4-Year Old Boy Dies After Riding Epcot Attraction

[Galaxia]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050614/...ey_world_death

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - A 4-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 Monday 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 44-inch 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 Tuesday to determine the cause of the boy's death.

Officials said the boy from Sellersville, Pa., 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 $100 million ride, one of Disney World's most popular, was closed after the death but was reopened Tuesday 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 2003-04, 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 ministrokes 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.

Florida's major parks are not directly regulated by the Department of Agriculture; state law exempts large, permanent amusement parks that have their own inspectors from state oversight. But the parks agreed to share safety information in 2001.

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."

Way to go, ma. Will you be attending the Mother of the Year award reception, or should we just mail it to your house?

Who brings a 4-year old on this attraction? I don't care if he meets the height requirement or not; I know some adults that were squeamish about Mission: Space. Maybe there was something wrong with the boy that no one knew about before he went on the ride...

Before you go on the ride, they have numerous safety signs, and they give you an exit to leave from if you're still feeling uneasy. Also, when the ride first opened in 2003, it was way more intense than it is now.

[Mzo]

This ride sounds like it kicks ass, I need to get on it before they close it down or pussify it.

[Diff-chan]

Tower of Terror (in Anaheim) made my girlfriend cry.

[Drewbacca]

I can't believe someone died on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride... how the fuck does that happen? It has like 2 small drops.

[g0zen]

Disney's rides are tame compared to Six Flags. I hope to god this incident doesn't turn the entire rollercoaster industry to pussified shit.

[Mzo]

They need to make a rollercoaster that submerges you for a full minute.

[g0zen]

I'll make that ride for you, using only a combat boot and a kiddy pool. After that though, you gotta bite the curb.

[Opaque]

I love how everyone who's been hurt by this is either over 50 or under 5; two age groups that could be seriously hurt if they fell off a stool.

When someone in good health and in their 20's or 30's is hurt by this thing then it will matter.

[Yoshi]

Hopefully the unavoidable lawsuit that comes from this puts Disney into bankruptcy and they have to sell ESPN to Rupert Murdoch. Their financials are in the shit anyway, thanks to that idiot Eisner.

[g0zen]

Hopefully the unavoidable lawsuit that comes from this puts Disney into bankruptcy and they have to sell ESPN to Rupert Murdoch.

Fuck that. They'd never show sports, just clips from various games of fatass 30 something sports junkies stumbling through the national anthem while the local black choir singer at the mic stops at ever third syllable to do a minute-long vocal solo.

I say give it to Ted Turner. That way he can justify bringing back WCW, except this time they'll do the whole thing in a big replica of the ancient Colosseum and make all the crappy third-string indy fed wrestlers fight to their deaths for the crowd's amusement. Really though, he'd probably just preempt every game for 1990s Braves stock footage.