Woman Dies After Riding "Mission: Space"

[Hannathy]

But the ride IS safe as the Park and the safety inspectors have said so repeatedly, if you have no underlying heart abnormalities. Millions of people ride it without damage. The ride itself did not cause the deaths it did not malfunction. And I do bellieve the warning signs and I may be wrong do mention death on them among the list of possible problems.

The little boy had not been on any other thrill rides They had just arrived at Disney and Epcot was their first stop. and as I have said he had well documented health problems prior to MS. He very may well have died on TOT had it been first.

What I still don't understand is you don't like it ok, so don't go on, but why ruin it for those that do. Life has risks and everyone has their own comfort level of how much they are willing to accept. I would never jump out of an airplane but more power to those that do it is their choice and I would never try to stop them from enjoying it. Same with MS.

 

[Mr D]

I say shut it down, how can Disney honestly expect every single rider to be in absolute top physical condition?
And stop the RUMOUR CONTROL!

I really hate seeing these posters come along after something like this telling us to shut up everything is ok.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I will be very surprised if the autopsy does not show pre-existing conditions -- whether the guest was aware of them or not.
This is a no win situation. If Disney closes the ride, people will be unhappy and say it is unfair.
If they don't close M:S then others will say Disney is uncaring and does not follow normal safety precautions.
But how any theme park enforces any guest to ride or not, esp if a disability is unseen.
I think too people have to remember what it is like when they are on vacation -- they are usually over tired and generally don't take care of themselves as they would normally.
And even though WDW (or any theme park) is good/fun stress -- it is still additonal stress on a body.
Plus I hate to even consider how many ride certain rides they should not because of various health reasons. (Neck, back, HBP, whatever) I am guilty of that myself.
Frankly I would feel safer on M:S than I would on I4 in rush hour traffic.

My condolences and thoughts to the family. Bad enough to have this happen to a family member. But then to be out of their home country on vacation at the happiest place.
And my sympathy to the Disney CMs directly involved. This has to be hard on them too.

 

[Another Voice]

All of this reminds me of that old Twilight Zone episode.

A down-on-their luck couple is visited by an odd man. He offers them a box with a button on it. If they press the button, they will receive a thousand dollars. The catch is that someone will die. But the man reassures the couple that it will be someone they don’t know.

The couple debates about what to do. They’re about to be evicted…they need the money. Sure someone will die, but it’s not like they know them. Maybe to person is dying anyway. Maybe this will ease their suffering. Maybe it’s for the best after all... Besides, it’s not anyone they know.

They press the button.
Nothing happens. No sounds, no screams, no yells.

There’s a knock on the door. The man is there. He hands the couple the thousand dollars and tells the couple that someone has just died. But they shouldn’t worry – it wasn’t anyone they know.

The odd man asks for the box. The couple gives it back to them. He wishes the couple well and hopes the thousand dollars will help them out. The couple asks what he will do with the box. The man explains he will give it to another couple in desperate need of money.

Someone they don’t know.


It’s real easy to dismiss something you don’t think affects you (“I’ve ridden it eight times and never felt anything”). It’s real easy to blame someone else for a tragedy (“the woman should have known she had high blood pressure so it’s all her fault!”). It’s real easy to hide behind the veil of dumb luck (“that kid could have kicked to bucket on any of the rides”).

And don't worry, I'm sure the next person with a pre-existing condition will be someone you don't know.

 

[Luv2Roam]

And don't worry, I'm sure the next person with a pre-existing condition will be someone you don't know.

Oh please. And I thought I was dramatic.
If people were as concerned about things that could kill them and are bad for their health.

 

[annie1995]

Almost 9 million people rode this ride before that little boy died--and obviously many more have ridden it since--so we have two people who have died and what? 12 million who have not?--I cannot look at that and point a finger at the ride and say it definitely is the cause and should be shut down.

How many people die or get sick and have to go the the hospital during a one year period on BTMR, Splash or Space Mountain, Tower of Terror( I know of at least one girl last year on that one), Rock N Roller coaster? I think that is the point that people are trying to make here. I have not heard of any for these rides in the last year. 2 in one year is enough, not to mention all the people sick from it. MS is a ticking time bomb for those who have undiagnosed medical conditions and ride this. If you know about it and choose to ride it anyway, so be it, but for the many who don't know, this could be the end of the ride for them. Not worth it in my book. We are a family of 5 who will never hog up space in this line. My heart goes out to the family.

