space montain" once in Paris with my daugther. Damn, this thing hurt you : such imprevesible accelerations (you are in the dark, so you canno't anticipate anything).
After the end of the trip, I was sick and wanted to vomit. It took me one hour to recover. At the contrary my daugther enjoyed it. Can we go back again daddy ? : NOOOOOOOOOOO !!!

[BuonRotto]

There surely will be a case, and it will surely be settled without going to trial.

[ohara]

disney is really good about covering these things up, at least in orlando... through legal artifice, I believe they can grossly lower the official number of people that have died at the park

[SledgeHammer]

I loved Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris. It's a pretty top-notch roller coaster, in my opinion. People dying at amusement parks is certainly relatively rare, but probably not so rare as people would like to believe. Roller coasters and other thrill rides provide a thrill because they push the bounds of what our bodies are used to. I don't have any numbers, but I'll look up statistics on amusement park fatalities and post them here, later.

[Banana]

Here's my thoughts.

I do hope that parents keep enough sense not to get all pssied at Disney and drag them into courtroom. This would be a frilivious lawsuit, IMHO. I also do hope Disney will do enough to compensate the family and go out of their way to make sure they've done everything, opposed to writing a blank check.

That said, I also think all parks do need to reassess their physical requirements. AFAIK, the height requirement is there because of safety harness can fit only so many sizes without compensating safety. However, what I don't get is that F=M*A has nothing to do with height, and its mass that matter. Right off my head, it seems to me a stocky and short kid would better tolerate force than a tall and rail thin kid. Its likely more complicated than that, but I don't feel that just height is good enough. *shrugs*

[Amadeus]

A very sad and tragic accident. I agree that it would be in both parties best interest to settle the problem out of court. When going to court the lawyers are the real winners. Accidents happen, the death happened at Disney and so they are responsible. I will be very curious to find out what was the actual cause of death. Four years old is just too young to die.

[Mac+]

staph - thanks for weighing in with some background to the legalities of it all and for presenting it in terms that us laymen can understand. I would be interested to hear what the definition or boundaires of standard of care are if this case goes to trial.

Originally Posted by Kickaha Really? You didn't pay for a car (rollover lawsuits), pay taxes for roadwork (lawsuits for faulty bridges that collapse), or purchase a bus fare (lawsuits for driver negligence)?

OK, I'm not going to argue the semantics of my (admittedly) poor analogy with someone doing a Ph D in computer language semantics.

Originally Posted by Kickaha Saf*ER* is the best anyone is *ever* going to be able to do. *SAFE* doesn't exist.

True - but I think for "thrill" rides, that is not an excuse a corporation should be allowed to rely on. I mean, I'm paying for a what should amount to a joy ride at an amusement park, not a ticket to take part in a death raffle of any sort. [Note to self - Mac+ ... put down the hyperbole pipe.]

Originally Posted by Kickaha Yes, and legally the decision belongs to the informed and willing *parents*. They were there, they escorted the child onto the ride. Obviously either the child had a condition the parents were not aware of, or the ride's restrictions need to be re-assessed. My money is on the former, to be honest. Sad situation.

Truth be told - there was never any indication that the ride could result in the death of their four year old, was there? I know it is splitting hairs, but I'm doing so to reiterate the point that height alone (and a list of medical conditions that most people would associate with afflicting the elderly) is probably not the best measure of a person's capacity to survive a ride at an amusement park. (Thanks to Banana for raising it in the first place.)

Still I tend to agree with most of the posts and do realise that I was being somewhat naïve - this case will go away.

Just sad really. I remember, when I was a "youngling" ( ) being told by my late Uncle that Disneyland is "the happiest place on Earth"(©?) and this sort of shattered my long held illusions/blindness.

I know they can be a merciless studio/production company, but I always viewed the amusement parks as great icons of vision, innocence, fun and OK OK, capitalism. I am also not totally blissed out to think that death does not occur on amusement rides ... I just felt that this was a case where perhaps the tragedy could have been prevented if better risk assessment had been performed and if Disney used a more thorough screening process for their rides. I guess the same can be said for all amusement park ride fatalities though.

[Banana]

I think a warning of a lesser injury is sufficient to be a warning for even greater injury/death. I coould be wrong though.

My experiences in parks, I've gone to like two different park a year for five years, there are plenty of warning postered all over places from the enterance to even the bathrooms, and so forth.

Secondly, its really common-sense. If a roller-coaster derails when it loops a loop, what happens? And you are going to say it shouldn't happen? Well, lets bring in gravity to court for being an accesory to murder!

Seriously, it does sucks that accidents happen, espeically to a kid, and there's not going to be an easy answer. Lawsuits and posting more warning and requiring us to sign a life forfeiture form and general claim waiver prior to entry certainly is not the answer.

[SledgeHammer]

By my count, RideAccidents.com records 166 deaths related to amusement rides, roller coasters, and water rides at amusement parks and carnivals in the US, between 1977 and 1997 (I didn't feel like counting up the numbers for the last 8 years). Snopes.com records nine deaths at Disneyland (I couldn't find numbers for Disney World) between 1955 and 2003 (7 of which were caused by people disobeying safety regulations).

It is sad. No one should die as young as four years old, and I think Disney should, as others have said, shoulder their share of the blame and do what they can for the family (not that anything can really make up for the loss of a child), but the ride will continue to operate, the parks will continue to operate, and by the time I am there in October, I will happily line up for Mission: Space, probably having forgotten about the whole thing.