Adelene Leong, an eight-year-old Malaysian girl who is 137 cm tall, was thrown to her death after an Australian ride operator allegedly lowered the height limit set by the ride's makers by 20 cm to ensure the safety of visitors
“The girl's death could have been prevented if the park had not ignored height restrictions,” the Australian state coroner said on Wednesday.
The accident happened on September 12, 2014, at an amusement park in Adelaide, Australia. The tragedy was caused by the park deliberately lowering the height requirement and withholding information in order to attract more visitors to the Airmaxx360 ride.
The investigation found that the original manufacturer of Airmaxx360 recommended a height of at least 140 cm, but the operator of the amusement park set the minimum height requirement at 120 cm.
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At 137cm, Adelene fell short of the recommended height, causing her to slip out of a safety trap during the ride. While the Airmaxx360 was traveling at 100 kilometers per hour, it hung upside down from its seat and was eventually thrown into the air and hit the ground, where it died from serious injuries.
At the time of the incident, the girl's mother witnessed the whole process, causing a large shadow! Speaking through her lawyer, the mother said: ‘It's almost impossible for me to live, I have to live in a parallel universe and believe it never happened.'
In response, the coroner, Ian White, ruled that Adelene's death should not have happened, was inexcusable and could have been prevented, blaming the operator for failing to set the height recommended by the original manufacturer and hiding the situation from passengers.
Adelene Leong take Air Maxx360 at the amusement park.
He made it clear that the operator deliberately hid the restrictions from authorities so that more people could ride the Airmaxx360.
A follow-up investigation revealed that Airmaxx360 would not have been open on the day of Adelene's death, but park manager jenny-lee Sullivan insisted that “there was nothing wrong with the operator” about Adelene's death and the safety of the facility.
Prosecutors chose not to bring criminal charges over Adelene's death in 2016, and the amusement park operator was convicted of breaking workplace health and safety laws the following year, but they were already too heavily in debt to pay any fines.
Ian White recommended urgent changes to Australia's rides, including a national regulatory process, a database of design registration numbers, and a stricter inspection and inspection regime for rides. I hope that the death of this innocent girl can make fundamental improvements in the control of amusement facilities in Australia, so as not to let the tragedy happen again!
