Lawsuit Filed Against Six Flags Over Texas, By Family Of Woman Who Fatally Fell From Roller Coaster
Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, in Arlington, Texas, features the Texas Giant, a 152 foot roller coaster. The Texas Giant is presently considered the world’s tallest steel-wood hybrid roller coaster. The park website notes that this ride features “the steepest drop of any wooden coaster at 79 degrees” and “a record-breaking bank of 95 degrees”.
On July 19, 2013, as 52-year-old Rosa Esparza was attending the park, she decided to ride the Texas Giant with her daughter and son-in-law. However, the ride went horribly wrong when Rosa slipped out of her seat and fell to her death, as her daughter and son-in-law watched in horror.
On Tuesday, Rosa’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the amusement park company. The lawsuit alleges that: there were red flags during post-accident inspections, there were inconsistencies in the locking positions of safety bars on the ride, and there were inconsistencies and failures in the green light system that signals to ride operators that the safety bars are properly in place.
Coincidence or not, on the same day that the lawsuit was filed, Six Flags Over Texas announced that the roller coaster would reopen this weekend. While at the time of the accident the sole restraint was a lap bar, the ride will now possess new seat belts and redesigned restraint bar pads. The amusement park company claims, that its investigation determined, the ride experienced no mechanical failure. The company further stated that people with “unique body shapes or sizes” may not fit into the ride seat. In order to address this issue in the future, the ride will now offer a sample roller coaster seat in the ride line, to permit riders to judge for themselves whether they can properly fit within the seat, prior to boarding the ride.
If you need a wrongful death lawyer in Chicago, please call the law firm of Cary J. Wintroub & Associates, at 312-726-1021, to learn how we can help you!
For more information concerning this story see:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/flags-texas-witnesses-shocked-roller-coaster-death/story?id=19721888
http://www.sixflags.com/overTexas/rides/TexasGiant.aspx
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-dies-flags-roller-coaster-texas-article-1.1404147
