Colorado jury awards $205 million to family of 6-year-old who fell to her death on theme park ride
A Colorado jury on Friday found a Western Slope theme park negligent in the death of a 6-year-old girl who fell on one of its rides. The civil lawsuit was filed by the family of Wongel Estifanos in 2022 and went to trial earlier this month.
In September 2021, Estifanos died while she was on the Haunted Mine Drop ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.
Estifanos' family attorney said the payout to the family will be $205 million. The money will be owed by the theme park and others responsible. It's one of the largest wrongful death lawsuit awards for a single plaintiff in the state's history.
"This verdict will save a lot of lives," attorney Dan Caplis said in a prepared statement. "Wongel's parents are very grateful to the jury for speaking the truth and holding this corporation responsible. Wongel's parents are grateful to the court for the fair trial they received, and to the people of Garfield County for being so kind to them during this long trial."
The civil trial has been going on all month. Investigators said Estifanos died when she fell more than 100 feet after she wasn't properly restrained in her seat on the ride.
Wongel, from Colorado Springs, was vacationing with her family in Glenwood Springs when she was on the park's Haunted Mine Drop, which drops riders 110 feet.
An investigation report states that the accident was the result of multiple operator errors, including the failure to ensure that the child was restrained. One of the operators didn't prepare the seatbelts before allowing Wongel and the other passengers to be seated. She sat on top of the still locked seatbelts on a previously unoccupied seat.
The lawsuit also claimed that multiple customers had notified the park about operators not properly belting in passengers before Wongel's death, and that Glenwood Caverns didn't turn over all of the customer complaints about the ride.
In 2022, the park announced multiple changes planned for the ride.
Kimberly Marcum, marketing director for Glenwood Caverns, issued a public statement calling Estifanos' death "tragic," going on to say that, "while the jury allocated significant fault on the other defendant, Soaring Eagle, Inc., the size of the total jury verdict award puts the existence of Glenwood Caverns at serious risk. If the jury verdict remains as it is, hundreds of local jobs are in peril."
She said Glenwood Caverns is "exploring all options so that we can attempt to continue to operate, serve our guests, and continue to give back to the community."
Marcum blamed Soaring Eagle Inc. -- a Utah-based zip-line and theme park ride company, and one of the co-defendants -- for making the mine drop "with a defective restraint system" that caused the deadly accident.
"Soaring Eagle certified to Glenwood Caverns that the ride met all applicable standards, but that was not true," she wrote. "They failed to perform the required engineering and risk analyses that would have undoubtedly prevented this death. Soaring Eagle failed Glenwood Caverns, failed the Estifanos family, and failed our community."
A spokesman for Soaring Eagle Inc. did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.