2 Dead After Roller Coaster Derails in Mexico City

2 Dead After Roller Coaster Derails in Mexico City
La Feria Chapultepec amusement park was closed after Saturday's incident (Reuters)
Jack Phillips
9/29/2019
Updated:
9/30/2019

Two people have died and two more were injured after a roller coaster derailed and fell to the ground at a Mexican amusement park.

According to officials, the incident took place at the La Feria Chapultepec amusement park on Sept. 28.

Mexican prosecutors, in a news release, said two men were killed while two women were injured.

The injured women are still hospitalized under medical observation, prosecutors said, adding that one needed surgery. The other woman suffered serious injuries.

Witnesses said the victims fell from the last car of the roller coaster, reported the BBC.

“This is now in the hands of prosecutors, and prosecutors have already taken the necessary steps for an investigation,” Miriam Urzua, an official from the civil protection organization, was quoted by the broadcaster as saying.

Investigators said that initially, it appears a mechanical failure was to blame for the accident. The car fell from a height of around 33 feet above the ground, Ulises Lara Lopez, a spokesman for the Mexico City attorney general’s office, told CBS News.

Officials are treating the accident as a case of negligent homicide.

Eyewitness Rosalba Rodriguez said the roller coaster completed several loops before the car fell, according to the BBC.

The La Feria Chapultepec fair told news outlets that its organizers “deeply [regret] the terrible accident.”

The decades-old roller coaster was featured at other parks around the world before it was taken to Mexico City, reported The Associated Press.

44 Bodies Found in Well in Mexico

At least 44 bodies stuffed in about 100 black bags were identified by Mexican officials after they were discovered several weeks ago, officials said.
The remains were discovered on Sept. 3 in a well near the city of Guadalajara in Jalisco State after residents reported a foul odor, reported the BBC.
A stock photo shows forensic experts are seen at the scene of the crime in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, on Jan. 18, 2019. (Ulises Ruiz/ AFP/Getty Images)
A stock photo shows forensic experts are seen at the scene of the crime in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, on Jan. 18, 2019. (Ulises Ruiz/ AFP/Getty Images)
“It saddens me to speak in this way, but society has a right to know what is happening,” Jalisco security cabinet chief Macedonio Tamez Guajardo told Mexican news website Milenio.
Elaborating on the grisly discovery, Guajardo said the bodies were in various states of decomposition. The Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences said on Sept. 14 that 44 people have been identified, Fox News reported.
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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