Disney's death toll since 1989

AlwayzMarel · 07-07-2006, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Boy, 12, dies after riding Disney World roller coaster
The Associated Press
Associated Press
A look at the documented deaths at Disney's two theme parks in Florida and California since 1989:

_June 29, 2006: Michael Russell, 12, of Fort Campbell, Ky., went limp while riding MGM's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. An autopsy has not been performed.

_April 12, 2006: Hiltrud Bluemel, 49, a German tourist, died one day after riding on Epcot's Mission: Space at Walt Disney World. A preliminary medical examiner's report showed Bluemel died of brain bleeding. She also suffered from severe high blood pressure.

_August 4, 2005: Jerra Kirby, 12, of Newport News, Va., collapsed at the Typhoon Lagoon water park in Orlando and later died from arrhythmia caused by an early stage viral heart infection.

_June 13, 2005: Daudi Bamuwamye, 4, of Sellersville, Penn., died after riding Epcot's Mission: Space. An autopsy determined that he died of an irregular heartbeat linked to an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle that can throw heart contractions out of coordination.

_April 30, 2005: Ryan Norman, 30, of Mooresville, Ind., who wore a pacemaker lost consciousness and later died at a hospital after going on the Dinosaur ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. A medical examiner's report said the ride wasn't related to the death.

_February 2005: Gloria Land, 77, of St. Paul, Minn., who was in poor health from diabetes and several ministrokes, lost consciousness after riding the Magic Kingdom's Pirates of the Caribbean and was pronounced dead at a hospital. A medical examiner's report said Land was in poor health from diabetes and several ministrokes.

_February 11, 2004: A costumed Walt Disney World worker, Javier Cruz, 38, of Orlando, Fla., was killed after being run over by a float during an afternoon parade.

_September 5, 2003: Marcelo Torres, 22, of Gardena, Calif., died when Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster's locomotive struck a tunnel roof. The ride's first car then ran under the locomotive and Torres' body had to be extricated by paramedics. Ten others were injured during the incident.

_Between January and March 2003: An 81-year-old woman had a heart attack while on the Universe of Energy ride at Epcot and later died at a hospital.

_November 5, 2000: William Pollock, 37, of St. Petersburg, Fla. was killed on Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World after climbing out of his boat midway through the ride and being struck by another boat.

_June 25, 2000: Cristina Moreno, 23, from Spain, developed a severe headache after riding the Indiana Jones attraction at Disneyland . She suffered a brain hemorrhage and ran up more than $1.3 million in medical expenses in her native Spain before she died in September 2001.

_February 14, 1999: Raymond Barlow, 65, of Clermont, Fla. a part-time park employee, died at Walt Disney World when he fell to his death in the loading area of the Magic Kingdom Skyway.

_December 24, 1998: Luan Phi Dawson, 33, of Duvall, Wash., was killed when a metal cleat ripped loose from Disneyland's 84-foot-long ship Columbia and fatally struck him in the head. His wife and a Disneyland employee were injured.

_May 16, 1995: Linda Elaine Baker, 4, from Galveston, Texas, slumped over and died while riding with her mother on Body Wars in Epcot. An autopsy concluded the ride did not contribute to her death.

_October 1989: A woman was killed in a boat collision in Disney World. No other details are known.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/14933003.htm

So what about anything before 1989?!?

Paymaster · 07-07-2006, 04:22 PM

http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/deaths.htm

Quote:

May 1964: Mark Maples, a 15-year-old Long Beach, CA, resident, was killed when he tried to stand up on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Maples (or his companion) foolishly unbuckled his seatbeat and attempted to stand up as their bobsled neared the peak of the mountain. Maples lost his balance and was thrown from the sled to the track below, fracturing his skull and ribs and causing internal injuries. He died three days later.

June 1966: Thomas Guy Cleveland, a 19-year-old Northridge, CA, resident, was killed when he attempted to sneak into Disneyland along the Monorail track. Cleveland scaled the park's sixteen-foot high outer fence on a Grad Nite and climbed onto the Monorail track, intending to jump or climb down once inside the park. Cleveland ignored a security guard's shouted warnings of an approaching Monorail train and failed to leap clear of the track. He finally climbed down onto a fiberglass canopy beneath the track, but the clearance wasn't enough -- the oncoming train struck and killed him, dragging his body 30 to 40 feet down the track.

August 1967: Ricky Lee Yama, a 17-year-old Hawthorne, CA, resident, was killed when he disregarded safety instructions and exited his People Mover car as the ride was passing through a tunnel. Yama slipped as he was jumping from car to car and was crushed to death beneath the wheels of oncoming cars.

June 1973: Bogden Delaurot, an 18-year-old Brooklyn resident, drowned trying to swim across the Rivers of America. Delaurot and his 10-year-old brother managed to stay on Tom Sawyer Island past its dusk closing time by climbing the fence separating the island from the burning settlers' cabin. When they decided to leave the island a few hours later, they chose to swim across the river rather than call attention to their rule-breaking by appealing to cast members for help. Because the younger brother did not know how to swim, Delaurot tried to carry him on his back as he swam to shore. Bogden Delaurot went down about halfway across the river. The younger boy remained afloat by dogpaddling until a ride operator hauled him aboard a boat, but Bogden was nowhere to be found. His body was not located by searchers until the next morning.