 

[MJMcBride]

There are just too many people walking around w/ undiagnosed heart or congenital conditions for this ride, I think. I admit I don't know anything about the testing of this ride nor do I know of other deaths in other WDW thrill rides. But to have a 4 year old and a 49 year old die w/in a year is just too much of a coincidence. They at least have to think long and hard about this ride.

 

[MJB]

Im sorry for her family too. But the warnings ARE there. for a reason. I thought long and hard before I rode it. By myself!! Then decided that it wasnt for my kids I liked the ride. Its all about choice.

 

[ztbz]

I heard this morning that the Lady who past away was from Germany, so this made me wonder, are the warnings on the signs in just English or are there warnings for other languages too.

 

[MJB]

My son lost his father in Oct. Heart attack 44 years old. He was riding his Harley should they quit making Harleys?? He chose to get on the bike. High blood pressure and all. It was his saddly his time.He really didnt think his heart was a problem because of his age. I dont think about death at 41?? but its possiable.

 

[YoHo]

Oh please. And I thought I was dramatic.
If people were as concerned about things that could kill them and are bad for their health.

Come come now, If AV weren't dramatic, he wouldn't do very well in his job now would he.

 

[JamesMorehead]

A tragic situation for both families and my deepest sympathies.

I will almost certainly be riding M:S with my daughter next week during our vacation. If we survive the 1 hour drive to SFO, the flight, and the drive from MCO to the Boardwalk I'll feel we've beaten the odds.

Nothing is safe... but I'll place my bets on Disney safety any day - not because they are altruistic but because the cost of unsafe is too high for them.

If M:S closes at some point it will be either the cost of maintaining the attraction or the cost if perceived lack of safety. If the ride is truly unsafe it will get shut down - what amusement enterprise gets as much scrutiny as WDW?

At some point people are going to die on Expedition Everest - it is a statistical certainty. Should we shut it down now to avoid the inevitable?

 

[Goofymum]

What I am not understanding is this...

While riding Mission Space you can experience up to 2 G's of force which basically doubles your body weight. A crew member on an actual space flight can experience up to 3 G's during normal flight. Now..for one of those astronauts to get on that space craft they have to go through rigorous testing, training and medical evaluations. While there is a difference of 1 G between the comparisons Disney is letting just anyone walk on the ride in hopes they will pay attention to the millions of warnings before you get on the ride.

I've never been on Mission Space and although I would like to experience it I know it's probably not the best choice of rides for me. However, everyday we hear on the news about all the people living with undiagnosed heart conditions. Even though it may be indirectly, the ride could very well cause that level of adverse effects on those who ride with undiagnosed conditions.

As great a concept as Mission Space is, maybe they should either lessen the reality of the experience or leave the ride for "Space Camp."

 

[DancingBear]

Should Disney shut down Tower of Terror?

I assume the consensus would be no.

Should Disney open a "Base Jump off Tower of Terror" attraction, complete with many warning signs, so that guests could elect to assume the risk of jumping off ToT with a parachute in hand?

I assume the consensus would be no.

The question is, where in the spectrum between Tower of Terror and Base Jump off Tower of Terror does M:S lie? Does anyone really know enough about the risks involved to know?

 

[markP]

It seems very simple to me…
If you want to ride it M:S, ride it. If you’re frightened or get sick easily, don’t.

Why would anyone say tear it down or change it. When you walk through the doors of EPCOT you’re not forced to ride it, you’re free to pass it right by and not even give it a second thought. I’m not sure why some of you feel it should be taken away from millions of other people that seem to get a lot of enjoyment from it. Two deaths have occurred, and that is very sad, but to blame it on a ride, in my opinion, isn’t the answer. In fact there isn’t an answer, and someone or something doesn’t always have to be the blame. Sometimes bad things just happen.

