A state company tasked with inspecting theme park rides discovered no operational points with Tiana’s Bayou Journey after a 13-year-old climbed out of the Disneyland log flume journey and fell 50 ft over the weekend.
California’s Division of Occupational Security and Well being’s Amusement Journey & Tramway Unit inspected the attraction after the incident, which occurred Sunday at about 6 p.m., and authorised it to reopen, in response to the company and Disneyland officers.
Disneyland officers mentioned the teenager climbed out of the boat within the flume, or channel, that takes visitors by means of Tiana’s Bayou Journey earlier than the journey was over.
Dramatic video footage obtained by TMZ exhibits the boy falling headfirst down the journey’s 50-foot-tall waterfall simply behind the flume that he had exited. Disneyland staff instantly stopped the journey, which remained closed till Monday. The boy was taken to an area hospital and was later launched, park officers mentioned.
It isn’t clear why the teenager tried to exit the journey early.
But it surely’s not the primary time somebody has scurried from a log-flume-style attraction at a theme park.
In 2000, a 37-year-old man died after he climbed out of a log flume on the Splash Mountain journey on the Magic Kingdom in Florida and was struck by one other passenger boat.
Disneyland officers didn’t reply questions despatched through e-mail from The Occasions about whether or not the theme park is contemplating including extra security measures to Tiana’s Bayou Journey.
The journey, which for years was often known as Splash Mountain, was reimagined in 2024, impressed by the movie “The Princess and the Frog.” The logs, which carry visitors by means of the attraction, shouldn’t have security belts or lap bars.
The shortage of security harnesses is typical of log flume rides due to the chance of the boats overturning within the water and trapping visitors, mentioned Brian Avery, who focuses on operational security, threat administration and amusement journey security.
“Individuals have gotten out earlier than,” he mentioned. “Oftentimes they get out in a panic, generally they simply don’t course of what’s occurring or there’s a cognitive situation or behavioral issue. However the perception has at all times been that it’s much less seemingly somebody goes to undergo a extreme harm because of leaving the log flume.”
It’s unclear whether or not the 13-year-old was injured Sunday. Park officers mentioned “as a precaution” he was “evaluated at an area hospital and launched.”
Avery mentioned the incident may spur extra security measures on the journey. He’s lengthy advocated for lap belts or security harnesses on theme park rides. However one other different could possibly be having an attendant on the high of the raise hill monitoring every rider to make sure they’ll intervene if it seems like somebody is making an attempt to get out of the vessel.
“I do suppose everybody concerned, at a minimal, must replicate and reevaluate what must be carried out transferring ahead to stop some of these incidents,” he mentioned.
