Originally Posted By MPierce By Anika Myers Palm and David Breen, Orlando Sentinel 9:31 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2011 Walt Disney World shut down its popular Space Mountain attraction for inspections Saturday after a woman was found unconscious at the end of the ride. It was unclear whether the ride would reopen for Magic Kingdom guests today. The 48-year-old woman fell unconscious about 9a.m., according to Andrea Finger, a Disney spokeswoman. Reedy Creek Fire Rescue, which handles medical emergencies for Disney's parks, transported her to Dr. P. Phillips Hospital on Turkey Lake Road. According to Assistant Chief Bo Jones, the woman was unconscious but had a pulse and was breathing on her own when transported. Her name and condition were not released. "Our thoughts and concerns are with the guest and her family," Finger said. "We have sent a representative to the hospital to assist them with their needs." The representative had left the hospital by late afternoon, according to hospital staff. Disney technicians must complete an inspection of the ride before it is reopened to guests. The iconic indoor roller-coaster ride opened at Walt Disney World in 1975. Space Mountain also can be found at Disney's other parks in California, Japan, France and Hong Kong. Guests waiting to board are warned that they should be "in good health and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness or other conditions that could be aggravated by this adventure." In previous years, three guests have died at the Florida park after falling unconscious on the ride or soon after riding it. All three had pre-existing health conditions. •An 11-year-old girl from Brazil died on Christmas 2004 after "throwing up and passing out" while standing in line for the ride, according to a report at the time from the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The girl had previously ridden the ride three times and was waiting to ride it a fourth time. She had respiratory and pulmonary health problems, according to the Sheriff's Office. •A terminally ill 6-year-old boy from Israel fainted after riding Space Mountain on Aug.1, 2006. He died that night, with cancer cited as the cause. •A 73-year-old man died in January 2007, three days after he had lost consciousness on the ride. The man's death was attributed to a heart condition. <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-space-mountain-accident-20110521,0,2021396.story" target="_blank">http://www.orlandosentinel.com...96.story</a>
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer My best thoughts to the woman and her family.... ...but... Is this news? Things like this happen all the time. The only reason we know about it is that Disney is always focused on in the media. Last week, the same thing happened at IoA with Potter. But you don't see that plastered all over the news.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Yea, it really is ridiculous we have to hear about every incident like this.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 You do NOT hear about the vast majority of incidents at WDW (or any of the other parks) on a daily basis, even when people die. You tend to hear about them when they are on a high profile ride or when the guest is generally younger. There is nothing wrong with this being a story. Hopefully, this will have a happy ending for the woman and her family.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Yea, it really is ridiculous we have to hear about every incident like this.>> It's the Sentinel! They have to fill their pages/website with something. It never ceases to amaze me how the Tribune Co. have allowed them to continue to operate as if they are a major newspaper - I don't think they shift more than 250k daily - including hotel circulations.
Originally Posted By MPierce Is this news? Things like this happen >> all the time. The only reason we know about it is that Disney is always focused on in the media. Last week, the same thing happened at IoA with Potter. But you don't see that plastered all over the news. << >> Yea, it really is ridiculous we have to hear about every incident like this. << This is a discussion forum that discusses things related to WDW. Space Mountain is closed down because of an unfortunate medical issue with this poor woman. It would be irresponsible not to publish such incidents.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> It's the Sentinel! They have to fill their pages/website with something. It never ceases to amaze me how the Tribune Co. have allowed them to continue to operate as if they are a major newspaper - I don't think they shift more than 250k daily - including hotel circulations. << Newspapers are a dying breed in the USA,
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<This is a discussion forum that discusses things related to WDW. Space Mountain is closed down because of an unfortunate medical issue with this poor woman. It would be irresponsible not to publish such incidents.>> Not saying you shouldn't have posted it. I'm saying there's no real reason for the Slantinel to report it.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Not saying you shouldn't have posted it. I'm saying there's no real reason for the Slantinel to report it. << That was the point. They print reviews of Disney all the time. Both the good, and the bad. All of them are not necessarily news worthy. Still WDW is the biggest thing in the greater Orlando area. It's news when anything happens at WDW in Orlando, and on Disney websites. This may or may not make national news, but it still is a legitimate story.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper I don't agree. If she died, or if it was the ride's fault I would understand. As is this is a complete non-story. People passed out on the Jungle Cruise because of the heat. Never seen a story on one of them.
