Who was Wongel Estifanos ?

Wongel Estifanos was with his extended family at Glenwood Caverns amusement park in Glenwood Springs when he went off the ride and fell off the shaft of the free fall ride.

She was photographed by the organizers of a GoFundMe page, who are aiming to raise $ 50,000 to cover “the cost of the funeral and other family expenses at this difficult time.”

“Wongel was a beautiful, loving and joyful girl who loves Jesus so much for a six-year-old boy,” the organizers disclosed at the fundraiser. “His life of hers was cut short in this tragic accident.”

“We want the entire community to support the family during an unthinkable loss,” the post continued. “We understand that nothing will bring her back, but we don’t want this to be an additional burden on the parents.”

Wongel was a student at Stetson Elementary School in Colorado Springs, KRDO reported.

How old was Wongel Estifanos ?

She was 6 year old.

Investigation

Park General Manager Nancy Heard told CBS Denver on Monday: ‘On the night of September 5, a fatality occurred at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. An investigation is ongoing.

“ We are deeply saddened and ask that you keep the family of the deceased in his thoughts and prayers.

“Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park will be closed Monday, September 6 and Tuesday, September 7.”

The park will reopen on Saturday, but the ride will be closed pending an investigation.

Wongel Estifanos was with her extended family at Glenwood Caverns Amusement

The haunted mine fall that Wongel somehow fell out of first opened in 2017, and was specifically designed with no shoulder restraints to make the dramatic fall ‘a little more terrifying,’ stated its designer, Stan. Checketts, to KDVR when the attraction first opened.

However, days after Sunday’s incident, details on the details of the accident are still scarce.

Questions were being asked about how a young child was allowed to ride the ride, which was created to provide a wild experience. The investigation, conducted by the Glenwood County Sheriff’s Office, will take weeks, and a report will not be ready for months, authorities told CBS.

The park was closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and will not reopen until Saturday.

Previous visitors to the attraction claimed that the seat belts on the ride were not tight enough, leaving them fearful for their safety.

“ I rode on that ride in June and the young woman running it didn’t seem to know what she was doing, ” cyclist Sarah Akard wrote on Facebook.

‘My seat belt wasn’t tight and I felt like I was exiting the ride.

I tried to tell them, but they started walking. I am grateful that I was able to hold back. Prayers to the family and those who traveled. ‘

Checketts, the attraction’s designer, initially told KDVR that they made the decision to omit the shoulder restraints from his design to make it “a little more exciting.”

Stan Checketts, who designed the ride in 2017, said they deliberately

He added: “Usually as a rule of thumb, on every ride that I have designed with my team and built with my team, I am the first to ride it.”

In this particular case, that is not true. It’s very unusual for me to be here and not even have ridden it yet and everyone can do it before me. ‘

Checketts created and later sold S&S Sansei, one of the world’s largest amusement design manufacturers.

The company has around 150 tower descent attractions internationally, most recently in China.

Josh Hays, the company’s director of sales and marketing, said they all have shoulder straps.

He told The Denver Post that the Haunted Mine Drop, which Checketts designed after he sold and left S&S and was built by his company, Soaring Eagle Zipline in Utah, uses a different design.

He explained that the Haunted Mine Drop is a free-fall ride, while his company’s tower descents are powered by tires.

“All of our towers have shoulder straps,” Hays said.

“When it comes to safety, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel when we have a design that works really well.”

Hays said modern rides cannot function if any of their safety features are not positioned correctly.

“All of our rides are electronically monitored to see if a restraint is incorrectly fastened,” he said.

‘There are layoffs. You cannot send a trip without all the restrictions controlled and verified, manually and electronically. ”

A park guest who rode the Haunted Mine Drop a few hours before the incident occurred told CBS that her seat belt had been thoroughly checked.

“There are two seat belts per person, and I thought I had fastened both,” said Marybeth Riegel Urrutia.

‘The tour operator turned the corner to begin the journey, but quickly reappeared because my second buckle was not fully secured.

‘I joked’ hey that’s important, thanks for checking. ‘

So if that helps Glenwood, they double check the seat belts. I understand that the journey will not begin until everyone is well insured.

The ride takes about 2.5 seconds and drops 110 feet.

Guests were also required to sign a liability waiver before boarding the Mine Drop, and passengers under the age of 18 are supposed to have their parents or guardians sign the waiver on their behalf.

The exemption, posted on the park’s website, states that participants understand that the attractions may pose a risk of injury or death.

The document states in part, ‘INJURY / DEATH MAY RESULT’ and ‘SUBSIDIARIES ASSUME ALL RISKS’.

Another sentence says: “THE CLIMB understands and accepts that the seat belt IS NOT IN ANY WAY A SAFETY GUARANTEE”.

Cause of Death

Such a document will not protect the park from possible criminal charges, depending on the specifics of the situation, said a lawyer who spoke to KDVR, but it may protect them against civil liability in certain circumstances.

Checketts has designed a number of similar attractions throughout his career as a designer, including the similar Stratosphere Big Shot attraction in Las Vegas, Nevada.

That ride shoots passengers up at a rapid rate before lowering them. That ride has shoulder restrictions and there’s no indication it’s unsafe.

Police scanner traffic captured on the day of the incident reveals that a dispatcher frantically requested help at the park for a party that fell off the axle. The party is at the bottom of the well.

She adds: ‘The patient will be a 6 year old girl and she fell approximately 110 feet.

“ It is not known from which part of the trip the patient fell, I think the trip was in operation when the child fell. ”

A lifeguard later says, “They’re doing CPR there right now.”

She then she adds: ‘Request a response from the coroner’, stating that the girl had died

The audio also reveals that the girl’s extended family was at the scene.

The lifeguard says, ‘I need another sheriff’s deputy to come to the scene to help us with the parents, and I can request a victim advocate if one is available.’

He adds: “There is an extended family of about 20 people here, a lot of very distressed people.”

The Garfield County Coroner’s Office confirmed the girl was from Colorado Springs.

Her cause of death has yet to be confirmed and authorities have not released her identity.

No details of the girl’s injuries were provided, but the coroner’s office has scheduled an autopsy for this week.

Walt Stowe, a spokesman for the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday morning that his agency is investigating the crash. He did not want to elaborate.

Inspection records released Tuesday show that all of the park’s attractions, including the Haunted Mine Drop, have passed the Worldwide Safety Group inspection in Plant City, Florida, every year since 2019.

The most recent was in June 2021.

According to the state’s website, all Colorado amusement parks must undergo “annual third-party inspections and obtain adequate insurance coverage in the event of an accident.”

Wongel Estifanos Quicks and Facts

• Wongel Estifanos was with her extended family at Glenwood Caverns Amusement, when she slipped out of the ride and fell 110ft 
• ‘Wongel was a beautiful, caring, and cheerful girl who loves Jesus so much for a six-year-old,’ organizers of a GoFundMe page said
• ‘We understand nothing will bring her back, but we do not want this to be an additional burden to the parents,’ the post urges
• It emerged on Monday that the vertigo-inducing ride was specifically designed to not include shoulder restraints 
• Designer Stan Checketts said they wanted to make the ride ‘more exciting’ and ‘a bit more scary’
• A dispatcher frantically requested assistance at the park on Sunday ‘for a party that fell out of the shaft ride,’ audio recordings show

Source: wikisoon