The 6-year-old girl who died after sliding out of her seat at the Haunted Mine Drop ride at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Colorado in early September had not been properly strapped in, according to a Colorado state investigation. Wongel Estifanos died when she was ejected from the ride on Sept. 5. The ride, which plummets into a dark mine shaft, was allowed to operate despite a monitor system that alerted attendants to a seat belt safety issue. Investigators say that Estifanos sat on top of two latched seat belts that had not been undone after the previous ride and was only holding on to the safety bar when the ride plunged. An alarm alerted attendants that the safety belts in Estifanos’ seat had not been unbuckled after the previous ride, which is a system meant to avert people accidentally sitting on the belts, but a technician manually overrode the system rather than checking the seat, the investigation found. The child was holding on to a part of the strap she was sitting on but a ride operator “did not notice that the seat belts were not positioned across her lap,” according to the report. “Because Ms. Estifanos was not restrained in the seat she became separated from her seat and fell to the bottom of the [Haunted Mine Drop] shaft, resulting in her death.”
