Another Disney Ride Death?

Passion · July 12, 2005

A 16-year-old girl is in critical condition after riding the "Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror" ride at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, according to Local 6 News.

Officials said Leanne Deacon from Britain exited the ride Tuesday at about 9:50 a.m. and complained that she was not feeling well, Local 6 News reported.

She sat down with her mother in the theme park but her condition continued to worsen.

Deacon felt strange but told her mother she'd quickly recover after exiting Disney World-MGM Studios' "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror," which depicts a haunted elevator ride, said Jim Solomons, an Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman.

However, Solomons said the girl's condition deteriorated so rapidly that her heart stopped beating and she had to be resuscitated by emergency workers.

Disney medics came out and treated her and she was transported to Celebration Hospital where she was unresponsive, Local 6 News learned.

Walt Disney World did not immediately comment on the injury and it could not be determined if the ride remained open Tuesday. On the Tower of Terror, which depicts a haunted hotel, riders are placed in an elevator, which shoots up 13 stories and then plummets back twice.

Orange County Sheriff's Office will be investigating.

Two people have died at Disney World this year. A 4-year-old Pennsylvania boy, Daudi Bamuwamye, died June 13 after riding Epcot's "Mission: Space" and a 77-year-old Minnesota woman, Gloria Land, died in February after riding the Magic Kingdom's "Pirates of the Caribbean."

A medical examiner's report said Land who was in poor health from diabetes and several ministrokes and her death "was not unexpected." The cause of the boy's death remains under investigation.

Florida's major theme parks are not directly regulated by the state, and instead have their own inspectors.

On the ride, guests are seated aboard a freight elevator that glides through hotel passageways.

The elevator enters a pitch-black shaft and launches guests skyward unexpectedly. The vehicle then drops 13 stories.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

http://www.local6.com/news/4713504/detail.html

FutureGM · July 13, 2005

I've been on that ride. If that girl had heart problems, then she might not survive.

The death on "Pirates of the Caribbean" was unrelated to the ride itself. The woman had not been in good health anyway. However, the death on Mission: Space, one of the more intense rides in existence, was likely related to the ride itself.