Police Tout Quick Action, Careful Probe at Disneyland

Several Anaheim police officers and detectives swarmed into Disneyland on Friday night to investigate an accident that critically injured a 4-year-old boy, a police spokesman said Saturday.

“We were there. We responded appropriately,” said Lt. Joe Vargas. “We’ve done everything that we can.”

The rapid response by Anaheim police detectives was in marked contrast to Christmas Eve 1998, when one person was killed and two others injured on the Columbia Sailing Ship ride. Both Disneyland officials and Anaheim police were harshly criticized for their handling of the case.

Disneyland mopped up the 1998 accident scene before police arrived, and notified paramedics right away, but not police.

For their part, Anaheim investigators did not reach Disneyland for three hours after the accident, and then spent their first 90 minutes at the amusement park waiting in offices while Disney officials brought employee witnesses to them.

After those actions were criticized, then-Police Chief Randall Gaston told Disneyland officials that his investigators would handle park accident scenes, which were to remain undisturbed until police arrived. Later, Disneyland agreed to have an Anaheim police officer posted at the park. In addition, a state law that took effect this year requires amusement parks to notify the state immediately of deaths or serious accidents.

In Friday’s accident, the response appeared to follow the reform plan.

Police received the call at 10:15 p.m., minutes after the boy became trapped under a car on the Roger Rabbit ride. Anaheim Police Officer Brad Wagner, who was on duty inside the park, hurried to the scene and alerted his department. When Wagner arrived, the boy was still pinned underneath a car of the ride.

Backup officers, including one supervisor, arrived at Disneyland about 10:30 p.m., Vargas said. Off-duty crime scene officers and detectives were later called in, although Vargas wasn’t sure of the total number of police officers on the scene Friday night or Saturday morning.

Anaheim fire and paramedic personnel were called at 10:19, and 11 Fire Department staff members and paramedics responded, said Anaheim Fire Battalion Chief John W. Kelley. He did not know what time the units arrived. By the time they reached the Roger Rabbit ride, Disneyland’s firefighters had pulled the boy from under the car, and a nurse and firefighters were giving the boy CPR.

Another change from 1998: Disneyland cleaning crews were told to wait until after police finished processing evidence.

In addition, Disneyland called Cal/OSHA, the state agency in charge of investigating park accidents, at 2:30 a.m. Saturday to inform it of the incident.

The Police Department, Vargas said, learned many lessons after the 1998 accident that killed Luan Phi Dawson, 33, who was visiting Disneyland from Washington state.

Now, an Anaheim officer is on duty while the park is open and officers patrolling carry two radios--one linked to the department’s communications center, and a second radio that carries transmissions of Disneyland security.

After Friday night’s accident, police interviewed several witnesses--although it wasn’t immediately clear whether the witnesses were Disneyland employees or park visitors.

“It will be a thorough investigation,” Vargas promised. “Whenever there is a serious injury we conduct an investigation.”

That is another clear departure from 1998, when Gaston said that because the death had obviously been an accident, the Police Department did not need to investigate.