Boy, 15, Hurt in Fall at Disneyland Hotel

A 15-year-old boy was injured early Sunday when he fell 20 feet from a Monorail platform at the Disneyland Hotel, the first serious accident since the ride opened in 1959, according to a Disneyland official.

The teen-ager, Edward Paolello of Santa Maria, was transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange immediately after the 12:30 a.m. fall. He was listed in fair condition with a shattered right elbow, a fractured left wrist and a hairline fracture of his pelvis, said Karen Wucetich, a hospital supervisor.

Paolello, who had been staying at the hotel with friends, was apparently accidentally pushed over a short wall and off the platform by a surge of Disneyland visitors as they left the Monorail, said his mother, Sylvia.

The teen-ager landed on a concrete parking area near the entrance to the hotel, she said.

“He had just gone through the turnstile and looked back to see his friend,” said Sylvia Paolello, 42, a home health aide. “He didn’t realize the change in the path and he wound up falling over the wall. He was so lucky, so lucky he wasn’t more seriously hurt.”