6 year-old California boy dies after jumping off a ferris wheel

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dark_shadows

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HOW IN THE HELL WAS THIS 6 YEAR-OLD ALLOWED TO RIDE ALONE!!!!!!




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STOCKTON, Calif. — A 6-year-old boy plunged 90 feet to his death from the top of a Ferris wheel while his mother watched from below at the San Joaquin County Fair, authorities said.

Ruben Castillo was riding alone in his gondola, which was near the top of the 100-foot Giant Wheel when he fell Sunday afternoon, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
 
No kid of that age should be allowed to ride alone...
The park and mother are nuts.....:eek:
 
Pharlap said:
No kid of that age should be allowed to ride alone...
The park and mother are nuts.....:eek:
Click to expand...


The mother in particular!!
 
This child as many other children is a victim of poor judgement and poor parenting. The "I never thought" is appropriate in this case.

Some people just cannot see the forseeability of what they do, they cannot "determine" what affect if any their decision would entail.

I have seen it many, many times.

There is no age restriction on rides unless posted, children are not required to be with an adult again unless posted, a child can partake of a ride if posted height and weight requirements are meet.

This is extremely unfortunate incident, very unfortunate.

But lets look at how the mother feels watching her son fall over 20 metres to his death below, in front of her.

No one on this planet, can ever feel as bad or guilty as this women will for the rest of her life.

Like a parent who allows their child to ride an ATV and watches it "tip over" and the child is dead. Well the posted age would have been say 8+, and the child was nine........

At least this child was not killed intentionally.....like so many others.
 
CyberLaw said:
This child as many other children is a victim of poor judgement and poor parenting. The "I never thought" is appropriate in this case.

Some people just cannot see the forseeability of what they do, they cannot "determine" what affect if any their decision would entail.

I have seen it many, many times.

There is no age restriction on rides unless posted, children are not required to be with an adult again unless posted, a child can partake of a ride if posted height and weight requirements are meet.

This is extremely unfortunate incident, very unfortunate.

But lets look at how the mother feels watching her son fall over 20 metres to his death below, in front of her.

No one on this planet, can ever feel as bad or guilty as this women will for the rest of her life.

Like a parent who allows their child to ride an ATV and watches it "tip over" and the child is dead. Well the posted age would have been say 8+, and the child was nine........

At least this child was not killed intentionally.....like so many others.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts.
 
There must be a height restriction at least. Why would the boy jump off? Was he scared? I won't ride those rides myself because I don't like heights, but always made hubby ride if the kids wanted to go.
 
My son wanted to ride the ferris wheel when we where at the beach in May. He met the height restrictions, but they would not let him ride alone. I hate height rides but had to go with him. I am wondering why this little one wanted
to jump also. Hopefully if he was scared or upset, they would have a least stopped the ride and let him off. The ferris wheel stops quite a bit to let riders on and off.
 
This reminds me... A couple of weeks ago my whole family went up to Chattanooga, TN to an amusement park. There is a big lake in the middle with peddle boats and a chair lift that runs over the lake from one end of the park to the other then back around so that you pass others ahead of you. Well as I was riding it I saw one small child after another riding ALONE in the chair lift. I mean young like four or five years old!! And there is NO seatbelt on that thing just a bar that slides down that would be about chest level with me. So there is plenty of room to jump or fall out. I was wondering why parents would let their child ride something like that. I have an eight and five year old and would not let them ride alone.

I think the amusement park should not have let him on that ride.
 
Sandy247 said:
My son wanted to ride the ferris wheel when we where at the beach in May. He met the height restrictions, but they would not let him ride alone. I hate height rides but had to go with him. I am wondering why this little one wanted
to jump also. Hopefully if he was scared or upset, they would have a least stopped the ride and let him off. The ferris wheel stops quite a bit to let riders on and off.
Click to expand...

This past summer is the first time my kids have been allowed to ride anything by themselves, mainly because of my own fear of the rides. We were at Six Flags and they went on the Mr. Freeze. I sat there the entire time crying my eyes out because I was thinking my daughter would be scared to death and want to get off and they wouldn't be able to hear her. :( It was a horrible 20 minutes for me. BUT, she came off laughing her head off saying it was a blast. So, they go every few days now that school is out and they love it.

I can't imagine this little boy being so scared he'd jump nor his mother's horror as she watch him.
 
How sad!!!!! I can see how a six year would freak and panic and try to get out if they were scared!!!! I can't imagine a child that young riding alone!!!! Insane!

