DENVER — A Colorado prosecutor says he cannot prove that any individual is responsible for the 2021 death of a 6-year-old girl who died on an amusement park ride and has decided not to file charges in the case.
The Denver Gazette reports that Ninth Judicial District District Attorney Jefferson Cheney said in a Jan. 25 letter he doesn’t have enough evidence to determine which of two park workers failed to buckle a safety belt for Wongel Estifanos before she fell from the Haunted Mine Drop ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.
The ride plunges passengers 110 feet inside Iron Mountain. Estifanos, who was on vacation with her family, died Sept. 5.
Sept. 7, 202100:58
Park visitors are required to sign a release of liability waiver before going on any rides or attractions.
Cheney said he could not prove “beyond a reasonable doubt any one person or entity acted with criminal negligence or was criminally reckless beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to the letter obtained late Tuesday by The Gazette.
State regulators fined Glenwood Caverns Holdings LLC, which owns the park, $68,000 after investigators found workers didn’t notice the girl was sitting on safety belts and not buckled in. The park closed temporarily and workers underwent additional safety training after the incident.
Wongel’s parents slammed the DA’s decision in a statement to NBC News.
“Once again our daughter’s life has been treated as cheap and meaningless,” they said. “First by the amusement park and now by the DA. We never wanted the people who killed our daughter to go to jail. But for the DA to let them off with nothing says our daughter’s life was worth nothing. Justice should be equal. Our little girl should matter as much as a big corporation. What a terrible message to send.”
The parents added: “… We want the full truth. We want justice for our daughter. We want to protect others. The criminal system failed our daughter. We will now go to civil court and prove it on our own.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
