[Music]
on the 17th of july
1955 the disneyland amusement park in
california opened for business it was an
almost instant success with millions of
visitors making it their destination of
choice year after year while it has
provided happiness and joy to hundreds
of millions of people disneyland's
history has not always been happy in the
course of its many years of operation it
has suffered several accidents and
setbacks some of them rather more
unpredictable than others
since it first opened its gates to the
public dozens of people have died at
disneyland this is however no cause for
alarm
when multiple millions of people visit
and indeed stay overnight at any
attraction no matter how safe or well
regulated it might be a small number
will unavoidably die
they may pass away from natural causes
from pre-existing medical conditions or
as a result of the stress or excitement
of their once in a lifetime vacation
in addition to these sad but unavoidable
deaths disneyland has also seen several
high-profile accidents during its long
history for the most part these have
taken place on roller coasters and other
thrill rides attractions where there is
an obvious element of danger
these accidents are rare but when they
do take place the mechanism of the
accident is often familiar and
understandable
the failure of a harness a slip trip or
fool or a guest attempting to exit a
ride at a dangerous point in its cycle
in this video however we'll be looking
at two accidents which took place on
attractions that by most standards are
considered relatively tame
in both cases there were few obvious
dangers
no high speeds no inversions no
significant drops or powerful g-forces
in both cases these accidents took place
on rides that at first glance would have
seemed to be amongst the safest in the
park
on the 29th of june 1974
a new attraction opened at disneyland
america sings was a relatively sedate
ride which had been retrofitted into the
building which had once housed the
carousel of progress
its mechanism was largely the same as
the ride which had preceded it
guests would be loaded into ranks of
seating which would then rotate around a
central island where several animatronic
scenes would play out
the carousel of progress had used this
format to show guests the many ways in
which technology had advanced since the
turn of the century and to predict what
the future might hold
america sings the revamped ride took a
different tack instead offering a
whistle-stop tour through the history of
american music from the songs of the
deep south through to modern times
guests would be treated to a medley of
songs throughout the 20-minute show all
of them performed by a cast of
animatronic animals
at the start and end of the show human
cast members were responsible for
getting guests into and out of the
tiered seating
this was the job that 18 year old
deborah gail stone was hired to do
during the first summer of the ride's
operation standing at the front left of
the stage she would use a microphone to
welcome each cohort of guests as they
arrived and bid them farewell as they
left the attraction at the end of their
experience
the brand new attraction had only been
running for a week when one evening
something went wrong it was around 10 30
pm on the 8th of july 1974.
deborah had just said goodbye to a group
of guests at the end of the attraction
and the ride was moving the ranks of
seating into position to start a new
cycle
as the outer circle of seating rotated
though deborah was caught between the
moving wall of the outer ring and the
stationary wall of the inner island to
this day it is unknown why she was in
this position
she may have lost her footing or have
been trying to move from the island
where she stood to the rotating ring
where the audience sat whatever the
reason she was caught between the two
walls and received severe crushing
injuries
several guests in an adjoining section
of the ride heard debra scream as she
was caught between the two walls
they alerted staff and the ride was
stopped and evacuated by the time
deborah was discovered however it was
too late she had already passed away
following the accident disney
immediately closed the attraction while
an investigation took place
before it reopened three days later an
alarm system was installed that would
notify operators whenever someone got
too close to the dangerous area between
walls
this was later supplemented by breakaway
walls which would give way easily if
anything did get trapped between them
deborah's family sued disney and
received an undisclosed settlement
america sings operated without further
incident for more than a decade before
being transformed into an attraction
called innoventions which resembled an
updated carousel of progress it later
became the star wars launch bay which it
remains to this day
although america sings is no longer a
feature of the park several animatronics
from the show remain in place in other
areas of disneyland including a
stripped-down goose animatronic in the
star wars area of the park
although there is no longer any evidence
of america sings
deborah stone herself is remembered to
this day as a kind conscientious and
generous individual whose premature
death touched many people both those who
knew her and those who did not
on the 14th of june 1958
the sailing ship colombia was added to
disneyland's roster of attractions it
was a full-scale replica of the first
american ship to circumnavigate the
globe while the ship at disneyland was
built at full scale
the journey it would take within the
park was considerably shorter it would
carry guests on a 12-minute circuit of
the rivers of america departing roughly
every half hour
though fully equipped with sails and
rigging the ride relied on rails hidden
beneath the water to guide the path of
the ship and a gas-powered engine to
drive it
on the 24th of december 1998 the sailing
ship colombia was approaching the dock
as part of a routine circuit it pulled
in to its final stop slightly faster
than normal this was ordinarily no
problem at all
the ship would often overshoot the dock
and when it did so it was standard
practice simply to bring it to a
complete stop and then reverse it into
position so that guests could get on and
off
on this occasion however one crew member
made a fatal mistake not realizing that
the ship was going to overshoot they
attached a mooring line to a cleat on
the dock as the ship carried on moving
forwards this mooring line pulled taut
a huge amount of tension was created in
the line
too much tension after just a moment the
cleat ripped away from the dock and shot
through the air smashing violently into
the crowd of guests waiting to board
three people were injured by the flying
cleat park guest loan fee dawson was hit
in the head and later died from his
injuries
his wife also received serious facial
injuries while the cast member who had
mistakenly attached the mooring line
suffered serious injuries to their foot
the scene was an incredibly distressing
one with several cast members and guests
who had not been physically injured
still requiring hospital treatment due
to shock
an investigation revealed the cause of
the accident it had indeed been caused
by the actions of the cast member who
attempted to moor the ship before it had
come to a complete standstill
but it wasn't entirely their fault
they were filling in for another
employee and had not been familiarized
with the exact workings of the ride in
addition to this the mooring rope was
made of the wrong material it should
have been a hemp rope that would break
easily under tension but instead it had
been substituted with a much more
elastic nylon rope
apparently in an attempt to reduce costs
luann phi dawson's family sued
disneyland eventually settling for an
undisclosed sum disney changed the way
in which all rides were staffed and
after a brief interval the sailing ship
colombia was reopened
it remains a feature of the park to this
day there has never been another
incident as serious or as deadly as that
which took place on the 24th of december
1998.
america sings and the sailing ship
colombia are by most reckonings
relatively tame rides but even rides
which appear sedate or safe are often
still incredibly complicated and
powerful machines
machines which can potentially go wrong
in deadly ways if they are not
maintained if the staff running them are
not correctly trained or if pieces of
equipment are substituted out for others
since these accidents disney has made
great efforts to improve its safety
record while no theme park can ever be
100 safe these accidents now represent a
sad part of the park's history they are
tragedies that all being well
should never be repeated
[Music]
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