Boat ride accident kills minor boy, injures three in amusement park

A popular boat ride malfunction at an amusement park led to a horrible accident, leaving an 11-year-old Iowa boy dead and three others wounded in Adventureland Park in Altoona.

A boat carrying six people on the Raging River ride flipped on Saturday night, leaving an 11-year-old boy dead and three others including at least one other, reported Des Moines Register.

An 11-year-old Iowa boy died Sunday from injuries he suffered a day earlier when a popular boat ride at an amusement park malfunction just a day after it passed a state inspection and opened for the first time this season.

Police officers and fire department medics immediately responded to the accident at Adventureland Park. The police spokesperson said that they and witnesses assisted to free the riders from the overturned boat.

The second minor on the ride is hospitalized in critical condition, while the two other people had minor injuries, police said.

The park’s personal injury attorney wrote in a text message that safety is the number one priority at Adventureland, whereas, the Raging River is a safe ride and has been in operation for nearly four decades.

It was learnt that the Raging River ride had been cleared on Friday by the Iowa Division of Labor after conducting safety inspections of carnival-type rides.

According to media reports, it was the second fatal accident involving this particular ride in five years.

Earlier, seasonal employee Steve Booher, 68, had died from injuries he suffered in June 2016 when the ride began moving unexpectedly as he and another employee were helping riders in and out of the boats, which operate on a conveyor belt.

Booher had landed on the conveyor belt and was trapped between a boat and a concrete wall, Crime Online reported. His head was repeatedly rammed into the wall until the operator of the ride shut it down. Booher died from trauma to the skull and brain days later.

Adventureland had been fined $4,500 for a safety violation and ordered to install devices that would make sure employees are in a safe spot before an operator can move the rides.

The Adventureland Park had also settled a wrongful death suit from Booher’s wife last December.