This article doesn't give the ages of the people who negligently operated the roller coaster that resulted in this little girl's death.
But we know they were teens. They always are.
And that's why I don't ride roller coasters in America.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 95 | April 24, 2022 4:59 PM |
[quote]Wongel Estifanos
At least she doesn't have to go through life explaining that name.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 25, 2021 1:38 PM |
If you are relying on poorly paid teens to ensure your child's safety, then this is what happens. Parents need to be responsible too, and check the buckles and belts on their own kids.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 25, 2021 1:48 PM |
It's not a rollercoaster, it's a drop ride.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 25, 2021 4:35 PM |
Correction R3. It’s a splat ride.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 25, 2021 4:38 PM |
Who was sitting with her? Was it her parents? Were they strapped in? It's the responsibility of the rider to buckle up. When the rider is six years old, they're not gonna get on this ride alone. Wait for the lawsuit from the parents. The article has no information as to the whereabouts of her parents at this time. And it's an attorney running his mouth that it's the responsbility of the park to verify somebody is strapped in. How do they know she didn't remove the seat belt as the ride started? There's so much about this article that glosses over the facts.
Why don't we suggest that it was the thirteenth pillar's fault in the Alma Tunnel that killed Diana, for fuck's sake?
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 25, 2021 7:18 PM |
I don't think this a uniquely American thing. I went to an amusement park in Ireland and every ride operator was a teenager.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 26, 2021 12:19 PM |
Amusement parks and carnivals are for riff raff
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 26, 2021 12:34 PM |
Yeah, as a guardian, who takes a little kid like that on a drop ride?
A lot of head-scratchers here.
Poor kid, but JFC, ride the kiddie train.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 26, 2021 1:19 PM |
These teens can easily be roller-coaster operators and lemonade slingers at amusement parks. All they have to do is use Zit Recruiter, a subsection of Zip Recruiter.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 26, 2021 2:10 PM |
The girl in op’s pic is UGLY!
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 26, 2021 2:20 PM |
I can only imagine the whispers if Burke was the ride operator and his unbuckled petulant sister dropped like this.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 26, 2021 3:16 PM |
There are usually height and weight restrictions but not age restrictions. Maybe she was tall for her age.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 26, 2021 4:13 PM |
Yeah the last time I went to Six Flags, as the day went on the people running the rides kept getting younger and younger. It was making me nervous!
I won’t do carnival rides or rides at fair or festivals, no way. I worked in Salem MA and probably right now they’ve got all the street junkies and drunks and trash from downtown putting together the Ferris wheel and all those rides! I’ll pass!
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 26, 2021 5:31 PM |
We know OP is a troll. They always are.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 26, 2021 6:57 PM |
I worked at an amusement park when I was a teenager. The park had strict standards for training the ride operators, and all training was well documented.
However, the decision-making part of the brain isn't fully formed until about age 25 or so. Teenagers don't always understand the risks associated with performing their jobs incorrectly. Messing up someone's order at a fast food restaurant has much different consequences from forgetting to check a seat restraint on a ride that goes 60 miles and travels through an upside down loop. The biggest problem was the distractions of hormones. Sometimes, these kids were so caught up in flirting with each other that operating the dangerous thrill ride wasn't their top priority.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 26, 2021 7:10 PM |
Can we please stop blaming the under-25 brain for these things. That seriously does not apply to this situation. That trope is being overused with little understanding what it actually means.
I am not saying the fault here is with the park or any teenager. Of course the parents or guardians should have been vigilant.
I am saying that the brain is fully capable of making this kind of decision and performing this job competently at 16.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 26, 2021 8:32 PM |
This story has renewed interest.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | March 31, 2022 2:59 PM |
I just read the story at OP. Wow, talk about negligence.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | March 31, 2022 3:05 PM |
Well now we know the ride is officially haunted
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | March 31, 2022 3:07 PM |
Are the threads about the 14 year old dying on Florida drop tower being removed? There was a good one I was part of, but it won’t load for me.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | March 31, 2022 3:29 PM |
A sad update from the story at OP:
[quote]The District Attorney’s office investigating the incident decided to file no criminal charges against Caverns Adventure, despite state investigators admitting the girl’s death was the result of “multiple” operator errors, most notably that Estifanos had not been properly buckled in, and, in fact, was sitting on the ride’s seatbelt.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 31, 2022 3:31 PM |
[R20] I noticed that on here and on other websites (Reddit especially). Posts and threads are being removed by the dozens.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | March 31, 2022 3:32 PM |
I would have NEVER put a child in my care on a ride like that. Wtf is wrong with people?