 

[KMovies]

I believe I read somewhere that in the early days of Roller Coasters they had nurses stations next to the ride; not out of a "what if" happened but actually because some people did need medical attention after riding the ride; yet people still rode the ride.

There probably is a big difference between the 2 G's Mission Space and the real life 3 G's Space Flight. Likely the 3 G's Space Flight is for a much longer period of time.

 

[raidermatt]

The thing that makes M:S different than other rides isn't the g's experienced. Its been noted before that there are other rides that pull more g's.

The difference is in the length of time, and the visual stimuli. As Disney has told us, there is no other ride like it.

Most of the posts in support of M:S are based on one's own personal tolerance for risk. Of course that's a perfectly acceptable basis to use when making decisions for yourself and your family.

But again, that's largely irrelevant for Disney. It doesn't take a large portion of their audience to be upset about something for it to impact them negatively. Think about how much we discuss the merits of a 5% increase or decrease in attendance, for example.

Further, most of you are right, incidents like this are sensationalized in the media. Look at all the fear there is out there about random child abduction and serial killers. Yet the odds of these things actually happening to anyone are miniscule. True, most people do not live in fear over these things, but most do take basic precautions, as they should. And when one of these things happen, there are always calls for changes to laws, sentencing, etc. Many people are afraid to fly out of fears of a crash, yet statistically its much safer than any other mode of transporatation.

Same principle applies here. 2 deaths in a year still make the ride much safer than driving your car or going swimming. But guess what? That's irrelevant to Disney. They must consider the "hype" and the "overreaction" and deal with it.

The question is, where in the spectrum between Tower of Terror and Base Jump off Tower of Terror does M:S lie? Does anyone really know enough about the risks involved to know?

And that's what bothers me most. No, based on the odds, I am not afraid to ride this thing. But as AV pointed out, me thinking it won't happen to me is hardly justification for ignoring what is happening to others.

Based on the data we have, it looks like M:S is a higher risk attraction than anything else Disney has built. But I'm not a fool. I know the data does not 100% support any specific risk factor being assigned. Its just that the data combined with the fact that this is a different type of ride has to raise red flags when you look at this logically. No, again, not from a personal risk perspective, but from what Disney can handle as a business that relies on providing a fantastical family atmosphere unlike what's found anywhere else, including other theme/amusement parks.


I also want to add that I don't want to sound cold about all of this. I'm focusing on the business side and the big picture and not the moral issues becuase the moral issues are more personal in nature and its unlikely anyone will change their position on that anyway. But I will say that while I personally am accepting of the risk level, I'm not ok with Disney (or anyone) who operates a ride knowing the risk of death correlates to the data we have on M:S, about 1 per year.

This is not like getting on a motorcycle and experiencing something you've done many times before. Physical thrill rides and this one in particular subject our bodies to things we simply do not experience with any kind of regularity anywhere else, unless we are an astronaut, professional race car driver, etc.

I personally feel that if the current rate of deaths occuring on M:S is statistically representative of the risks, then its not acceptable. But again, that is my personal opinion, and I am not basing my opinions on what Disney should do on that.

 

[Shawn]

Very well said raidermatt. Great analysis. I work in the science field and I understand statistics. But in this situation it's as much asbout about politics and social issues as it is engineering, physiology, and statistics.

-Shawn

Yes, the quote in KMovies' post does not tell the whole story. Yes, he had a pre-existing condition that was undiagnosed. Unfortunately, its a condition whose first symptom is usually cardiac arrest.

Those with the condition are at greater risk when they are children. They are NOT at equal risk throughout their lives.

Stressful situations increase the risk.

So yes, its possible the boy would have died during some other stressful activity at some point in his young life. But its also possible he would not have.

Its estimated that .05 to .2% of the population has the same condition. On the one hand, this means lots of them are riding the attraction without incident. It also means many with this condition are not merely ticking time bombs. The vast majority will never have an incident, and never know they had the condition.

So we can't discount the condition as a "freak" occurence, because its likely people with the same undiagnosed condition ride M:S everyday. We also can't write it off as it was his time, because most with the condition live out their lives normally.

My position at the time was that the death should definitely give us pause, and that additional research should be performed, especially with respect to how the ride affected people, especially children, with this condition.

