Tragic Kingdom - A Death On Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain

Today, we have another post that can be filed under the heading of, "Tragic Kingdom."

Twenty years ago today, a fatal accident occurred on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction.  It was the tenth death in the park's history, and the second in only five years, following an accident in 1998, involving the Columbia Sailing Ship.

Ten other passengers aboard Big Thunder were injured, with nine of them being transferred to local hospitals.

The timeline given below has to be wrong, because if the passengers boarded the ride "about 11 a.m.", it wouldn't have taken 20 minutes for them to reach the second lift, where the passenger cars detached from the engine.

The section labeled, "Accidents Since 1997" (above), reveals just how many incidents had occurred at the park, within only a six-year period.  However, it fails to mention the 6-year old girl who lost two-thirds of her index finger, after getting it caught on a rifle on Tom Sawyer Island (in January of 2001).  It also does not mention the 4-year old boy, who fell off of King Arthur's Carousel, and ended up in the hospital with a concussion.  That accident occurred on the same day as the Columbia incident.  And that last accident listed, mentioning a "double-deck boat" tipping over, is referring to the Mike Fink Keel Boats.  Unfortunately, that attraction never reopened after that incident.

Following this accident, and the one involving the Columbia, there was a lot of finger-pointing at park management, accusing them of making cutbacks to proper employee training and attraction maintenance.  According to Wikipedia, "The cause of the (Big Thunder) accident was determined to be improper maintenance.  Investigation reports and discovery by the victim's attorney, confirmed the fatal injuries occurred when the first passenger car collided with the underside of the locomotive.  The derailment was the result of a mechanical failure, which occurred due to omissions during a maintenance procedure."

For further information on the accident, and the legal settlements that followed, here is an article which also mentions how park management admitted to incorrectly performing maintenance on the attraction.

Incidentally, Cynthia Harriss resigned from her role as President of the Disneyland Resort, just one month after the Big Thunder accident.  The next year, she followed in the footsteps of former chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Paul Pressler, and took a job working for The Gap.  I wonder if she ever gave couch-painting lessons to The Gap employees (as she had done once, during a Disney cast member party).

 

Big Thunder Mt. Railroad - 30th Anniversary

Today, Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is celebrating it's 30th Anniversary. The following photos were all taken in September of 1979, just a few days after it opened. I shot these myself with a Kodak Instamatic Camera and Kodak 110 slide film.

.

All of these shots were taken while waiting in line to ride the attraction for the very first time.




.
I was twelve years old when construction began on Big Thunder and I remember being very anxious for it to open. After all, it took over two years to build and when you're a kid, that's an eternity! I actually wrote to Guest Relations during that time and they sent me some pretty cool information on the attraction, which got me even more excited. I was even able to go backstage a couple times while it was being built, because a friend's father worked on it's construction.

Unfortunately when Big Thunder finally did open, I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with the finished product. One of my complaints was that Disney had made the whole thing seem so much better in both the description and the concept art....but my biggest complaint was (and still is to this day) that the trains have to stop THREE separate times during the ride to go up yet ANOTHER chain lift! I would much rather go on the Matterhorn....or Space Mountain, which gets all three of it's chain lifts out of the way at the beginning of the ride so you have a fun, uninterrupted free-falling trip to the finish!
.
Actually, I am even more disappointed today when I think back to the days of Nature's Wonderland Mine Train (which Big Thunder replaced.) I really wish that incredible attraction had never been removed! There was even further disappointment when I learned years later about how Big Thunder was originally going to be part of Big Thunder Mesa at Walt Disney World, which would have also included Marc Davis' legendary, but never built Western River Expedition attraction. Maybe someday that attraction will get built in one of the parks.
.
But enough of that! I hope everyone enjoys these photos. I still remember taking them thirty years ago and what it felt like to be standing in that line waiting for my very first ride.