After a fatal fall from the roller coaster at the Klotten amusement park in Rhineland-Palatinate, the police continued their investigation on Monday. Traces had already been secured and witnesses questioned, the investigators said. Speculations about a technical defect, negligence or carelessness said that the cause of the accident remained unknown for the time being. It will be determined in all directions. In the case of deaths of this kind, public prosecutors can also order the involvement of experts and the autopsy of the victims.
On Saturday afternoon, a 57-year-old woman from St. Wendel in Saarland fell out of the moving roller coaster. She suffered fatal injuries. Attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful. According to the amusement park in Klotten in the Cochem-Zell district, the roller coaster, which opened in 2004, is 532 meters long and 17.5 meters high. She is curvaceous with “maximum gradient and up to 60 kilometers per hour fast”.
According to its own statements, the park remained closed on Monday, as it had on Sunday, “to support the authorities in quickly clarifying the course of the accident”. The theme park’s website said: “We would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest sympathy to the family, relatives and friends! Our Klotti team is still shocked and stunned.” Because the cause of the accident was initially unclear, it remains unclear for the time being “how parking operations will look like in the next few days”.
The park was opened in 1970 as a wildlife park on the Moselle heights near Klotten, according to the website. Since the 1990s, it has been expanded into a leisure and family park with new attractions. The roller coaster opened accordingly in 2004.
Despite all safety measures and technical measures: Fatal accidents with roller coasters or in amusement parks may be rare, but they attract special attention when the thrill ends fatally. In mid-July, a 14-year-old girl died in a serious accident on a roller coaster in Aarhus, Denmark. In September last year, a six-year-old fell off a roller coaster at a Colorado amusement park. She wasn’t buckled up properly. And in June 2016, for example, ten people were injured when a roller coaster derailed in Scotland.