Now, we have a women who has died. We have indications that she may have had a pre-existing condition, but of course we don't know for sure.

I'm still not going to call for the ride to be shut down based on the two incidents. Its true that they COULD be statistical anomolies.

But enough with this "people die all the time" after riding other rides at WDW. They don't. If they become ill while on the ride, as both of these people did, Disney does not let them just walk away. And as we know, Disney is under tremendous scrutiny and deaths like this do not escape notice.

Yes, an elderly lady died on PotC, but that is a TRUE case of it being her time. The ride did not put her under any stresses she did not experience multiple times every day of her life.

That's not the case with thrill rides, and whatever one may think of the intensity of M:S, it clearly affects people differently than other thrill rides. We have countless stories of people who can't handle even the tamest roller coasters who ride M:S with no problem. Conversely, some who haven't met a coaster they didn't like swear they will never ride M:S again.

PKS is right. 2 deaths do not PROVE a cause-effect relationship. But it sure as heck should raise a lot of red flags. This just isn't happening on other WDW rides. 3 possibilities:

1- They truly are freak incidents, and M:S won't see another death for 20 years.
2- People with these pre-existing conditions (assuming the woman had a pre-existing condition) are riding M:S while they avoid other thrill rides. That's possible I guess, but with all the publicity, extra warning signs, protein spill bags, etc, it seems highly unlikely.
3- For whatever reason, M:S "aggrevates" these conditions more than other thrill rides at WDW. Again, I agree, this is not proven, but at the same time, how can we ignore what has happened? How many deaths would it take for each of us to at least call for more than just an investigation into whether the ride was operating as designed?

You may personally find the 1 in whatever million odds acceptable. That's only relevant to your personal choice about riding the ride. What's relevant to Disney is public perception, negative publicity, etc. And there's no way they can afford to have even one death per year on a given ride. When it was one in the first year and a half (along with the countless stories of dizzyness, disorientation, etc), I was told it was not significant.

Now its 2 in 2 1/2 years. I can guarantee Disney cannot accept that rate for a single ride. This is the company that made the Tea Cups in DL virtually unspinnable because a handicapped man fell out after the ride operated for years with no incident.

 

[Mr D]

So we have two deaths 9 months apart, so its possible to have another about jan 2007?

Perhaps the smartest thing to do is to either pre-screen every single rider for high blood pressure or have individual monitors for every rider that would sense out of normal parameters and shut down the ride immediately if there is indications of abnormalities. But that will never happen of course, and whats to keep people intent on dying off this ride if they fully know they could die if they ride it?

Did this woman know she had a condition that could leave her dead, I would love to see what her life insurance is and who its payable to.

This almosts sounds like an awesome episode for CSI.

I hopefully do not wish to see MS kept alive because of back room handshakes all the while periodically someone dies and the boards go ballistic with preservationists that absolutely believe anything from Disney could ever be or go wrong.

I say this ride was not designed or tested with us "Wrong Stuff" folks but for perfect specimens that have been prodded, probed and catalogued. I think one more death and its into Yesterland.

 

[wdwguide]

I say this ride was not designed or tested with us "Wrong Stuff" folks but for perfect specimens that have been prodded, probed and catalogued. I think one more death and its into Yesterland.

The ride appears to be perfectly safe if you follow the posted safety warnings. The two dead guests both had medical conditions that were ticking timebombs, and they should never have gotten into the capsules. Disney cannot he held accountable for their mistake, whether or not they were aware of their condition.

I do think Disney can do more than just have the 26 or so safety warnings that are currently in place. They need to state in clear, unthemed and un-pixie-dusted language that, while safe for healthy individuals, anyone with certain medical conditions can become gravely ill as a result of the physical stress placed on the body by this ride. Not the current "it is intense - sign up for mission control duty if you don't have what it takes" type warnings. This is a unique attraction, and playing it cute apparently doesn't work very well.

Or, even better, they should change the preshow to include a mandatory blood pressure check and preclude anyone with elevated levels from riding. Sounds ridiculous and will never be done, but fits the theme of the pavilion perfectly... getting your pre-flight physical, just like a real astronaut!