Posted on 05/04/2005 1:57:52 PM PDT by Abathar
SANTA CLAUS, Ind. -- The father of a woman who was killed when she fell off a southern Indiana roller coaster has sued the amusement park, claiming it was negligent.
Park officials said Tamar Fellner died after falling from a Holiday World roller coaster in May 2003. Officials concluded that she stood up while the ride was moving.
The federal lawsuit comes almost two years after officials concluded no criminal charges should be filed because Tamar Fellner fell out when she stood up while the ride was moving at Holiday World.
Fellner, 32, of New York City, was among a group of roller-coaster enthusiasts who visited the park in Santa Claus on May 31, 2003. She was seated in the last row of the six-car train on the wooden roller coaster, The Raven, at the park some 40 miles east of Evansville.
Park officials said she fell from the ride while it was in the midst of a 69-foot drop. Witnesses told investigators they saw Fellner standing up in the car as it neared the drop. They also found her seat belt unbuckled when the car returned to the station.
An investigation showed her seat belt and lap bar were buckled and locked when she started the ride. An independent company, LeisureTech Services of Wildwood, N.J., also concluded that Fellner standing during the ride was the only factor contributing to her fall.
But the lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of Fellner's father, Rabbi Azriel Fellner, alleges the amusement park failed to ensure the woman was properly restrained and that the manufacturer could have used a safer design.
"The cars on roller coasters should be designed in such a way that nobody should be able to fall from them," Azriel Fellner's attorney Keith Vonderahe said. "If they're designed that way, then the (staff) at the park have to make sure that people use them properly."
Named as defendants were Koch Development Corp. of Santa Claus, which does business as Holiday World & Splashin' Safari, and the roller coaster car's manufacturer, Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters Inc. It does not demand a specific amount in damages but says they exceed $75,000.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania because the car's manufacturer is based in Hatfield, Pa.
After her death, the coaster was inspected and no mechanical deficiencies were found, Holiday World president William Koch said.
"We continue to extend our heartfelt sympathy to the Fellner family," said Koch, whose family has operated the amusement park since 1946. "This was a tragedy."
Vonderahe said the fall was an accident, but a preventable one.
Nature has a way of weeding out stupid people.
Evidently, rather than teaching her to heed warnings, they raised her to do whatever she wanted and, if anything bad happened to her, she was the victim deserving a cash settlement.
Rabbi, you're an embarassment.
Your "Stupid Alert" doesn't even begin to cover this story!
The park filing a countersuit for her damaging the sidewalk would make more sense than thislunacy.
I got this little tip from "Dear Heloise" this morning. Read the LAST line - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Vacuum Your Pets:
If you are tired of finding pet hair everywhere, hold your pet and gently vacuum up its loose hair. Introduce your pet to the idea a little bit at a time. Be sure to use the hand-tool attachment.
Fellner was with a group of wooden roller-coaster enthusiasts that were allowed into the Park before it opened to the general public.
It caused the ride to be shut down for some time (I know I had to hear the complaints about that) until the reason was determined. I agree the the Koch Family should be allowed to sue this family for the cost of all the negative publicity.
No, no. That's Rabbi Suedner.
I'm more concerned with protecting myself from incoherent sentences.
I don't know, you might be accused of antisemitism.
"My daughter was an idiot, so you need to pay because you did not properly restrain and idiot."
What an idiot!
make the lawyer pay the damages
And if your pet happens to be a cat, have lots of bandaids handy!
I'm surprised not to see any interview with the fiance who was right there. Did he tell them she fell out, or did they just "notice" there weren't as many people arriving as had departed?
Acrimonious is the word used to describe some of the exchanges at a forum where film critic Michael Medved urged Jews to take a stand against Hollywood's degradation of our common life. The forum was held at the Jewish Community Center in West Orange, NJ, and this account is from the MetroWest Jewish News. "If Jews don't speak out against this, it lets others believe those films somehow reflect Jewish values, Medved said, noting that, for the first time in movie history, the production chiefs of all ten Hollywood studios are Jews." Jeffrey Lyons, Medved's cohost on Sneak Previews, and the other panelists strongly disagreed. Lyons said that "Jews don't speak in one voice and are, therefore, stronger than groups that do." Victor Gold, who is on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said that movie makers are in it for the buck, and there's nothing wrong with that. "Al Capone did not become Al Capone because he saw Scarface as a boy," said Gold. "I believe in the free market of ideas." Once again, there crops up this curious argument that, while good films and good books elevate people, bad films and bad books do not debase them. Medved, in our judgment, has the better part of the argument. Of course Jews do not speak with "one voice" on this or much of anything else. But the reality is that many Americans perceive a disproportionately prominent, even dominant, Jewish role in the production and defense of cultural pollution. Disagreeing with Medved, Rabbi Azriel Fellner of Livingston, NJ, said that the idea that Jews contaminate culture is anti-Semitic and, were Jews to speak out as Medved urges, "all [we would be] doing is ratifying the very thing we shouldn't be ratifying." But Medved is not saying that Jews should make a public issue of Jewish culpability in Hollywood's cultural crimes. He is saying that it is not a good thing for Jews and it is not a good thing for America that Jewish voices are, with few exceptions, conspicuously absent in current expressions of concern about Hollywood's part in the degradation of our common life.
One option, of course, is to hire an attorney. The other is to explain yourself.
What's to complain about... she died doing what she loved.
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