The thoughts and sympathies of ourselves along with all Disney fans and theme park visitors will be with the family and friends of the teenager today, along with the Cast Members attending the attraction during this unfortunate event.
The news has been reported this morning on several French television and news networks, with BBC News Online providing the following brief report:
Teenager dies at Disneyland Paris
French police are investigating the mysterious death of a 14-year-old girl who lost consciousness while riding on a roller coaster at Disneyland Paris.
The Spanish teenager’s friends noticed she was unconscious when the RockNRoller Coaster ride had stopped. Medical teams at the theme park tried to revive her but by the time an ambulance arrived, the girl had died.
A preliminary inspection of the roller coaster found no machinery malfunction, but the ride remains closed. Disneyland spokesman Pieter Boterman said the ride would not reopen until the cause of the girl’s death was determined.
The ride is at the Walt Disney Studios Park in Marne-la-Vallee, east of the French capital.
A postmortem is being held today to determine the exact cause of death. As reported, an inspection of the roller coaster yesterday found no faults or malfunctions. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster remains one of the most intense of all Disney’s attractions at its five themed resorts, pulling up to 5Gs of force through its 1037 metre layout and 3 inversions.
The attraction first opened at Disney-MGM Studios Florida (Walt Disney World) in July 1999 and this near-identical design at Walt Disney Studios Park (Paris) in March 2002, featuring a duplicated ride layout with an alternate theme applied on top. It is not known if any action will be taken at Walt Disney World today following this news. Followers of Disney park news worldwide may recall similar events at Walt Disney World itself, where rides have triggered medical problems in at least two guests – the most related, a 12 year old boy almost one year ago.
Whilst no ramifications could possibly outweigh the tragedy of this event itself, from an operational point of view it comes at an unfortunate time for the park and resort, in the middle of its 15th Anniversary Celebration and currently welcoming more guests than ever through the gates of Walt Disney Studios Park following the opening of its two new attractions. What could be considered the “sister” attraction of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster – Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Park – is also currently closed for a brief period during the routine bi-annual replacement of its launch cables.
We’ll bring you more updates on this story as soon as any news breaks.
