Teenager Slightly Hurt on Ride at Disneyland

A Lake Forest teenager whose leg was caught beneath a Disneyland ride is being described as a “lucky little girl” by hospital officials and paramedics, who said Wednesday that she suffered no broken bones or serious cuts.

The 13-year-old was on Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin ride at the Anaheim amusement park about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when her lower right leg became lodged under the fiberglass passenger bucket, officials said. A Disney spokesman said the girl, who was not identified, climbed out of her seat while the ride was moving. She was trying to fetch a stuffed toy that had apparently fallen out of the car.

The ride’s cars resemble taxicabs that spin around a track. Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez said the girl managed to slip out from under her lap bar before stepping out of the car.

“She was trying to retrieve this toy, but in doing so her foot became wedged between the car and the floor,” Gomez said.

Anaheim Fire Department spokesman Jerry Austin said paramedics freed the girl’s leg within a few minutes. “It didn’t take much time at all, and her injuries were very minor,” Austin said.

The girl was taken to Western Medical Center in Anaheim, where she was seen and released within an hour, hospital spokesman Ron Bingham said. “For having her leg stuck under an amusement park ride, she was pretty lucky,” he said. “There really wasn’t any treatment given. She didn’t have a fracture, she didn’t need a cast and she didn’t need any stitches. We released her to her parents just after midnight.”

Austin said there wasn’t anything noteworthy about the incident, but because it happened inside Disneyland, “everybody gets all excited about it.”

During an accident at the Columbia tall ship ride on Christmas Eve of 1998, a visitor was killed and his wife critically injured. A park employee, who Cal/OSHA officials later said hadn’t been properly trained by Disney to operate the ride, also was injured.

The 1998 accident was the only time in the park’s 45-year history that a Disneyland visitor was killed without having done anything to contribute to the accident, officials said.