Amusement Center Closed After 3-Year-Old's Death
NORRIDGE, Ill. (CBS/WBBM) -- Go Bananas, an indoor amusement park in Norridge, is still closed down after a 3-year-old Dolton boy died Saturday when he fell out of his seat on a roller coaster.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Steve Miller reports, the amusement park at 4516 N. Harlem Ave. was taken to court this year after an 8-year-old girl broke her wrist.
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"Something's wrong," said attorney Mike Malatesta, who represents the family of Destiny Lofton, the girl who was injured on the roller coast at Go Bananas in 2008.
He said there was something wrong with the construction of the ride, or the way it was operated, or both.
"She was on the roller coaster. Her arm was up or back, kind of high-fiving or touching her cousin who was in the seat behind her, and her arm got pinned between the two cars of the coaster and ended up fracturing her wrist," Malatesta said.
It was not immediately learned whether Destiny was hurt on the same version of the roller coaster on which Jayson Dansby died over the weekend.
"It's just a very sad tragedy,'' said Go Bananas owner Jerrold Marks, who was reached by telephone late Sunday morning. "I can't imagine what [the family is] going through.''
Go Bananas was "packed" with weekend patrons, and Jayson and his twin brother were out that night with their parents. The boys were riding the "very small" Python Pit roller coaster when Jayson somehow freed himself from the safety bar and became wedged between two of the cars, Norridge police Chief James Jobe said.
Jayson then fell about 3 or 4 feet from the moving roller coaster.
"For some reason, he crawled out from underneath the safety bar and he fell and died from head injuries,'' the chief said.
The ride is in an area that is "walled-off" from the rest of the business and the building is divided into several sections.
"It's dark but it's not pitch dark. It's darker than the rest of the rides,'' said Jobe.
"Part of the ride goes behind another wall and that's where he fell.'' The highest off the ground the roller coaster goes is about eight feet.
Children stand in a line and then go through a "curtained-area" to board the Python Pit, Jobe said. All rides at Go Bananas are for children and they also have skee ball and video games.
Malatesta says he is concerned that the rides allow children to move around too much.
This weekend's tragedy continued sending shock waves through child's Dolton neighborhood on Monday. Jayson's father broke the news to one of his neighbors.
"I saw him this morning and I said 'How you doing?'" the neighbor told CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker. "He said 'Fine, better then yesterday,' and I said, 'What was yesterday?' And he told me about the boy. I said I couldn't believe it was him."
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
