6-year-old girl never strapped into seat before fatal amusement park ride: Report
ABC News
A 6-year-old girl who died on a ride at a Colorado amusement park was never strapped into her seat before the ride plunged 110 feet, a state investigation found.
The 6-year-old girl who died on a ride at a Colorado amusement park earlier this month was never strapped into her seat -- and two operators failed to notice even after a monitor alerted them to a seatbelt safety issue -- before the ride plunged 110 feet, according to a state investigation.
Wongel Estifanos was visiting Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, located atop Iron Mountain in Glenwood Springs, with her family on Sept. 5 when she went on the Haunted Mine Drop ride, a free-fall drop down a pitch-black shaft.
After reviewing video surveillance and operating manuals, investigators with the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety determined that when Wongel got on the ride, she sat in a previously unoccupied seat on top of two already-locked seatbelts, and that "multiple operator errors" and "inadequate training" contributed to the fatal accident, according to a report released Friday.
The girl was only holding the tail of one seatbelt across her lap, but when checking her seat, a ride operator "did not notice that the seatbelts were not positioned across her lap," according to the report.