7 June 1980: Gerardo Gonzales, a recent San Diego high school graduate, was killed on the People Mover in an accident much like the one that had befallen Ricky Lee Yama thirteen years earlier. Gonzales, in the early morning hours of a Grad Nite celebration, was climbing from car to car as the People Mover entered the SuperSpeed Tunnel adjacent to the former America Sings building. Gonzales stumbled and fell onto the track, where an oncoming train of cars crushed him beneath its wheels and dragged his body a few hundred feet before being stopped by a ride operator.

4 June 1983: Philip Straughan, an 18-year-old Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident, also drowned in the Rivers of America in yet another Grad Nite incident. Straughan and a friend -- celebrating both their graduations and Straughan's eighteenth birthday -- had been drinking quite heavily that evening. They sneaked into a "Cast Members Only" area along the river and untied an inflatable rubber maintenance motorboat, deciding to take it for a joyride around the river. Unable to adequately control the boat, they struck a rock near Tom Sawyer Island, and Straughan was thrown into the water. His friend travelled back to shore to seek help, but Straughan drowned long before his body was finally located an hour later.

3 January 1984: Dolly Regene Young, a 48-year-old Fremont, CA, resident, was killed on the Matterhorn in an incident remarkably similar to the first Disneyland guest death nearly twenty years earlier. About two-thirds of the way down the mountain Young was thrown from her seat into the path of an oncoming bobsled, her head and chest becoming pinned beneath its wheels. An examination of Young's sled revealed that her seatbelt was not fastened at the time of the accident, but because she was riding alone in the rear car of a sled no one could determine whether or not she had deliberately unfastened her belt.

Of course, a lot of the deaths in the first post a BS. If the ride didn't contribute to the death, why even mention it? And if someone is in poor health, I would argue that it was the poor health that killed them, not disneyland...

zippyjuan · 07-07-2006, 05:29 PM

Given the huge numbers of people who are there on any given day, these are probably fewer numbers than a comprable sized city.

Houdini · 07-07-2006, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zippyjuan

Given the huge numbers of people who are there on any given day, these are probably fewer numbers than a comprable sized city.

Having ridden the Mission:Space ride, I can vouch for its intensity. You're basically squeezed into a seat b/w two narrow walls, (there are about 4 people with you) a safety bar comes down (take a deep breath when that happens and lean forward, otherwise it will damn near ratchet you to death. You have a job, such as commander or navigator or whatever that requires you to push a button or pull a joystick at a certain time.

The ride itself is very, very cool, from takeoff to nape of the earth racing over Mars (or should that be nape of the terra?) At liftoff you're pulling a few G's, and you feel G forces in different directions appropriately as your ship turns, etc.

Great idea, really. A centrifuge in which the capsules are able to swivel up and down DURING the ride appropriately. So you feel the G's at different times, from different directions. Very cool.

I can see how a hypertensive person could stroke out. Or how someone with a heart condition could have an arrythmia, but they DO warn you MULTIPLE times that you must have NO medical problems, etc. Hell, Gary Sinese warns you again right before you enter the capsule.

I agree that most of those things were completely unrelated to Disney. If a ride prompted it b/c someone didn't heed the advice with knowledge of a medical condition, or if someone had viral endocarditis as mentioned, or if the person is super old and is riding one of the most sedate rides in the world, you really can't blame Disney.

ArkiStan · 07-08-2006, 01:18 AM

I personally believe it's not because of the rides but due to a poisonous substance in Mickey's fur that, when inhaled, can potentially cause a deadly infection that leads to heart failure and/or brain bleeding. I'm quite positive about this.

Memo · 07-08-2006, 01:35 AM

Man, reminds me of when a friend and I slid out from under the restraints on the Serpent ride at Astroworld (RIP) and "surfed" on the head of the front car. We were immediately thrown out of the park. It's a childrens roller coaster, but still pretty stupid.

Jane83 · 07-08-2006, 02:19 AM

alot of them seem to be at disney world, where i have never been, and the others are stupid drunks trying to swim in that dirty water??
they deserved to drown.
what made that seem like a good idea??
im sure disney didnt lose a dime. They have disclaimers all over every single ride, warning people in poor health, and if they didnt follow safety procedures, its their own damn fault.

07-07-2006, 05:29 PM	#3
zippyjuan Picture of the Day Guru Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sunny San Diego Posts: 8,756	Given the huge numbers of people who are there on any given day, these are probably fewer numbers than a comprable sized city. __________________ I add new pictures to my photo gallery pretty regularly. You can see them here if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/jeffryz

07-08-2006, 02:19 AM	#7
Jane83 Commander Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: S. Pasadena Posts: 1,452	alot of them seem to be at disney world, where i have never been, and the others are stupid drunks trying to swim in that dirty water?? they deserved to drown. what made that seem like a good idea?? im sure disney didnt lose a dime. They have disclaimers all over every single ride, warning people in poor health, and if they didnt follow safety procedures, its their own damn fault. __________________ stupid sexy flanders

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07-08-2006, 01:18 AM	#5
ArkiStan Admiral Join Date: May 2000 Location: Recession Central Posts: 5,898	I personally believe it's not because of the rides but due to a poisonous substance in Mickey's fur that, when inhaled, can potentially cause a deadly infection that leads to heart failure and/or brain bleeding. I'm quite positive about this.

07-08-2006, 01:35 AM	#6
Memo Admiral Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: East Village Posts: 5,659	Man, reminds me of when a friend and I slid out from under the restraints on the Serpent ride at Astroworld (RIP) and "surfed" on the head of the front car. We were immediately thrown out of the park. It's a childrens roller coaster, but still pretty stupid.

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