The possibilities of what could have happened are unimaginable.
Delbert Latham was with his six-year-old son Kaysen on a rollercoaster in Wonderland Park, Amarillo, Texas. Latham began filming the two on his phone as they approached a drop in the mousetrap ride. Latham spoke to
Latham spoke to ABC about what happened next.
“As soon as we went over, I felt the seat-belt release.
“I guess the motion of it going down threw him to the bottom of the cart.”
Luckily, Latham reacted in an instant and grabbed the child as he fell.
“As we were going down, it threw him into the bottom of the cart and that’s when you see me reach over to grab him and honestly when all of that started to happen, I didn’t even realise I was video-ing it anymore.”
He posted the video to Facebook as a warning to fellow parents.
“Scary moment for the Latham family tonight at #Wonderland our seatbelt came apart on the mousetrap and Kaysen slid to the bottom of the floor board and I had to grab him and pull him back up and hold him for the rest of the ride.
“What makes it worse is when I told the guy at the end of the ride he stated that he knew that had happened sometimes!
“Really it’s already happens and you continue to let people ride??!!
“And after this they continued to let people ride they just didn’t let anyone in the back seat!
“Please feel free to share and let people know how this place is being ran!”
The amusement park released a statement about the incident:
“Wonderland Amusement Park has taken great strides over the past 65 years to ensure the safety of our visitors at all times, therefore we were extremely concerned to hear about the experience of Mr. Latham and his six-year-old son over the weekend. The seatbelt in the last car on the Mouse Trap roller coaster reportedly came loose creating a very scary situation for the family.
“Mr. Latham immediately informed the ride operator, found a member of management and reached out through a private social media message. We appreciate his diligence in quickly bringing this to our attention. Wonderland immediately reached back out to Mr. Latham the evening it happened and promptly removed the back cart from the ride and ensured all other seatbelts were in proper working order. The Mouse Trap was back in full operation on Saturday.
This particular ride was originally built without seatbelts, but Wonderland later added belts as an extra safety measure. The Park’s Safety and Maintenance Team is tasked with conducting daily inspections on every Park ride to ensure the safety of Park goers.”
