are the parks safe

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Stephanie Wien, staff writer (Send an email)

In the January 8, 2007 Walt Disney World Park Update, Mark Goldhaber reported on the recent incident at Walt Disney World involving an alleged assault by Tigger on a teenage boy. This incident has garnered much response in the Disney community, including a great deal of letters to the MousePlanet mailbag. A selection of these letters is presented below.

Eric writes:

I just read the most recent update on your Web site and also heard the family is suing Disney because of the attack. My opinion is simply this... I have two kids, and if I ever felt they were being attacked or hit in anyway, I wouldn%26#39;t simply stand there and continue to videotape as this father did. If any father felt his child was being hurt, they would have intervened. Not only that, imagine the teasing this dad is setting up for his son ';You got beat up by Tigger, watch out, I hear Snow White has a nasty uppercut.';

are the parks safe

Frankly, I%26#39;d watch out for Peter Pan. He%26#39;s the loose cannon if you want my opinion.

are the parks safe

Didn%26#39;t seen the video, but from what I%26#39;ve heard, it sounded like Tigger was the one getting attacked initially.

I saw the video. And the TV interview. The kid was very obviously parrotting what his dad told him to say- not language a teen would use at all.

I%26#39;m on Tigger%26#39;s side. Tigger is a spontaneous creature! It%26#39;s those big mouse ears you have to look out for- especially if you are in the 5%26#39;3';-5%26#39;7%26#39; range- you could get taken out by one of those things with an errant head turn! :)

I agree!! Everything I%26#39;ve seen and heard leads me to believe that the 14 year old was the instigator!

It is sad that people are so willing to do anything to get money. For the father to parade his son around claiming to be beat up by Tigger is just low! I saw the video as I guess most have and Tigger didn%26#39;t beat anyone up. I love the point about how the father continued video taping. If I thought my child was being hurt I would drop the video camera and save my child at all cost.

HA HA HA......Suing Disney, thats funny.

Yeah, they got a prayer. I am sure they have about 500 corperate lawyers just waiting for them.

I read something once that said that they have yet to lose a lawsuit brought against them at DisneyWorld.

Disney makes accidental death lawsuit go away

Disney has settled out of court with the family of a woman who died 2 months after experiencing the Indiana Jones Adventure and claiming to have injured her head/brain during the ride. Disney, of course, admits no wrong doing (despite the fact that they changed some aspects of the attraction after the death was reported).

Alas this settlement was too late to prevent Disneyland from being held to a new standard of care by California Courts. Disneyland attractions must now meet the same standards of care as a city bus. Which strikes me as a pretty loose standard (afterall there are no seatbelts on the bus and it can travel at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour). But what it doesn%26#39;t do is bounce, jar, spin, or contort. So I don%26#39;t know what Disney will do about some it%26#39;s attractions that do just that. Does adding a seatbelt/restraint meet the new standard of care? After all that%26#39;s more than a city bus would do.

One year after a 4-year-old Pennsylvania boy died after riding Epcot%26#39;s Mission: Space simulator ride, his family has sued Walt Disney World for wrongful death.

The family of Daudi Bamuwamye sued the company Tuesday in Orange County Circuit Court seeking unspecified damages. The suit says company officials did not adequately warn the public of the ride%26#39;s hazards, should never have allowed a boy so small onto the ride and didn%26#39;t do enough to help him when he got off the ride stricken.

In May, Disney revised the ride to also offer a ';lite'; version that does not include centrifugal force. But the company has always maintained, and still insists, that the original version is safe.

A Disney spokeswoman denied all the assertions in the suit Tuesday and offered the family sympathy.

While on vacation, Daudi, his sister Ruth and their mother rode Mission: Space on June 13, 2005. During the ride, Agnes Bamuwamye saw her son tense up, scream and then become unresponsive. When the ride ended, paramedics and later doctors at Florida Hospital Celebration were unable to resuscitate him.

An autopsy by Dr. Jan. C. Garavaglia, chief medical examiner for the district that includes Orange and Osceola counties, found that Daudi died of a heart attack caused by a rare, previously undiagnosed heart disease that gave him an enlarged heart flawed with scar tissue.