- Jan 18, 2001
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11895719.htm
Boy, 4, dies after Epcot space ride
A boy on an space ride at Epcot passed out and was taken to the hospital, where he died. The ride, at the center of a lawsuit, was operating normally, Disney says.
BY WALTER F. NAEDELE, LARRY KING AND CHRISTINE SCHIAVO
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A 4-year-old boy died at Walt Disney World after collapsing Monday on board a space flight simulator that has caused chest pains and nausea in older riders.
The ride, Mission: Space, is at the center of an ongoing federal lawsuit between the Pennsylvania firm that originated the design and Disney -- a suit in which public safety was among the disputes.
Daudi Bamuwamye, son of a United Nations financial official from Uganda, was pronounced dead two hours after boarding the Epcot Center attraction.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office are investigating.
Steve Hanson, chief investigator for the medical examiner, said a cause of death may not be known for several weeks. An autopsy found no broken bones or other signs of trauma.
Hanson said there was no way yet of knowing whether, or how, the ride might have contributed to the death. Further tests will not be completed for several weeks.
The ride was closed after the death but reopened Tuesday after Disney World engineers determined that the ride was operating normally, according to The Associated Press.
The boy was at Epcot with his mother, Agnes, 40, and his sister, Ruth, 8. They were riding Mission: Space together when the boy became rigid and had to be carried off by his mother, a sheriff's office report said.
Ronald J. Tusa, a neurologist at Emory University, said the child might have had a seizure while on the ride. The rigidity the mother described seeing in her son is typical of seizures, he noted.
Tusa, who has been on Mission: Space, said the G forces experienced on the ride are too low to cause harm.
The boy, at 3-foot-10, fulfilled the ride's 44-inch height requirement.
Mission: Space opened to the public Aug. 15, 2003.
INCIDENTS REPORTED
In its first eight months of operation, six people were hospitalized for at least a day after riding the launch, according to the Florida Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection.
All six were older than 55 and suffered nausea and chest pains. None was seriously injured.
That was the most hospital visits for any ride since 2001, when Florida's large theme parks agreed to report such incidents to the state. Disney began distributing sickness bags and posted additional signs warning that the ride was intense and that riders should be in good health.
Only one hospitalization has occurred since early 2004. Some riders have speculated that Disney tamed the ride somewhat, but company officials have said that no ''material change'' was made.
Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak stated in an e-mail that ``8.6 million guests have enjoyed Mission: Space without incident since the attraction opened in 2003.''
She added: ``We are saddened by this highly unusual event. Our first concern is for the family, and we are doing everything we can to help them during this difficult time.''
Florida requires no state inspection of parks, such as Disney World, that employ more than 1,000 people, said Jim Barber, a spokesman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety.
Florida also does not require theme parks to report injuries, said Robert Niles, founder of Theme Park Insider, an online consumer guide to amusement parks.
Disney voluntarily has reported accidents, but tends only to report the most serious, Niles said.
Mission: Space warns riders of its dangers in writing, by video and in an audio recording that plays in several languages to those in line, Niles said.
CONTRACT DISPUTE
The ride was originally designed by a subsidiary of Environmental Tectonics Corp. of Upper Southampton, Penn., a company long immersed in flight-simulation technology.
In January 2000, the company signed a contract with Disney for more than $25 million. But well before the ride opened, the subsidiary -- Entertainment Technology Corp. -- sued Disney, alleging it had failed to fully pay for the design and construction of the ride.
The complaint included allegations that Disney had breached its contract by failing to let the designer do a final check on its safety. ''If ETC is prevented from using its years of experience with human centrifuge systems to participate in the safety testing . . . then there are increased risks of injury to the public at large, and the associated increased risk of irreparable damage to ETC's reputation,'' the complaint said.
In August 2003, Disney filed counterclaims, alleging failures in Entertainment Technology's performance and design. Disney sought damages in excess of $65 million.
In court filings, Disney says it grew displeased with Entertainment Technology's work and by November 2001 had assumed responsibility for final engineering and approval of Mission: Space.
Disney said its engineers, whom it described as ''some of the world's most experienced professionals in the area of ride safety,'' completed ''exhaustive safety testing and hazard analysis of the ride,'' according to court records.
The case is pending in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, tentatively scheduled for trial in September.
At the Bamuwamyes' twin house in Sellersville, Pa., a neighbor described the family as religious and careful with their children.
The Bamuwamye family was ''very religious,'' said James Nicholas said, and ``the mother was very protective of the boy.''
United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said Moses Bamuwamye, 41, is ``a financial management officer in the office of the controller, who handles the U.N.'s financial affairs.''
The incident report from the Orange County Sheriff stated the mother, daughter and Daudi boarded Mission: Space at 3:14 p.m. Monday.
On the ride, Daudi sat between his mother and his sister, and ''toward the end of the ride, [the mother] noticed her son's body was rigid and his legs were extended straight out,'' the report said.
``[She] thought that the ride was frightening her son and she grasped her son's hand to reassure him. When the ride ended [Daudi] was limp and unresponsive in his seat.''
The mother picked up Daudi and ran to the nearest employee, who summoned paramedics, the report said. Daudi was declared dead at 4:52 p.m.
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