Today’s Mad Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
On January 1, 1991 an 11-year-old boy was thrown from the Mad Tea Cups at Disneyland and struck by a second cup. He sustained a fractured spine, shoulder injury and nerve damage in one arm.
Culled from: Disneyland History
Generously submitted by: Katrina
Two Questions:
1) How do you get thrown from a tea cup?
2) How do you get hit by another tea cup hard enough to sustain that degree of damage?
I’ve never been on that specific ride, but at the annual Firemen’s Carnival I used to go to as a child there was a ride called just Teacups. You sat in the cup thing and it spun around wildly and dipped and swooped. I was only on it once and I hated it. The centrifugal force made her head fall back overb the back of your seat; there was no head support. I forget but I’m sure there was some kind of lap belt or bar. But maybe not. Anyway, I can see a small, skinny kid might possibly fall backward out of the thing, especially if he was trying to kneel or stand or had his arms raised.
Check out rideaccidents.com. Great site for amusement park “incidents”. Lots of articles about people who are too small and slide out from under restraints, or too large and the restraints don’t latch properly. And once a ride gets going, it can’t be stopped on a dime. People bounce around between parts of the ride before it stops, adding to the injuries.
Chris