Originally Posted By MPierce It's pretty hard to pass out from the heat inside Space Mountain. When people pass out on the JC from the heat, do they close the ride down?
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost No, they don't because it was witnessed on JC. Other people are close by and usually can be pretty accurate about what happened. Space Mountain is a dark ride..If a person gets on the ride looking healthy or at least healthy enough to get on it, and when it returns they find someone that isn't conscious, well they have to find out what the problem was before they can safely let someone else on. That's what makes it news. There aren't many rides where people are basically alone, SM is one of them. It is news worthy in that the ride had to be closed. What if it were a piece of the ride that worked itself loose and hit the woman? Wouldn't you want them to check out all possibilities before they reopened it? There is nothing inherently wrong with SM that would cause too much concern. It's the unknown that makes it special. I see nothing wrong with publishing the story. You read about deaths in cars or unexpected deaths of people walking along the street. Why not this?
Originally Posted By leobloom >> There aren't many rides where people are basically alone, SM is one of them. << There aren't? Seems most are like that.
Originally Posted By leobloom Since Disney wants all the publicity they can get, they have to take the bad with the good. They put the big target on themselves. This kind of minor story is the consequence of that.
Originally Posted By Scutr Pierce is right, this is a legitimate news story and this is an appropriate place for discussing it. It's a shame when Space Mt. gets viewed as a dangerous ride as, IMO, it is one of the mildest rollercoasters I've ever been on. (but also my favorite) We all know that whenever something bad happens to the famous, it makes big news. And as corporations go, they don't get much more famous than Disney. Someone passing out from the heat is boring, someone passing out on a rollercoaster, ANY rollercoaster, is a news story just begging to get blown all out of proportion.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Pierce is right, this is a legitimate news story and this is an appropriate place for discussing it. It's a shame when Space Mt. gets viewed as a dangerous ride as, IMO, it is one of the mildest rollercoasters I've ever been on. (but also my favorite) We all know that whenever something bad happens to the famous, it makes big news. And as corporations go, they don't get much more famous than Disney. Someone passing out from the heat is boring, someone passing out on a rollercoaster, ANY rollercoaster, is a news story just begging to get blown all out of proportion. << We could then get into the aspects of will the woman or her family sue Disney. You just can't predict human nature or the specific cause of a tradgedy until it has been investigated. I think the Sentinel made it clear that previous deaths similar to this incident were involving previous conditions. So I think the story has been covered fairly.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 This likely was yet again a result of some condition or illness that may have been exacerbated by riding Space Mtn but wasn't caused by it. That said, that ride can do damage. It is rough as hell and for 4-5 days after my last of two rides a few weeks ago I had some major soreness in my lower abdomen (like where the lap bar was) and was quite thankful the ride didn't tear any muscles or the like ... I doubt I'll be riding it again in the near future. Pain isn't fun.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 It never ceases to amaze me how the Tribune Co. have allowed them to continue to operate as if they are a major newspaper - I don't think they shift more than 250k daily - including hotel circulations. --- Lee, when I was younger the Tribune was THE paper of 3 ( at that time in Chicago )- today it is really a piece of garbage.. financial concerns have taken a major toll to where even the Sun Times has better news coverage than the Trb... likely why they don't care that the Sentinel does what they do
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>There aren't? Seems most are like that.<<< OK, how many others are single rider. Where no one sits next to you. Now I realize, because I do this myself, I may ride in a vehicle alone, like HM or, to a lesser degree, SSE, but truthfully, I can't think of any others that don't have a lot of people within sight.
