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Boy severely injured in 2000 on Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin at Disneyland dies

The boy who was severely injured in 2000 on Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin at Disneyland has died. At this point it is unclear if there is any direct correlation, but the child suffered severe brain damage from the accident. Everyone at The Disney Blog sends our condolences to his family.

The cause of this tragedy and Disney’s culpability may still be debated in some circles, but it did come during a sad streak of safety and maintenance related accidents and deaths that began during the regime of Paul Pressler as President of Disneyland. Prior to those deaths, no death had ever occurred at Disneyland that was not in someway the guest’s fault.

At Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin Disneyland Cast Members were found to have improperly placed the child to the exterior of the ride vehicle, which at the time did not have doors that closed, just a lapbar. To be fair, the pressure from management on Cast Members at the time was more focused on guest volume than safety. Now the attraction has a whole new ride vehicle with doors that must be latched shut before the ride vehicle can be dispatched. No more inside and outside seating.

Another innovation that came from this tragic accident was the widespread use of ‘Stop Mats’, which are weight sensitive mats placed along side the track of attractions with moving vehicles, at Disney’s theme parks. When the Stop Mats sense a certain amount of weight on them, the attraction automatically executes an emergency stop or “E-stop” (or, in certain cases, triggers an alarm).

A Stop Mat system could have prevented some or all of the injury in the Roger Rabbit case and likely has prevented similar injuries since its been implemented. If you look carefully at the floor in many Disney theme park attractions you will now notice these mats nearly everywhere. All in all a good thing for Disney to have implemented, even if it sprang from tragedy.

(via the LA Times)

6 thoughts on “Boy severely injured in 2000 on Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin at Disneyland dies”

  1. The stop mats are an ingenious idea in my opinion, but people who know they exist and are into mischief have used them for their own enjoyment and the annoyance of park guests. But, I wouldn’t want to see them go away

  2. I’m curious.. When this accident occurred, I heard that the ride operators had placed the child toward the interior of the ride and that there was security footage of the mother moving him after the ride had already begun. That of course does not negate the fact that what happened is an awful tragedy. I was just wondering if that was just a rumor, or if there was any truth behind it.

    1. Very Very true, I completely agree. They should have stopped the ride no matter what. It just bothers me.. rules are in place for a reason and some people just refuse to follow them! And as sad as it is, sometimes there are tragic consequences.

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