Police Confirm Boy Fell From Ride’s Open Side

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

Earlier Wednesday, Disneyland confirmed that the park’s informal practice is to seat children toward the enclosed part of a vehicle. Park officials announced Wednesday that Disneyland was launching an exhaustive review of safety features on the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin--including its lap bar restraints--and how employees operate the ride.

Police said Wednesday that Brandon’s mother, Victoria, was seated on the far left of the vehicle, against the closed side of the carriage. Her older son, Nicholas, was in the middle next to her and Brandon, the smallest person in the car at just 45 pounds, was seated next to an open entryway. The family from Canyon Country in northern Los Angeles County was at Disneyland celebrating Victoria Zucker’s 40th birthday Friday.

“The child should always be on the inside part of the ride--that’s a standard throughout the industry,” Ken Martin, a Virginia state ride inspector and safety expert, said Wednesday night. “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 taxi cab.

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez said the park has “no formal written procedure for the seating of guests based on the age or size of the guest on the Roger Rabbit attraction.”

“However,” Gomez added, “it is an informal practice to encourage our cast members who are working the attraction to seat the child first. But in a lot of cases--a large percentage of the time--the parents will often request other seating arrangements and we defer to their wishes.”

Gomez declined to say whether park employees tried to load Brandon into the car first, citing the ongoing investigation.

Brandon remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday at UCI Medical Center in Orange.The accident occurred about 10:15 p.m. Friday, about a minute into the ride, shortly after the Zuckers’ car pulled out of the loading area, officials said. Trailing the car carrying Brandon, his mother, and brother was a second car with the boys’ grandfather and father, David Zucker.

That second car ran over Brandon, who became pinned beneath the carriage until Disneyland officials arrived, including a fireman who pulled the boy out.

Industry Moves Away From Use of Lap Bars

Gomez said Disneyland’s internal inquiry would cover three areas: the ride’s safety systems, including its lap bar restraints; warning signs and audible safety warnings as passengers are loaded onto the ride; and the procedures followed by park employees--”cast members” as Disneyland calls them--who operate the ride.

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

Industry officials have said that amusement parks have been moving away from the bench seat-lap bar arrangement on rides in favor of individual seats with safety belts.

“There should have been some type of a better restraint system, whether it be a bar, a strap or a door to keep that child from coming out,” Martin said. “Children are children. They’re not adults. They don’t have the mental capacity that adults have, and Disneyland needs to make sure that they take extra precautions to protect children. That’s their obligation.”

In announcing the internal review of the Roger Rabbit ride, Disneyland President Cynthia Harriss said the company’s inquiry had started on Saturday.

“When the review is completed, both our guests and we will feel confident about reopening the attraction,” Harriss wrote in a prepared statement.

Consultant Martin suggested going further.

“After they finish with their Roger Rabbit ride,” he said, “they need to take a look at all of their other rides to make sure they have adequate safety systems in place.”

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Who Was Sitting Where

Anaheim police confirmed Wednesday that the 4-year-old boy critically injured on Roger Roabbit’s Car Toon Spin at Disneyland was sitting on he open side of the ride with his older brother and mother on the inside.

Source: Anaheim police

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times