Jury awards over $200 million to family of 6-year-old girl killed on Colorado theme park ride
GARFIELD COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – On Friday, a Colorado jury awarded $205 million to the family of a 6-year-old girl who died after falling 10 stories from a ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs.
Wongel Estifanos, a 6-year-old girl from Colorado Springs, died over Labor Day weekend in 2021 after falling out of the park's Haunted Mine Drop ride, a ride that plunged six passengers 110 feet into a darkened "mine shaft."
State investigators later determined that Estifanos had not been secured by a seatbelt when operators started the ride, and instead was sitting on top of it. They also found that a ride operator had overridden a warning from the ride’s safety system, which indicated that the restraints were not properly secured.
Estifanos's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the theme park in October 2021, alleging that their daughter's death had resulted from a pattern of extreme recklessness and improper training at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.
In a statement at the time, Estifanos's parents said their mission was to "protect other families by holding all who are responsible for the killing of their daughter fully accountable, and by sending a loud and clear message to the entire amusement park industry."
Although a state investigation found that Estifanos's death resulted from multiple errors by ride operators, no criminal charges were filed after the 9th Judicial District Attorney's Office said there was not a reasonable likelihood of securing a conviction at trial.
Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park says the size of the payoff could now force it to shutter its doors.
In a statement sent to KRDO13 on Sunday, the park blamed the manufacturer of the Haunted Mine Drop ride, Soaring Eagle, accusing them of building the ride with a "defective restraint system" that led to Estifanos's death.
Read the park's full statement below:
"Our hearts go out to the family of Wongel Estifanos and everyone affected by the tragic accident that happened on September 5, 2021. 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.
Prior to trial, Glenwood Caverns offered Plaintiffs all of its available insurance money, but Plaintiffs refused to accept or ever negotiate a resolution over the past four years despite our numerous attempts.
Soaring Eagle manufactured the Haunted Mine Drop with a defective restraint system that caused this heartbreaking accident. Soaring Eagle certified to Glenwood Caverns that the ride met all applicable standards, but that was not true. They failed to perform the required engineering and risk analyses that would have undoubtedly prevented this death. In addition, Soaring Eagle was aware of two prior ejections from this same restraint design— information they hid from the world. Soaring Eagle failed Glenwood Caverns, failed the Estifanos family, and failed our community.
Glenwood Caverns was devastated by this accident and worked with independent engineers (and not with Soaring Eagle) to redesign and re-engineer the ride to prevent an accident like this from ever occurring again.
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."
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