An 83-year-old Disney World visitor with an undisclosed pre-existing condition had a “cardiac event” and later died after riding the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover ride at the Magic Kingdom on Sept. 25, an injury report released by the state Tuesday revealed.
The man’s death involving the slow-moving tram attraction is the first reported by a major Florida theme park since May 2021, when a 58-year-old man with an unknown pre-existing condition passed out upon leaving Epcot’s Spaceship Earth attraction and later died at the hospital.
Twelve people were injured on Disney and Universal rides from July through September, according to a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services report. Injuries included guests passing out and experiencing various types of body pain, and one guest went into labor after leaving an attraction.
SeaWorld, Busch Gardens Tampa and Legoland Florida did not report any injuries this quarter.
Under an agreement with the state agency, Florida’s largest theme parks self-report guest injuries that happen on rides and require at least 24 hours of hospitalization. The state agency compiles the injuries in a public report released every three months.
But theme parks’ injury descriptions are limited, listing only the date of an injury, the attraction involved, the guest’s age and gender, if the guest had a pre-existing condition and a brief description of the injury. Often, details of an injury are revealed only through lawsuits, like when an 11-year-old boy’s foot and leg were crushed on Universal’s E.T. Adventure ride in 2019. The theme park reported the injury as “foot pain.”
The state agency vowed to reevaluate its reporting agreement with the major theme parks in late 2020 following an Orlando Sentinel investigation. Discussions with theme park representatives in 2020 and 2021 resulted in the decision to keep the current reporting system “due to privacy concerns and legal issues,” agriculture department spokeswoman Caroline Stonecipher said in July.
Separate state law allows the major theme parks to conduct their own ride inspections. Lawmakers that include State Sen. Linda Stewart and State Sen.-elect Geraldine Thompson, both Democrats representing Orlando, have voiced interest in changing ride safety regulations.
One of Disney’s six injuries reported this quarter involved a 27-year-old woman going into labor after riding the Tomorrowland Speedway, a racing attraction on a track. It is only the second time a visitor went into labor following a ride since the injury reports began in 2001: a 27-year-old woman went into labor after riding Kilimanjaro Safaris in April 2018.
Other injuries reported at Disney were an 83-year-old man who became “briefly unresponsive” on Avatar Flight of Passage on July 8; a 47-year-old man who lost consciousness while on the green side of Mission: Space on July 12; a 59-year-old woman who injured her toes on Alien Swirling Saucers on Sep. 6; and a 46-year-old man who had a seizure after riding Slinky Dog Dash on Sept. 25.
All visitors had an undisclosed pre-existing condition except the 46-year-old, according to the report.
Universal reported five injuries at its theme parks and one at its Volcano Bay water park. At Volcano Bay, a 51-year-old man had chest pain on the Kopiko Wai Winding River lazy river.
At Universal’s theme parks, a 50-year-old man had nausea on the Poseidon’s Fury walk-through attraction on July 18; a 38-year-old woman had neck pain on Jurassic World VelociCoaster on July 24; a 36-year-old man had abdominal pain on Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts on July 26; a 67-year-old woman had a headache after riding Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket on Aug. 31; and a 28-year-old man fainted on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey on Sept. 9.
