T-WOLF ACCIDENT UPDATE!!!
David Rhea
I thought there would never be anything new, but here is the latest on
the
Timber Wolf roller-coaster. (Facts are current as of Thursday, August
31st,
1995)
Two women with a church group from Oklahoma were riding the
coaster
when 14-year old Ryan Bielby fell out of the Timber Wolf and claim they
saw
Bielby standing or kneeling in the seat just before she fell out of the
train.
Ryan's seatmate, Ashley Fenzel, 15, told police the lap bar came
up
and the seat belt came loose in in their 11:30 pm ride on June 30th.
The Oklahoma women Kimberly Griffith, 17, and Dana Davis, 22, told
a
detective a a different version form their vantage point two seats back..
Both said the victim was clearly visible above the high headrests on the
ride's seats.
Griffith said she could see a person's butt above the seat.
"She further stated that for a person's butt to be above the head
rest
she felt the person had to be standing up in the seat," according to
Detective Pete Smith's report of his phone interview with Griffith six
days
after the accident.
Davis, recalled the train making a left turn after the HUGE steep
drop.
"After making this left turn the train hit a small bump and, at
this
time, she observed the victim...with her body being visible from the
waist
up, above the head rest of the victim's seat," according to Det. Smith's
report.
"She further stated that, in her opinion, for her to see a person
from
the waist up, that person would have to be either be kneeling or standing
on
the seat. When I saw her she hadn't been thrown yet. I find it hard to
believe the bar came up, the other little girl would have fallen out also.
"
Fred Duchart, Fenzel's attorney; Chester Kaplan, the Bielby's
attorney,
couldn't be reached for comment.
Worlds of Fun spokeswoman Leslie Barewin, also had no comment.
Park
officials say that the ride is safe so long as people obey the safety
rules
to remain seated with restraints fastened.
The park reopened the Timber Wolf six days after Ryan's death. That
followed a battery of tests by industry engineers. Det. Smith rode the
coaster six times in the seat Ashley had occupied, with a crash-test
dummy
in the seat Ryan had been.
On one test with the lap bar raised & the dummy not belted in. On
that
run, Det. Smith reported, the dummy hung out of the car about one foot
and
the so-called "goodie-curve," the point where Ryan fell. But the dummy
was
not ejected and did not strike anything.
Police said in July that they agreed with Worlds of Fun that the
accident could not have happened as Ashley described.
The police file indicates that about two hours before Ryan's death,
ride
operators received a report of a bolt falling out of the third row of one
of
the two trains. Ryan and Ashley were in the third row of on of the two
trains. Mike Massey, 17, who was loading people into the coaster, told
police a man told him of the bolt about 9:30 p.m. but Massey was unsure
which train had the problem. He them left.
Massy felt it was a joke, since that was not uncommon, but he
advised
the driver of the comment," Detective Mark Folsom reported.
The driver, Melissa Carpenter, 19, "felt it was a joke as well, and
did
not see any performance problems with the ride," Folsom reported.
Ashley and two male friends who were directly behind her and Ryan
told
police that ride operators checked their belts and bars before the
coaster
left in the station.
After the accident, mechanical foreman Rick Hamilton, 34, checked
and
found both the bar and the belt on Ryan's car in working order.
"The came off a hill and were turning when the lap bar came open and
their seat belt came off," Folsom reported of his interview with Fenzel
shortly after the accident.
"She related that Ryan was thrown from the train to the left and
she
started to fly out also," the report continues, "She stated that she
grabbed
the lab bar with both hands and was able to hang on....She was able to
close
the lap bar fully and re-buckle the seat belt."
Ryan was found face down in a grave area about 25 feet below the
track
at the lowest curve on the west side of the course, nearest I-435. One
of
her Converse tennis shoes was found about 75 feet away.
The police report said Ryan, who was pronounced dead at North
Kansas
City Hospital, suffered massive contusions on the left side, a 3-inch cut
on
the top of the head, a broken left knee and parallel bruises on the chest.
Bonita Peterson of the Clay County medical examiner's office ruled
the
cause of death to be "multiple system trauma."
You are up-to-date. If there are further updates on this story, and you
would like to be on the T-Wolf Accident Mailing List, e-mail me at the e-
mail address below and you will recieve any further updates, just like
this one, sent directly to your e-mailbox.
Thanks, The Kansas City Star
David M. Rhea
Kansas City, MO
BTJ...@PRODIGY.COM