ANAHEIM : Boy in Fair Condition After Monorail Fall

Edward Paolello, the youth who suffered serious injuries in a fall from a monorail platform at Disneyland over the weekend, was reported in fair condition Monday after surgery to repair a broken right elbow.

“He’s doing very well,” said Fran Tardiff, a spokeswoman for UCI Medical Center in Orange, where the 15-year-old boy was being treated. “He’s awake and responding and expected to make a complete recovery.”

Paolello, from Santa Maria, broke his elbow, left wrist and pelvis early Sunday after falling 20 feet from a monorail platform at the Disneyland Hotel in the first serious accident since the train ride opened in 1959.

Witnesses said the youth was apparently accidentally pushed over a short wall and off the platform by a surge of passengers as they left the monorail.

Disneyland officials said Monday that the ride was still open, although their investigation into the incident was continuing.

“To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened before,” spokesman John McClintock said.

Anaheim officials, meanwhile, echoed those sentiments, describing Disneyland’s safety record as “impeccable.”

“It sounded to me as if it was a complete accident,” city spokesman Bret Colson said of Sunday’s incident. “We are comfortable with the level of safety that currently exists over there. Disney has an outstanding safety record, so I’m sure that this is just an isolated incident.”