A father was recorded on camera grabbing his son after a seat belt malfunctioned mid-ride on a roller coaster in Texas.
Delbert Latham and son Kaysen were at the Wonderland Amusement Park in Amarillo, Texas, when they rode the Mousetrap ride for a second time, ABC News reported.
They were put into the same seat the second time around. When Latham connected his son’s seat belt, it came undone.
“I just thought I didn’t get it clicked in well enough,” Latham said. “I re-clicked it and tightened it up. It was fine. There were no problems with it.”
However, he felt the seat belt coming undone again as the ride started dropping.
The motion threw Kaysen to the bottom of the roller coaster cart before Latham grabbed his son and held onto him.
Latham started recording his son for his wife to see. In an instant, Kaysen’s expression changes from happy to scared as the seat belt loosens. “I’ve got you,” Latham says. “You’re fine. I promise.”
“I was just trying to make sure that he held on and that he didn’t start panicking or start trying to move or anything, because I knew that there was another drop coming up,” he added to ABC.
The ride operator apologized, saying it had been “happening sometimes.”
“That’s when it made me more angry,” Latham said, adding that the park should have shut down the ride. “I told him that’s not acceptable to know that something is messing up and still let people on a ride,” he said.
He said, “They didn’t put anybody in the seat that we were sitting in, but they still loaded the rests of the seats up and let the ride take off again. In my opinion, if someone tells you the seat belt is broken, you should go ahead and just shut that part down and not let anyone on that ride.”
Latham then posted the clip on Facebook.
“I just posted it on my Facebook page hoping that if more awareness was out there, that maybe something else would get done. There’s been people posting you should get a lawyer, that sort of thing. I’m not looking to sue them, I don’t want money, that’s not my intention. I just want it to be safe for people,” he told KFDA-TV.
Wonderland park released a statement today, saying they’re worried about the incident.
“We appreciate his diligence in quickly bringing this to our attention. Wonderland immediately reached back out to Mr. Latham the evening it happened and promptly removed the back cart from the ride and ensured all other seatbelts were in proper working order,” the statement read, per KFDA.
“The Mouse Trap was back in full operation on Saturday. This particular ride was originally built without seatbelts, but Wonderland later added belts as an extra safety measure. The Park’s Safety and Maintenance Team is tasked with conducting daily inspections on every Park ride to ensure the safety of Park goers.”
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