On the 14th of June, 1959, a brand new ride opened at Disneyland, California: the Matterhorn
Bobsleds.
At the time it was one-of-a-kind – the first tubular steel rollercoaster in the world.
It proved popular with visitors, and remained in place for more than six decades, serving
millions of guests each year.
Throughout this long operational life, though, the ride would see two, separate, fatal accidents.
The idea for the Matterhorn Bobsleds was conceived by Walt Disney himself while working on the
film Third Man on the Mountain in Switzerland.
This family adventure film was about a young mountaineer’s attempts to summit the mountain
on which his father died.
Many scenes were filmed on location on the dramatic slopes of the Matterhorn mountain
in the Monte Rosa area of the Alps.
This location was clearly inspiring to Walt Disney.
He had opened the world-famous Disneyland theme park just a few years earlier.
Now he purchased a postcard featuring the Matterhorn, and wrote a note to one of the
architects working on the ever-growing park.
It read, quite simply: “Vic.
Build this.
Walt.”
Back in California, Disney executives were already considering the installation of a
new rollercoaster to occupy a part of the park known as Holiday Hill.
This hill was made from the dirt that had been excavated during the construction of
the park, and had been landscaped for use as a picnic area.
Executives were keen to do more with it, though, and plans were underway to construct a rollercoaster
or other thrill ride.
Walt Disney’s postcard from Switzerland determined the theming of this new ride…
and thus the Matterhorn Bobsleds were conceived.
The American Bridge Company was contracted to manufacture the track, which ran in and
out of a hollow structure that outwardly resembled the real Matterhorn.
It was around 45 metres (or 147 feet) tall, but used forced perspective to make it appear
taller when viewed from the ground.
The ride vehicles were shaped like bobsleds, with guests sitting in single file.
To make the ride even more exciting, a cable car ride called the Skyway also passed through
the mountain, with guests on each ride able to see and wave to one another.
The coaster opened in 1959.
Over the years which followed it was renovated and improved several times.
Interior scenes were added, as well as animatronics and other special effects.
It quickly became a favourite ride with Disneyland regulars: it offered a fast and thrilling
experience, but was still mild enough for most children to enjoy.
On the 15th of May, 1964, five years after the Matterhorn Bobsleds were opened to the
public, 15-year-old Mark Maples attended the park with friends as part of a special event
held by a local members club.
It was close to midnight when Mark boarded the ride, sitting in the middle of a car between
two of his friends.
At this time riders were kept securely within the Bobsled vehicles by a lap belt that closed
with a friction clasp.
These were checked by a cast member before each vehicle was despatched…
though once the vehicle had departed the station there was no mechanism to prevent riders from
undoing their belt should they decide to do so.
It is unclear how Mark’s lap belt came to be undone.
Disney denied that it could have been undone to begin with, as it was standard procedure
for ride operators to check each belt twice before despatching a ride vehicle.
It was speculated that either Mark himself had undone the belt, or one of his friends
had done so as part of a prank or initiation ritual.
However it came undone, his lap belt was undone.
While the ride was inside a tunnel, Mark attempted to stand and fell from the vehicle, hitting
his head as he did so.
When the bobsled returned to the station, his friends reported that they had seen him
fall.
The ride operators initially refused to believe them, and only stopped the ride and went to
investigate when riders from the next train corroborated the report of Mark’s friends.
Ride operators stopped the ride and attended the scene, where Mark was found unconscious
with a serious head injury.
He was taken to hospital, but did not regain consciousness.
He was kept alive by a ventilator for three days, before eventually passing away as a
result of his injuries.
The friends who had been riding with him were unable to provide any further insight into
what happened.
The ride had been dark and bumpy, and his fall had taken them by surprise.
They denied any implication that they had undone his seatbelt, or encouraged him to
stand during the ride.
An investigation was carried out by the Anaheim police and the Orange County coroner’s office,
with officers conducting several walk-throughs of the ride to try and ascertain how Mark
could have died.
It was ultimately concluded that the death had been purely accidental.
There was nothing inherently unsafe about the ride, as long as riders obeyed safety
instructions.
The Bobsled resumed normal operation with no changes, and Mark’s family buried their
son at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.
* Twenty years later, on the 3rd of January,
1984, 48-year-old Dolly Young visited the park with several friends, and the group boarded
the Matterhorn Bobsleds at around 3:30pm.
Dolly sat at the back of her ride vehicle, and it was despatched as normal.
As the ride passed through the mountain, Dolly fell from the vehicle and landed on the tracks.
Her fall was witnessed by several other guests – at the time, the Skyway cable car still
passed through a hole in the mountain, offering a clear view of the track where Dolly had
fallen.
A family on board the Skyway saw her fall, but were unable to do anything to intervene.
They watched as Dolly attempted unsuccessfully to stand, despite her injuries.
As they watched, another ride vehicle approached at full speed, striking Dolly and killing
her instantly.
The collision halted this Bobsled, and the screams of the riders on board brought a ride
attendant running to the scene.
After seeing what had happened, he advised his fellow operators not to look, and called
for assistance from the police and ambulance services.
Though help arrived quickly, Dolly could not be saved – she had suffered severe injuries
from the fall, but it was being hit by a ride vehicle that had made the accident unsurvivable.
An investigation was undertaken in the wake of the accident, and it was found that Dolly’s
lap belt was unfastened.
There was no way to tell whether it had been undone when the bobsled left the station,
or if it had been undone during the ride.
Disneyland representatives again insisted that it was impossible that the belt could
have been undone before the train was despatched, as ride attendants were trained to test each
belt multiple times before despatching a train.
A month after the accident, Dolly’s husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging that
the undone lap belt was due to the negligence of the employees working the ride that day.
He noted how extremely unlikely it was that his wife would have undone her own belt, or
attempted to stand, saying: “My wife was not a frivolous or daring person.
She was not some young kid that would have stood up on the ride.”
The case reached an undisclosed settlement out of court.
An investigation highlighted the fact that rides in static, established theme parks like
Disneyland were not externally regulated.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission had, previously, been responsible for inspecting
rides, but this responsibility had been rescinded in 1982.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (or OSHA) still had some involvement in the
regulation of theme park rides, but only in relation to employee safety, not the safety
of guests.
Rider safety was left entirely to Disney itself to monitor and maintain.
In the aftermath of the accident the style of seatbelt used on the Matterhorn Bobsleds
was changed – rather than closing with a friction clasp, belts now plugged into a locking
unit, making them more difficult to undo.
Disney insisted that this change was not made in response to the death of Dolly Young, but
was instead made simply because the manufacturer of the old belt system had gone out of business.
In the many years since the death of Dolly Young, many things have changed.
The Matterhorn Bobsleds have been refurbished multiple times, with new theming added to
keep the ride fresh for guests.
The Skyway has been retired, and no longer passes through the Matterhorn.
The same lap belt restraint mechanism is still used.
Disney conducts rigorous safety testing, but is also answerable to external independent
agencies, who inspect rides to ensure that they are safe and are being correctly maintained.
Many decades have passed, and although there have been other accidents within Disneyland,
nobody has died on the Matterhorn Bobsleds since 1984.
The ride, now more than 60 years old, continues to entertain millions of visitors each and
every year.