A child was a victim of a roller coaster accident at the Idlewild and SoakZone amusement park. Thursday afternoon.
The identity of the boy and how serious his injuries are is unknown, but it was stated that the kid was airlifted to a hospital after the event. This tragedy is the third major incident regarding amusement parks in the United States. The Idlewild and SoakZone amusement park are near Ligonier, and the victim was airlifted to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. According to the dispatchers, the child was conscious and alert after fallen from the roller coaster.
Jeff Croushore, the park spokesman, told WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh that the tragedy happened in the ride Rollo Coaster, which is a wooden structure built in 1938 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, PennLive reports.
The roller coaster does not require seatbelts and has a height requirement of 36 inches. Riders under 48 inches must be in the company of an adult. The Idlewild Park has numerous rides for all ages and only has two roller coaster. The Rollo Coaster is described as a simple ride with only ups and downs and no exciting curves nor turns.
Croushore stated that the Idlewild and SoakZone amusement park rides are inspected daily and assured that safety is the park’s number one priority. He did not say if the incident happened because of a malfunction or if it happened because of the boy’s misbehavior. The NBC reports that the victim is three years old and was on the ride with his brother.
The roller coaster is now closed, and Ligonier Police and Westmoreland County detectives are investigating the incident.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Amusement Ride Safety Division had and inspector in the Pittsburgh park after the event. There are nearly 1,650 inspectors of the Department that monitor more than 10,200 rides in the state, and they are also responsible for auditing rides and local inspectors.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the park was inspected by a private certified inspector on August 6, PennLive reported.
And event that is now part of a series of amusement parks accidents
It is shocking, but the Pennsylvania incident is the third one to happened in the U.S. in only four days. On Monday 3 kids fell from a Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greenville, Tennessee. The victims’ basket overturned when they were at more than 30 feet from the ground. All three children were injured. Briley Reynolds, who is 6 years old, was still in critical condition on Thursday.
But a worst incident took place in Kansas on Sunday. A 10-year-old kid was decapitated while riding on the world’s tallest water slide. The boy died at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas at the “Verruckt” slide, which is German for “insane.”
On Wednesday the Schlitterbahn Waterpark reopened but the slide is not longer part of the rides options for the public, and it will be closed for the rest of the season. The incident is still under investigation.
Source: USA Today