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | March 31, 2022 3:32 PM |
I've been a coaster enthusiast (if you can call it that cringe term) since I was in high school and trust a lot of the standards that ride operations have to go through at big park chains like Cedar Point, Universal and what have you. But this ride here was a recipe for disaster. Poor training of children working the ride, bad pay, horrible upper management, greed... it all leads to death and rules written in blood. RIP to this child.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | March 31, 2022 3:34 PM |
This is what decent people do.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 25 | March 31, 2022 3:34 PM |
r22 are they trying to stop people from sharing the original video?
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | March 31, 2022 3:35 PM |
OMG, that was Fox News link, my sincere apologies!
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | March 31, 2022 3:35 PM |
I worked at an amusement park during the summer while in college.
The park covered its bases in training people and documenting training for those workers who pushed the buttons as board operators. But still, these workers were hormonal teenagers who often flirted with each other on the job and distracted each other from their tasks. It was like being in high school again.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | March 31, 2022 3:41 PM |
A vast number of so-called "menial" yet critical things are being run by teens. Food safety, for one.
Corps love exploiting teens because they don't know or stick up for their rights, and can be scheduled part time (so no benefits like health insurance) without criticism.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | March 31, 2022 3:55 PM |
I'm addicted to these videos ...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 30 | March 31, 2022 4:27 PM |
I used to love the swing rides when I was a kid. The ones that came with the traveling carnivals and didn't lift 450 feet off the ground. It was such a nice sensation, like flying.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | March 31, 2022 6:13 PM |
His story has touched a lot of people. I don't want to MARY!!!!! but I teared up watching this.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 33 | April 1, 2022 6:44 PM |
I’m scared of roller coasters. I won’t get on them anymore, but the the last time I rode one I was terrified. And I’m not normally a fearful person. I’m pretty sure my fear stems from not trusting the operators. And, yes, it’s because of their ages and the pay scale. Some people have a fear of flying, but I always say, “Planes are operated by pilots, roller coasters are operated by carneys.”
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | April 1, 2022 7:20 PM |
You have to be a pretty sophisticated teenager to crash or otherwise tamper with a roller coaster. The "safety blocks" located throughout these rides and the lap bars/seatbelts are pretty much fool-proof. Even the older coasters have been updated to include contemporary safety features. I'm more concerned about proper, routine maintenance like checking bolts, boards, brakes, wheels, etc. Most coasters will not even "go" if someone isn't fastened in properly.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | April 1, 2022 7:33 PM |
Benjamin Crump is representing the Tyree Sampson family -
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | April 1, 2022 7:44 PM |
When people say minimum wage jobs are supposedly just for teenagers, this is what they forget- they aren't just fast food jobs. Why act surprised that belt bucklers aren't the most attentive employees?
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | April 1, 2022 11:33 PM |
The problem is not the parents or the ride operators, it's the owners of these parks cutting corners, ignoring safety protocols and hiring cheap, untrained labor at poverty wages.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | April 1, 2022 11:35 PM |
Do not ride on roller coasters or drop rides.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | April 1, 2022 11:38 PM |
Why would the parents let the kid just sit on the seatbelts instead of using them? How would the workers even see that she was sitting on them?
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | April 2, 2022 2:10 AM |
r40 it's not hard to check a seatbelt
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | April 2, 2022 11:16 AM |
I think you're okay if you stick to the big parks where rides are their main business. It's the carnivals, fairs and places that offer rides as a sideline that you have to watch out for.
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 2, 2022 12:51 PM |
Those "pop-up carnivals" scare the shit out of me!
I've always been a little intrigued by carnies, though. What a life.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | April 2, 2022 1:28 PM |
Speaking of carnies ... I've never forgotten this bizarre tale
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 46 | April 2, 2022 3:58 PM |
[quote]Stiles stopped drinking thereafter, and during this period remarried his first wife, Mary Teresa. However, he soon began drinking again and his family claimed that he became even more abusive. In 1992, Teresa, together with her son from a previous marriage, Harry Glenn Newman Jr., hired a seventeen-year-old sideshow performer named Chris Wyant to kill Stiles for $300.