Sophia Castillo, boy's mother: "He was excited to go on the Ferris Wheel, and so we let him on. And he was doing great the first two times he went around. Then, it's just when it stopped, that's when he panicked and he got scared. I know when he was still inside, he was yelling, he was scared. That's where it all started -- when it stopped. When he was on the ride, he was fine. He was doing okay. I just don't think he realized that it stops and it lets people out at the bottom. And he just kind of panicked and he was scared."

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4285548
 
Pharlap said:
No kid of that age should be allowed to ride alone...
The park and mother are nuts.....:eek:
Click to expand...

The mother asked the employee if her son could ride with another group, and the employee turned her down and placed him by himself.

I guess the ride stopped and he panicked.

There is a video link on CNN showing the mother talking about it.
 
Jeana (DP) said:
I can't imagine this little boy being so scared he'd jump nor his mother's horror as she watch him.
Click to expand...
Hi Jeana,
I cannot imagine the horror.
The attendents should have allowed the child to sit with someone.
They (the attendents) never should have let a 6 year-old ride alone.
Sassygerl,Thanks for the video link.The mother wanted her child to ride with someone.Just as Laneymae stated,the attendent said no.
 
I don't do amusement parks, not at all, never go on rides, just the "holder" of the personal items and of course the person with the money.

So my kids can bring along a friend, because they want someone to ride with, I have no problem with that, they get to ride on "two person rides" together.

Instead of "enjoying" and sharing the experience with "total strangers".

Some kids who don't know each other are "loathe" to ride with others they don't know.

If this attendent said this child cannot ride with some one else, the mother could have always put her child over and above the child's request to go on this ride.

Safety is paramount........over and above what a child of six wants....

Why is it the job of the attendent to "play" parent, look out for the safety of someone else child when the parent is present, and advise the parent of what they should or should not do. That again is the job of the parent.

The Mom knowing that her son was alone could have declined to allow him to go on, or go on the ride herself with him.

Would she have "listened" to anyone who had concerns about a six year old going on a ride. Most parents "trump" what others say, or discount what they say, tell them to MYOB, say I know what is "best for my child" you are not his parent.

After all she is the parent who is responsible for this child safety, not strangers.......
 
To put the 6-year old in the care of others wouldn't have been right either. They should have made the mother ride with him or not at all. I wouldn't take responsibility for a 6-year old that I didn't know nor would I allow my children to ride with him. Okay, I might have let him ride with me, but since I'm too chicken, that wouldn't happen anyway. :chicken:
 
I am not going to sit here and say what the mom should have done or what the attendant should have done...

This was a terrible accident and I am sure the the mother will blame herself in some way or another for the rest of her life.

My heart breaks thinking about how scared the little guy was and I can't even begin to imagine what mom was feeling as she watched son fall to his death. I do not personally know how one could ever recover from such an experience.
 
lisag - It seems you think like I do. There is such a thing as an accident without placing blame. I'd simply not know how to take my next breath if my/their judgement regarding a ride killed my daughter.
 
lisag said:
I am not going to sit here and say what the mom should have done or what the attendant should have done...

This was a terrible accident and I am sure the the mother will blame herself in some way or another for the rest of her life.

My heart breaks thinking about how scared the little guy was and I can't even begin to imagine what mom was feeling as she watched son fall to his death. I do not personally know how one could ever recover from such an experience.
Click to expand...


Well I understand and agree with you about the mother, but not the attendant. These sort of accidents happen frequently and the people who own the park/rides get sued. That's why there are age/height restrictions for these rides. The attendant should have known better than to allow the child alone on the ride, period.
 
I don't think a 6 year old should ride a ride like that alone.. If some adults are afraid, then I'm sure a lot of kids would be as well.. :twocents:
 
Was this kid mentally handicapped? Most kids--even 6 year olds--have enough sense of preservation not to make a 100 foot jump.

I've seen people hurt and killed on thrill rides before--such as the grown man sling-shotted out of a Scrambler right into a concrete retaining wall at Astro World due to a defective restraining harness back in the 1970s--and the idiot who stood up at the TOP of the Great American Coaster at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, yelled "Look at me!" and then plummeted into what was effectively the gears of the machinery for the ride 60 feet bellow, also in the 1970s. I think those deaths had a lot to do with the invention of the "idiot proof" passive restraint systems on most rides. This is the first ferris wheel related death I'm familiar with though.
 
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