Weight May Have Been a Factor in Death at Knott’s

Investigators are looking into whether weight was a factor in the death of a woman who fell from a steep water ride Friday at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Lori Mason-Larez, 40, of Duarte fell from the Perilous Plunge ride as it dropped 115 feet at up to 50 mph. The mother of five slipped from both a seat belt and lap bar and fell to the water below.

“The big mystery is really how she [came] out of the restraint,” said Susan Gard, spokeswoman for the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the state agency investigating the accident.

“Might she have gone unconscious for some reason and then her lap bar and seat belt were still in place but her weight had shifted in some way? . . . Weight may have been one of the factors, but there may have been others.”

Park spokeswoman Susan Tierney described the woman as “large,” and other sources also said she was very heavy.

Ed Pribonic, an independent ride engineer and licensed ride inspector, said lap bars and seat belts can be safety issues for both very small and very large people. Pribonic has not ridden Perilous Plunge and said he could draw no conclusion, but he offered two scenarios that might cause the restraints to fail.

“If [riders are] very large or very round-shaped, the bar can’t really come down and get to its most efficient position,” he said. “It can’t lock over the knees. People with [extra] weight are somewhat fluid, and their body reshapes. If they were thrown out of position, the mass of tissue that was below the lap bar at one time . . . can offset the center of gravity or balance and allow the person to come loose.”

Pribonic said the woman’s girth might have led her to adjust the seat belt below her stomach instead of around it--which would mean that it held her legs down but not most of her body.

There are no weight restrictions on Perilous Plunge, which remains closed, although park officials said they would consider the issue if investigators determine that the woman’s weight was a factor in the accident.

Park officials said ride operators all agreed that both the woman’s lap bar and seat belt were locked at the start of the ride. And when the ride returned to the loading area after Mason-Larez had fallen out, they were still locked, they said.

Tierney said park officials do not know exactly what the woman may have done after the ride started moving.

Her family declined to comment Monday, but said they will make a statement soon.

State investigators were at Knott’s on Monday and also planned to meet with representatives of Intamin AG, the ride’s manufacturer. Investigators also were trying to interview witnesses, including the woman’s relatives, who were passengers on the boat when she fell.

The same company designed Superman: Ride of Steel. In May 1999, a 27-year-old man suffered minor injuries after being ejected from the ride at Six Flags Darien Lake in New York. He weighed more than 300 pounds, and state inspectors later determined that the park should restrict the size of ride passengers and install seat belts as a secondary restraint. The ride had a lap bar. Many Knott’s rides have double restraints.

This is the second fatality at Knott’s Berry Farm in less than a month. A 20-year-old woman suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on the Montezooma’s Revenge roller coaster Aug. 31.