DA to Decide Whether to Prosecute Operator of Terminal Velocity Ride That Left Girl Paralyzed
DA to decide whether to prosecute operator of Terminal Velocity ride.
Aug. 5, 2010— -- Prosecutors are expected to receive a police report today on an amusement park thrill ride that went terribly wrong and left a 12-year-old girl unable to breathe on her own and able to communicate only by blinking her eyes.
The probe by the Lake Delton police in Wisconsin is meant to detemine whether there was a mechanical malfunction or whether operator error caused Teagan Marti to plummet 100 feet to the ground on the Extreme World's Terminal Velocity ride.
The Sauk County district attorney will decide if charges will be filed. The names of the ride operators have not been released, and it's not clear whether the police report will be made public.
Doctors treating Teagan are also preparing for spinal surgery to fuse the multiple fractures through her back and neck. The surgery is scheduled for Monday.
For the girl's father, who was videotaping Teagan at the moment she fell, that she is even alive at all is amazing.
Dr. Alex Marti's camera was rolling as Teagan was raised 100 feet in the air for the Terminal Velocity rideat Extreme World in Wisconsin Dells.
When the ride is operating properly, passengers are taken up to 140 feet in a metal cage. The floor opens up and the rider is lowered through the floor in a harness, then suddenly released for a thrilling free fall.
Marti's father, however, saw her plummet to the ground, but the safety net designed to catch riders was not raised. Instead, she landed on the ground, where the net had remained in error.
The family's attorney, Stuart Grossman of Boca Raton, Fla., said Teagan is not in a coma, but is using a tube to aid her breathing, which prevents her from speaking.
"She blinks when she wants to communicate," Grossman told ABCNews.com.
The family is staying with Teagan at the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison.
Grossman said that no one knows what the long term damage will be.
"There is an extremely high probability that she wil be paralyzed at some level," her father Alex Marti said earlier this week.
While the family copes with the tragedy, authorities are investigating the incident to find out the cause of the accident. An initial accident report that Bill Anderson, the owner of Extreme World, filed with state authorities implied that operator error was the cause of the accident.
"Teagan was released by the ride operator before the net was raised to its proper height. Protocol was not followed," the report said.
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