Six Flags Over Texas will keep the Texas Giant roller closer closed while authorities investigate the fatal fall of a woman on Friday evening.
Park officials offered their condolences to the woman’s family as investigators began to study the cause of the accident, which occurred after 6:30 p.m. Although the ride was closed, the park did remain open through the evening.
The early thoughts are that the woman’s safety restraint may have come undone.
As the Dallas Morning News reported:
Carmen Brown of Arlington was waiting in line as the victim was being secured in for the ride. She said she believed that the woman’s son was on the ride with her.
Brown said the woman had expressed concern to a park employee that she was not secured correctly in her seat.
“He was basically nonchalant,” Brown said. “He was, like, ‘As long as you heard it click, you’re fine.’ Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn’t feel safe. But they let her still get on the ride.”
She said the victim fell out of the ride as it made a sudden maneuver.
“The lady basically tumbled over,” she said. “We heard her screaming. We were, like, ‘Did she just fall?’”
Investigators were interviewing witnesses on the ride, some of whom reported that the woman had been thrown from the roller coaster as it rounded a turn. Arlington police declined to comment on the accident.
The woman is believed to have been on the ride with at-least one child.
Another park guest says he heard people screaming, “‘My mom! My mom! Let us out, we need to go get her!’”
The Texas Giant opened in 1990 as the world’s tallest wooden roller coaster but was closed in November 2009 to convert it to a steel-and-wood hybrid. The ride reaches 65 mph.