I guess a carnie's life is cheap.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | April 2, 2022 4:01 PM |
In my area, the local theme park was able to get a law passed to force local school districts to start the school year later. (The school year used to begin the last week of August; now it starts after Labor Day.). This is to ensure that the park can have its workforce for another week or two at the end of summer.
If the park cannot hire enough people 16 years and older, then the park starts hiring 15-year-old kids to run the rides and the restaurants. 15 years old, not legally permitted to drive a car. Sometimes young people are imported from other countries and put up in run-down hotels and then bused to the park. Hopefully the language barrier isn't too much of an obstacle when it comes to training.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | April 2, 2022 6:04 PM |
Some part of me misses roller coasters
Or maybe I just miss my youth
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 49 | April 3, 2022 12:07 PM |
[quote]I am saying that the brain is fully capable of making this kind of decision and performing this job competently at 16.
That doesn’t guarantee a 16 year old’s brain, while being capable of this particular decision making and job performance will REMAIN undistracted, sufficiently stimulated or focused on individuals other than his or her self.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | April 3, 2022 12:23 PM |
I loved Corkscrew. I felt so brave the first time I rode it
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 54 | April 3, 2022 12:51 PM |
Raptor is my favorite roller coaster ever. Watching this POV takes me back. It is a hell of a ride.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 55 | April 3, 2022 1:03 PM |
The one that made me quit riding coaters.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 56 | April 3, 2022 2:17 PM |
Which one specifically, r56?
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | April 3, 2022 2:19 PM |
Goliath, sorry, lol. I hate to be upside down.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 59 | April 3, 2022 2:26 PM |
I remember Raptor was fun because it never really slowed down. A lot of roller coasters lose momentum about halfway through, but Raptor kept you as excited at the end as at the beginning.
Plus, for me, there was the novelty of both being suspended and going upside down. Watching the video at r55 again, I realize now there were really massive drops on it
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | April 3, 2022 4:51 PM |
I wish I'd had a chance to go on Son of Beast during my roller coaster days
Wooden coasters always felt more dangerous
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 63 | April 3, 2022 7:23 PM |
The girl in op’s pic is UGLY!
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | April 3, 2022 7:30 PM |
r66 is very similar to Raptor (r55)
| by Anonymous | reply 67 | April 3, 2022 9:36 PM |
The Top Thrill Dragster is actually one of the easiest rides to be on. It's only 16 seconds long (after the launch) so you don't have enough time to be scared. It's waiting for the launch that's nerve wracking.
| by Anonymous | reply 69 | April 3, 2022 11:49 PM |
She has a scary looking mouth
| by Anonymous | reply 71 | April 5, 2022 2:03 AM |
It made me nauseous just to watch this:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 72 | April 5, 2022 2:13 AM |
She was demonic like the girl from the exorcist
| by Anonymous | reply 73 | April 5, 2022 2:19 AM |
It goes straight up what looks like a mile. Through a dark tunnel. I am going to have nightmares from just watching this. Not. Even. At. Gunpoint.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 74 | April 5, 2022 2:21 AM |
Local and regional amusement parks are awful. In the 1970s when I was 9-11, I went to Rye Playland a lot. It is trashy now but it was trashy and wildly unsafe then.
There was a rollercoaster called the Monster Mouse and it was promoted as a milder experience compared to their Dragoncoaster. It was very old and had wooden carriages that held two people. One person sat in the back and one in the front. The person in the front leaned back between the back person’s legs. After being shoved off by the teen operator, I realized that the leather seat belt strap wouldn’t close because the buckle was broken. I asked my friend in the back to position his legs over my shoulders tightly and I held onto the sides of the carriage like my life depended on it—well, because my life depended on it. When I got off the ride, I promptly puked.
| by Anonymous | reply 75 | April 5, 2022 2:31 AM |
The Haunted Houses were death traps.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 76 | April 5, 2022 2:43 AM |
I remember being a kid visiting Geauga Lake and watching the Texas Twister. I was 10 or 11 and too scared to ride it.
