A recent death at Six Flags Over Georgia has put rollercoaster safety back in the spotlight, and it has brought renewed attention to an older tragedy at another Six Flags park. In July 2013, a woman fell 75 feet to her death from one of the best-known rides in Texas, while her own family rode in the car just ahead of her.
A first visit that ended in tragedy
Rosa Ayala-Gaona Esparza, 52, was riding the Texas Giant at Six Flags in Texas when the accident happened. It was her first time at the amusement park. She sat alone in the second car, directly behind her daughter and son-in-law.
The ride had barely begun when her daughter turned around. She saw her mother tipped almost upside down, with her head close to the floor of the car and her feet raised almost straight up.
During the ride’s third climb, Esparza was thrown from the car and disappeared from view. Nobody on the train could reach her.
The search below the track
Firefighters spent hours looking for her. Her body was eventually found resting on the roof of a tunnel that covers a lower section of the track.
A 20-page report from the Arlington Police Department described the scene in distressing detail. It said she lay partly wrapped around a support beam on the tunnel roof, and that traces of blood and tissue were spread across an area of roughly 75 feet below the spot where she came to rest.
What people nearby saw
A witness named Carmen Brown told WFAA that she watched the woman fall. She raised her hand to show how the train climbed, then described what came next. "Then when it drops to come down that’s when it released and she just tumbled," she said, adding that she thought, "That could have been me, because I don’t do rollercoasters."
John Putman had stood in the queue directly behind Esparza for an hour. He said she, her daughter and her son-in-law had been "laughing and talking" the whole time. He did not see the fall himself.
His wife remembered the moment the train rolled back into the loading station. Esparza’s son-in-law was clearly in shock and kept saying, "She fell! she fell!" The family were reportedly shouting that they had to go and get her.
How the case ended
Esparza’s family took legal action against Six Flags and the German company that made the ride. The case was settled in late 2014, and the amount was never made public.
Six Flags put out a statement at the time confirming that all sides had reached an agreement. A lawyer for the ride manufacturer said the settlement included a payment to the family, but that it came with no admission of liability.
The Texas Giant story has returned to the news only because of the new death in Georgia. For many readers it serves as a stark reminder that, however routine a day at a theme park may feel, the rides carry real risks.
Image credit: Fox 4
Source: Daily Express US
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