Police Say Boy Fell From Open Side of Disney Car

Four-year-old Brandon Zucker was sitting on the open side of a Roger Rabbit car at Disneyland, with his mother and older brother to his left, when he toppled out Friday and was critically injured, Anaheim police said Wednesday.

Disneyland said that the park’s informal practice is to seat children on the enclosed side of the ride, and park officials announced Wednesday that they will review safety features on the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin, including its lap bar restraints and employees’ operation of the ride.

Police said Brandon’s mother, Victoria, was seated on the far left of the car, against the closed side. Her older son, Nicholas, was seated in the middle and Brandon, the smallest person in the car at 45 pounds, was seated next to an open entry space. The family is from Canyon Country in northern Los Angeles County.

“The child should always be on the inside part of the ride--that’s a standard throughout the industry,” said Ken Martin, a Virginia state ride inspector and safety expert. “And that’s even more important in a gravity-ride situation, where the passengers are being spun around. You always put the heaviest person on the outside.”

It is not uncommon for three people to ride in a Roger Rabbit car.

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez said the park has “no formal written procedure for the seating of guests” on the basis of age or size.

“However,” Gomez said, “it is an informal practice to encourage” attendants to seat the child first. “But in a lot of cases . . . the parents will often request other seating arrangements and we defer to their wishes.”

Brandon remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. The accident occurred a minute into the ride, shortly after the Zuckers’ car pulled out of the loading area, officials said. Trailing them was a second car with the boys’ grandfather and father.

That second car ran over Brandon and pinned him beneath the carriage until Disneyland officials arrived.

Gomez said Disneyland’s inquiry would cover three areas: the ride’s safety systems, including its lap bar restraints; warning signs and audible safety warnings given as passengers are loaded onto the ride; and the procedures followed by park employees.

The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health is scrutinizing whether more than three employees should have been operating the ride, whether their training was sufficient and whether lap bars are adequate.

Industry officials have said that amusement parks are moving away from bench seats and lap bars and toward individual seats with safety belts.

Martin said that after this inquiry, Disneyland “needs to take a look at all of their other rides to make sure they have adequate safety systems in place.”