A jury in Colorado has awarded $205 million to the family of a six-year-old girl who was killed on a theme park drop ride.
Wongel Estifanos died in September 2021 on the Haunted Drop Ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. A state investigation revealed that Estifanos was not buckled into her seat on the ride, yet park operators dispatched the ride anyway.
The 110-foot Haunted Mine Drop was a unique drop ride in that was built underground in a mine shaft at the mountain-top theme park. The ride remained closed until 2023, when it was rethemed and renamed as Crystal Tower. The state of Colorado fined the park $68,000 but did not pursue criminal charges.
The Estifanos family filed suit in October 2021 and the case went to trial this month.
"This very well reasoned jury verdict will send a loud message that will save a lot of lives," the family's attorney, Dan Caplis, said. "For four long years Glenwood Caverns has denied fault for the death of Wongel, who was dropped ten stories to her death from a ride. Wongel’s parents took this case to trial to prove what really happened and to try to save others."
"Wongel’s parents are deeply grateful to the jury for following the evidence to a just verdict, and for recognizing the dignity and importance of their daughter Wongel," Caplis said.
Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park responded with a statement: "Our hearts go out to the family of Wongel Estifanos and everyone affected by the tragic accident that happened on September 5, 2021. While the jury allocated significant fault on the other defendant, Soaring Eagle, Inc., the size of the total jury verdict award puts the existence of Glenwood Caverns at serious risk."
The statement continued, "Prior to trial, Glenwood Caverns offered Plaintiffs all of its available insurance money, but Plaintiffs refused to accept or ever negotiate a resolution over the past four years despite our numerous attempts."
"Glenwood Caverns was devastated by this accident and worked with independent engineers (and not with Soaring Eagle) to redesign and re-engineer the ride to prevent an accident like this from ever occurring again. Glenwood Caverns is exploring all options so that we can attempt to continue to operate, serve our guests, and continue to give back to the community."
Yeah, that award pretty much feels like a jury saying that it does not want a company to stay in business.
From their website: "Before enjoying any ride or attraction, all guests must sign a Release of Liability Waiver."
Lawyers' CYA. Has anyone ever heard of a theme park requiring a written waiver from their guests?
I don't mean this to come off as insensitive, but $205 million for a case ruled accidental with no criminal charges feels very much emotionally inflated. Given the size of the park, I doubt their net worth is much more than that, so if the full amount stands bankruptcy is virtually guaranteed. I'm having a hard time recalling a payout exceeding $10 million for a similar type of accident, and iirc even the Verruckt accident (which did have criminal charges involved, as many standards were violated with that attraction) resulted in an amount an order of magnitude less. Yes, the park is very much at fault in this case, and yes, the park should be held fully accountable for their role in what occurred and forced to pay a fair amount as compensation, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to push them into closure over this despite the horrific circumstances of the accident.
>> From their website: "Before enjoying any ride or attraction, all guests must sign a Release of Liability Waiver."
I’m not a big city lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I don’t think a waiver works in the case of negligence.
idk man, if you’re responsible for a young child dying maybe it’s okay that you go out of business.
I'm with AJ. If Glenwood loses this much money, it could face closure or at the very least no major additions for a handful of years. This will probably impact other businesses in the area of tourism goes down.
if i remember correctly, the park took a 30 to 60 page SOP manual and whittled it down to just 3 pages (it's been a while since i read the report so i may not be totally accurate on this). if it is indeed the case, their ride staff was not properly trained especially if they didn't check the restraints on every rider on a 110 foot drop ride. it's not like this park has a full load on every dispatch so it is 100% their fault imo. that poor child suffered a horrific death and her family witnessed it. i have felt all along the owners should be held accountable and harshly.
Yes the park is Liable at the same time you have to protect Oneself..
They said She was not buckled into the seat and the ride went anyway.
I check myself and Others before a ride departs - so also at fault was whomever was with a 6 old and needed to make them aware of the issue...
The Insurance company and the amount of coverage the have will pay and the reminder will fall on park.
And I am sure there will be a appeal where they will agree to a lessor amount.
This is such a terribly sad tale of a little child suffering in an unbelievably tragic accident. My thoughts are with her family.
Then I have to ask these questions which suggest that no single person is fully culpable but the blame lies with a few.
1. Why was a 6 year old child allowed on a ride like this anyway ?
2. Why did the child's guardian not ensure that she was securely strapped in ?
3. Why did the ride staff not ensure that this child was securely strapped in before allowing the ride to proceed ?
4. How did the ride proceed at all when at least one safety belt was not properly engaged. Is there not an automatic shut off on these rides and , if not, then why not ?
So the Park owners , the Ride staff, the health and safety officers and the guardian all played their part in this tragedy.
Yes Rob I just looked at a video on youtube - and it was just a simple seat belt...
Now the ride is still open under a new name and new restraints.
Crystal Tower is the new name.
But I also wonder about the horrible safety design and the company that designed this ride..
Just to be clear, this was not a safety error from the design team. If I remember correctly, the seatbelt had already been buckled during a previous ride cycle and the child sat over it when it was dispatched. So this was clearly an operations failure.
There’s a reason that Disney requires everyone to put their hands up and tug on their seatbelt. Had this park done the same, they might have been able to prevent this.
James.Trexen...exactly. from what i remember when reading the case, on the previous ride cycle the seat in question was empty. when the family took their seats, the girl sat on the buckled seatbelt and that's why the system didn't fault that seat since the belt was buckled.
As a reminder, this is what was reported in the accident report...
-The previous cycle ran normally, but one of the seats was empty. When the ride unloaded, the operator did not verify all belts were unbuckled before letting the next group of riders board.
-Estifanos sat in the seat that had been empty previously. Due to the darkness, she likely didn't see that the belts were buckled, and due to her small size she was able to pull the tail of the belt completely over her lap, likely interpreting that as the restraint belt.
-The operator checked all the restraints by verifying the buckles were properly inserted and pulling on the tails to make sure all belts were tight. They failed to visually verify that the belts were actually in position across the rider's laps.
-When the operator returned to the panel, they saw an error that the seats weren't buckled properly. The error was intended to indicate not all seats had been unbuckled and rebuckled, but the operator interpreted it as one of the seats not being fully buckled. The operator went back and checked all the buckles, then retuned to the panel and still saw the error.
-Confused, the operator consulted a coworker who was returning to the ride from a break. The coworker unlocked the restraints, then went out and unbuckled and rebuckled each seat without fully undoing the seatbelts. When they returned to the panel, the error was cleared, so they dispatched the ride.
The investigation found that it was a combination of five independent actions that caused the accident to occur, any one of which not happening would have likely prevented the accident:
1. The first operator did not verify all belts were unbuckled before letting the next group of guests board the attraction.
2. Neither operator performed the restraint check properly, as both neglected to visually verify that the seatbelts were in their proper position.
3. The ride's manual did not adequately explain the control system for the ride, nor did it reference various errors that could occur, thus the operators reset the ride through trial and error rather than through a specific procedure.
4. A ride cycle is to be completed by a single operator, so when the second operator took over, they should have unloaded and reloaded the attraction rather than simply troubleshooting.
5. The seatbelt design was considered flawed as a seat could be occupied by a passenger without them realizing the belt was buckled beneath them.
Horrific. Gotta feel not just for that family, but for those ride operators responsible too. I can't imagine carrying the burden of knowing what my mistake caused.
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Well if that judgment stands, I don't see how the park can possibly survive.