On Saturday, people at the Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington saw an unidentified man holding on to the safety bar of a Sky Ride chair as it went over a water fountain. He then fell about 50 feet to his death.
The Gephardt Daily of Utah said that Lucy Grace Astilla recorded the terrible event while riding with her husband.
“I thought it was a stunt or that he was a gymnast rehearsing for ‘American Ninja Warrior,'” Astilla told the paper. “But then I saw that he wasn’t wearing anything that would keep him from falling.”
She said that when the couple got to the ride operator, she shouted, “Hello, can you please stop the ride? Someone is down there.’ And that’s when we heard people screaming, but we were near the roller coaster, so I thought it might have been about that, but it wasn’t. The man fell, which is why he was yelling.”
By the time she reached the scene, a large crowd had formed.
“Someone dialed 911. “It all happened so fast,” Astilla said.
The woman said that she later saw a news report that said the ride had broken down, but she didn’t think that was true, so she gave reporters her video.
She told the news outlet, “I didn’t think that was fair, and I just wanted to show them that there’s no problem.” She also said that she wonders if the man could have been saved if he hadn’t been on the ride by himself.
“Since then, I haven’t slept well,” Astilla said. “I’m still going through a scary situation, but I think I can handle it.”
Both police and a Lagoon spokesperson said it did not appear the ride malfunctioned. An investigation is ongoing.
