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Police said Monday they are investigating the cause of an incident in which a 6-year-old boy fell from a moving rollercoaster in Tsumagoi, Gunma Prefecture.
According to police, the boy, Nao Kunifuda, was airlifted to hospital following the incident, which took place at about 11 a.m. at Karuizawa Toy Kingdom. The boy was on the Dragon Coaster ride when his seatbelt became loose, causing him to fall 1.5 meters to a concrete surface, TBS reported. He sustained a broken right arm and several minor injuries, police said.
Park operators say the ride has a height restriction of 100 cm. Police said that Kunifuda is 117 cm tall.
In a statement to the press, the park's acting manager said that the staff on duty are believed to have checked Kunifuda's seatbelt before the ride began, but that a full investigation into the cause of the incident will be launched
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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Ben Jack
Actually, having the ride above concrete does make sense in that it is much more stable than the ground would be for anchoring the ride. However, your point about rubber is a good one. They could have easily coated/covered the concrete with a thick rubber coating, which would have softened a fall such as this. More and more parks are doing this, but still not nearly enough of them. I have never seen it in an amusement park in Japan, though. In this day and age, it should be common sense. Hopefully, it will be from now on. However, I doubt it will happen quickly.
REMzzz
Absolutely! That's just common sense.
Too bad the sokaiya do not ride rollercoasters, don't you think? :P A polite little safety lecture would have meant 10 years worth of free rides for their family (not talking about the injured kid at all), after a certain construction company gets done putting in grass and safety padding in all the right places :D
Cheap joke, i know. But not too far off from reality.
Guza!
interesting, least it wasnt a higher drop, could have been worse. i take it the park manager is gonna have a field day with this one.
xrc
accidents happen!
IncenseAndPeppermints
Why do they have concrete around these rides again? Because its easier to mop away the blood? Within a certain distance of all outdoor rides it should be legally required to be grass with safety nets a meter or so above that, at least. But concrete? Um, NO!
Indoors should be rubber coated. Recycle those tires!
Clemens Simon
My wife is 150cm "tall" so not that much of a fall. Still (and this is merely to reduce the thumbs down), scary that the seatbelt came loose and the kid could fall out. The airlift to the hospital must be some story to tell once he gets to go back to school/kindergarten.
nath
I hope he will be okay. So sad. Kids are supposed to have fun on these rides, not get hurt.
nandakandamanda
This was a kid's coaster with a max speed of 20 kph, but it is tight and twisty so it gives an impression of speed and generates some lateral G, apparently.
Bored Part 2
Tough fella, 1.5 metre fall on to concrete while moving. Lucky not to have hit his head on the way down.
gogogo
Saw the "belt" on the news, no wonder it came loose, looked like a low quality s_hipping strap
smithinjapan
Sounds like a faulty belt if it opened up by itself (and poor safety standards if the rider can do it him/herself). Anyway, these parks have got to double and TRIPLE check things, as too often you hear about someone dying at one of these parks -- usually involving roller coasters.
The kid is lucky he wasn't killed, and I hope he recovers nicely.
nath
Lucky little boy