http://www.nbc6.net/news/8664956/detail.ht...0204132006&ts=H

 

 

Woman, 49, Dies After Riding Epcot's 'Mission: Space'

Disney Says Woman May Have Had High Blood Pressure

 

POSTED: 8:47 am EDT April 13, 2006

UPDATED: 10:23 am EDT April 13, 2006

 

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- A 49-year-old woman died Wednesday, a day after becoming ill after riding "Mission: Space" at Walt Disney World -- the second death in less than a year related to the Epcot ride so intense that it has motion sickness bags and several riders have been treated for chest pain.

 

The woman became ill after riding the rocketship ride Tuesday afternoon and was transported to Celebration Hospital, where her condition worsened and she died, Walt Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said in a statement.

 

The woman's identity and hometown were not immediately released, and Prunty said no additional information would be released Wednesday night.

 

 

A spokeswoman for the hospital said no information about the woman was available.

 

The state Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection has been notified and will monitor an inspection of the ride, Disney officials said.

 

"We have closed the attraction to reconfirm proper operation of the ride," Prunty said.

 

Messages left at Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees the Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection, and the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office were not immediately returned.

 

Disney officials told state inspectors Wednesday that the woman felt dizzy and nauseated after getting off the ride, and may have suffered from high blood pressure and other health problems, Terence McElroy, a state agriculture spokesman, told the Orlando Sentinel.

 

The park officials also said the ride had been operating normally until it was shut down Wednesday afternoon, McElroy told the newspaper.

 

One warning sign posted in 2004 in front of the ride read: "For safety you should be in good health, and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness or other conditions that can be aggravated by this adventure."

 

The $100 million Epcot space ride, one of Disney World's most popular, was closed in June after the death of a 4-year-old Pennsylvania boy who passed out while aboard the attraction, but reopened after company engineers concluded it was operating normally. It spins riders in a centrifuge that subjects them to twice the normal force of gravity, and is so intense that some riders have been taken to the hospital with chest pain.

 

Daudi Bamuwamye Sellersville, Pa., did meet the ride's minimum 44-inch height limit, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

 

An autopsy concluded that the boy succumbed to an irregular heartbeat linked to natural causes. People with the condition -- idiopathic myocardial hypertrophy with fibroelastosis of the left ventricle -- are at risk for sudden death throughout their lives, especially in physically or emotionally stressful situations, medical examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia wrote.

 

Two adults in poor health and a 12-year-old Virginia girl died last year at Walt Disney World, out of the millions who visit the park each year.

 

In February, a 70-year-old man was injured while attempting to board the park's Peter Pan ride. A 16-year-old British girl who suffered cardiac arrest July 12 after riding the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at the park was still in critical condition when she was flown home by air ambulance in August.

It spins riders in a centrifuge that subjects them to twice the normal force of gravity, and is so intense that some riders have been taken to the hospital with chest pain.

 

Sounds like the ride "Gravitron" that I always go on at carnivals and fairs. It just looks like a big spaceship that spins around really fast. You just stand against the wall and get flattened as it spins. Great fun.

 

I took a friend on it three times in a row and he turned green.

Edited April 14, 200620 yr by Iwritecode

i hit that Mission: Space ride a summer or two ago and honestly...i didn't see that it was that good of a ride. i wasn't very impressed considering it was Disney and all.

Mission: Space is absolutly crazy. I'm shocked it hasn't seen more deaths than it has. I don't see it lasting much longer, despite the millions of dollars and years of production put into it.

How pathetic is it that a Disney ride is what killed you?