Why did a 57-year-old woman fall off a roller coaster in Rhineland-Palatinate? The police are still looking for the cause of the accident in the Klotten amusement park. There is a clear reaction to the first theories about the course of events.
The police in Rhineland-Palatinate reject speculation about the cause of the fatal fall from the roller coaster at the Klotten amusement park. The cause of the accident remains unknown for the time being, it said. Traces were secured and witnesses were questioned, the investigators said. 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 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”. On the website of the amusement park it 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 "what the park operation 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. Opened in 2004, the roller coaster is 532 meters long and 17.5 meters high. She is curvaceous with "maximum gradient and up to 60 kilometers per hour fast". On a video you can see that the ups and downs partly lead through a kind of artificial gorge.
Fatal accidents on roller coasters or in amusement parks are rare. 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. Ten people were injured when a roller coaster derailed in Scotland in 2016.
