A Texan woman suffered a brain injury and collapsed lung after allegedly being thrown from a rollercoaster and dragged along its track for almost half a minute.
Nicki Parker, 60, is said to have remained attached to the moving cart by her seatbelt as it pulled her down the Rocky Mountain Coaster in Colorado.
Her lawyer claims that the ride continued even though she was no longer in her seat.
Parker was riding the rollercoaster at Copper Mountain Resort when the alleged incident happened on August 17. It’s reported that she was then thrown out as the cart rounded a bend.
Her seatbelt remained fastened but became wrapped around her, according to her attorney Trent Ongert. He said that Parker was dragged along the track for somewhere between 20 and 30 seconds.
‘It was actually wrapped around her and pulled her, and she was dragged along the track as it went down,’ Ongert told Colorado’s KDVR News.
Parker suffered a traumatic brain injury and a broken rib that punctured and collapsed her lung, her legal representatives said. She also dislocated a shoulder that required surgery and sustained several cuts.
Her husband was riding in the cart behind her and is said to have witnessed everything that happened. He then says he had to reach Parker as she lay on a section of track raised high above the ground.
‘She was lying on the track. He then had to get her out because there was nobody, no way to get to her,’ Ongert said. ‘They’re about 15 to 20 feet off the ground.’
Parker remained in hospital 10 days later and was expected to require further treatment, according to her lawyer.
The full circumstances that led to her allegedly leaving the cart have yet to be established.
A sign at the attraction reportedly tells riders that their cart will stop and beep if a seat belt becomes disconnected. Ongert claims that Parker’s cart instead continued moving after she was thrown from her seat.
‘That’s how we know that never occurred,’ he said. ‘Her car actually continued on even after she was thrown from it.’
Copper Mountain Resort said that its patrol team found Parker sitting in the cart with the belt fastened when they reached her. Its statement, reported by KDVR, doesn’t explain how she came to be back inside it.
‘On Monday, Aug. 17, Copper Mountain Patrol responded to an incident involving a guest on the Rocky Mountain Coaster,’ the resort said. ‘When members of patrol arrived, the guest was seated in the cart with their seatbelt fastened.’
Patrol staff helped Parker return to the bottom of the attraction, where her care was transferred to Summit Fire and EMS. Copper Mountain said that it was cooperating with state officials and the coaster’s manufacturer.
The ride remains closed while Colorado’s Division of Oil and Public Safety investigates exactly what happened.
The manufacturer has also been told that it must publish a safety bulletin and share it with every affected operator.
A similar attraction at Purgatory Resort in Colorado has reportedly also been closed pending the investigation’s outcome. Documents relating to the incident won’t be made public until that inquiry has finished.
The Rocky Mountain Coaster stretches for 5,800ft and is billed by Copper Mountain as the second-longest alpine coaster in the whole of North America.
It’ll remain closed while officials try to establish why Parker apparently left her seat and why the cart kept moving after she did so.
‘Our thoughts are with the guest, and we wish them a speedy recovery,’ Copper Mountain said in a statement.
MORE: Hackers sell scans of 153,000,000 US driving licences – and drivers here could be next
MORE: US student takes own life after being forced to wear ICE ankle monitor
MORE: Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer makes stark admission about potential second trial with jury deadlocked