Someone puked mid-ride (luckily they were in the front row) and it unsettled me that a ride could do that to someone.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 77 | April 5, 2022 10:19 AM |
I know exactly which coaster you’re talking about r75! When they removed it from Rye, they brought it to Quassy Amusement Park in CT. That was my “local” theme park. I went there all the time. It was called the Mad Mouse.
I first rode it at age 5. It was a two person ride, but my brother, best friend, and I all rode together because we were so small it was safer I guess. As the smallest, I was in front. There was a seat belt, but it wasn’t very snug.
The first turn at the top (where the cart is headed in this picture) used to scare the shit out of me. It truly felt like the cart was going to tip right off the rails. The one on the top left right before the big drop was also terrifying.
I must’ve ridden this fifty times in my life and I never felt truly safe, but kept riding anyway, lol. Dumb kid I guess.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 78 | April 5, 2022 2:08 PM |
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't get the appeal of rides like the Orlando Free Fall that are over in seconds. Yes, there is a lot of fear/anxiety, but I'm not sure dropping 400+ feet is a good enough payoff.
Roller coasters are pleasurable (or they were in my youth) because every one is different: a novel experience. A different track, and different sensations. The thrill and the pleasure of riding perfectly counterbalanced the fear.
| by Anonymous | reply 79 | April 5, 2022 4:09 PM |
My mother use to ask me why I would stand in a long, hot line for over an hour to ride a two minute ride, lol.
| by Anonymous | reply 80 | April 5, 2022 4:12 PM |
Lol it seemed worth it when I was a kid r80
And those two minutes felt like forever
| by Anonymous | reply 81 | April 5, 2022 11:03 PM |
R81- Ah, so true. I do miss those fun, innocent days when we were fearless kids. It took so little to make us happy. Of course I can hear my mother now. " Little?! You call spending all day at Six Flags a little event?" Because I am sure it wasn't a minor little adventure for her, lol.
| by Anonymous | reply 82 | April 6, 2022 12:02 AM |
The power tower at cedar point was the ride that put me off tall coasters. It was similar to the ride the poor teenage boy just fell from. You sit in a chair, are lifted to godkows how many feet in the air just to free dangle for like 13 seconds before a sudden drop. It was a sheer death terror; nothing exhilarating about it. It shook the fuck out of me and was my last tall ride.
| by Anonymous | reply 83 | April 6, 2022 12:18 AM |
Who…the fuck…wants to put the fear of death in their six year old by making them ride this ride!?!? Why does 70% of the population even have children!?!? This is horrifying.
| by Anonymous | reply 84 | April 6, 2022 12:21 AM |
R84 here. Maybe its the adderall kicking in but I can’t get over the horrific death this little girl suffered. My god. She was scared to death on a tall ride, and then death came true for her. Im tripping out.
| by Anonymous | reply 85 | April 6, 2022 12:23 AM |
r83 I was a sophomore in high school when Millennium Force opened at Cedar Point. During our class trip that spring, I decided not to ride it (the wait was ungodly), but one of my friends did and he blacked out on it.
| by Anonymous | reply 86 | April 6, 2022 12:39 AM |
She was a little cutie. Reminds me of my niece, about the same age.
| by Anonymous | reply 87 | April 6, 2022 12:44 AM |
She was a little cutie. Reminds me of my niece, about the same age.
| by Anonymous | reply 88 | April 6, 2022 12:45 AM |
Sorry, R86, but Millennium Force is the best ride ever! Yes, it's tall and fast, but it's smooth as butter.
| by Anonymous | reply 89 | April 6, 2022 12:48 AM |
Stop, r89!! You're making my 16-year-old-self regret not riding it!
| by Anonymous | reply 90 | April 6, 2022 12:49 AM |
R86 I have not touched that ride. Too much! Its insane to see a ride like that IRL. Never. Your friend is lucky he didn’t break his neck!
| by Anonymous | reply 91 | April 6, 2022 12:52 AM |
She looks like North West
| by Anonymous | reply 92 | April 6, 2022 12:53 AM |
POV: the infamous Crystal Beach Cyclone
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 93 | April 9, 2022 1:31 PM |
An update on the story from Orlando
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 94 | April 24, 2022 4:57 PM |
