Original story in video player above: Colorado child dies on amusement park ride

A 6-year-old girl died on a free-fall ride at an amusement park in Colorado because she wasn't buckled in, according to a report released Friday from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS).

Wongel Estifanos was on vacation with her family at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on Sept. 5, according to the Garfield County Coroner's Office. She got on the Haunted Mine Drop, a tower-style ride that "uses gravity to create a freefall," the report said. The ride carries six passengers at a time and "drops 110 feet into a shaft in the ground," the report said.

There are two seat belts for each passenger, but "when Ms. Estifanos, a six-year old girl, sat down on the ride, operators did not notice she was sitting on top of both seat belts," the report read.

The ride's control system alerted operators to the seat belt issue and prevented them from dispatching the ride. However, the report says, because neither of the operators had received adequate training, the two operators kept incorrectly fastening the seat belt mechanism and launched the ride.

"Because Ms. Estifanos was not restrained in the seat she became separated from her seat and fell to the bottom of the (Haunted Mine Drop) shaft, resulting in her death," the report said.

"Having multiple operators making decisions and participating at different steps within the ride cycle was unusual and took the focus away from passenger safety," the report said.

One of the operators was hired July 9, but didn't receive training until Aug. 5. The other was hired Aug. 21 and received training the day after, the report said.

The Haunted Mine Drop will be closed until OPS repermits the ride and the park receives a new certificate of inspection. The park has been operating for 15 years and the Haunted Mine Drop opened in 2017, the report said. The ride is billed as the world's first drop ride to go underground, according to the park website.

Steve Beckley, founder of the park, said in a written statement to CNN that the owners, management and park itself were "heart-broken" by the accident.

"There is no way we can imagine the pain of loss that the Estifanos family and their friends are experiencing," Beckley's statement read. "Safety is, and always has been, our top priority. Since opening our first ride just over 15 years ago, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has delivered more than 10 million safe and enjoyable rides."

Beckley said the park has been working closely with OPS and "independent safety experts" to review the accident.

"We received the state's final report and will review it carefully for recommendations," Beckley's statement read.

Dan Caplis, attorney for Wongel's family, told CNN affiliate KMGH-TV the girl's parents received the report and are asking people to come forward who may have seen other similar incidents at the park.

"Wongel's parents are determined to do everything in their power to make sure that no one ever dies this way again," Caplis told KMGH. "As part of this mission, they are asking witnesses to come forward, including folks who experienced problems with the Haunted Mine Drop before Wongel was killed on it."

The OPS report did detail a 2019 email in which a patron said they were sitting on the seat belts when they were a passenger on the Haunted Mine Drop. After telling the operator they were not buckled in, the operator argued with the patron. After persistent arguing, the patron finally convinced the operator they were not sufficiently buckled in and the issue was fixed, the report said.

DENVER (KMGH) – The 6-year-old girl who died after falling 110 feet on a ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Colorado earlier this month was not properly buckled in and was sitting on top of two seatbelts, according to a state investigation released Friday.

The report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s Division of Oil and Public Safety, which oversees amusement park rides, found the two people operating the ride were given indicators that one of the seatbelts was not properly buckled. It goes on to say that they didn't notice because the girl, Wongel Estifanos, had a belt strap sitting across her lap.

The report blames multiple factors for the girl’s death, including multiple operator errors and a lack of proper training and understanding of how the ride’s operator interface worked.

The report says the ride, the Haunted Mine Drop, will remain closed until the division re-permits the ride, which can only happen once the issues raised in the report are addressed. The park was closed for several days in the wake of the incident when the state required the park to give refresher training to staff working on other rides at the park.

According to the report, the two ride operators working at the time had been working at the park for about two months and less than three weeks, respectively.

The ride, which drops people 110 feet down a mine shaft, has a safety system that utilizes two different types of seatbelts – one that has a rod and is held by a buckle and is monitored by a touch-screen interface for the ride, and another which “mimics an automotive lap seatbelt,” according to the report, and is not monitored on the screen.

According to the report, the ride will not function unless the two seatbelts are buckled for each of the six seats and will give operators an error if the rod on the first belt is not locked into place. The report says operators are supposed to unbuckle the belts after each ride so the next passengers can get in and buckle themselves. But that did not happen when Estifanos got on the ride, according to the report. She reportedly sat on top of buckled belts as no one had sat in her seat on the trip before.

Further, according to the report, the operators were not trained on the ride manufacturer’s operating manual. An alarm on the interface sounded because Estifanos’s belt had not been unbuckled from the ride beforehand, and one of the operators checked the rods again and found them to be in their proper place.

The second operator arrived, removed the rods and put them back into place, and they also did not notice that Estifanos was sitting on her seatbelts.

“In checking seatbelts, Operator 2 checked Ms. Estifanos’ seatbelts by repeating the same actions as Operator 1 did in the first check,” the report says. “Ms. Estifanos had placed the tail of a seatbelt back across her lap; Operator 2 also did not notice that neither of the seatbelts were positioned across her lap.”

The two operators went back to the ride’s control room, and the interface no longer showed any errors, and one of the operators started the ride.

“Because Ms. Estifanos was not restrained in the seat she became separated from her seat and fell to the bottom of the [Haunted Mine Drop] shaft, resulting in her death,” the report says.

The Garfield County Coroner’s Office said Estifanos died of multiple blunt-force injuries.

This story was originally reported by Blair Miller on TheDenverChannel.com.

A 6-year-old girl was fatally injured while riding an amusement park ride in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, according to the Garfield County Coroner's Office.

The child, from Colorado Springs, was vacationing with her family and they visited Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on Sunday, according to a statement from the coroner's office obtained by CNN affiliate KMGH.

The girl was riding on the park's Haunted Mine Drop, according to the coroner. The Haunted Mine Drop is billed as the world's first drop ride to go underground, according to the park website.

"Perched on top of Iron Mountain, the new attraction drops riders 110 feet down inside the mountain as they listen to ghostly mining tales from days gone by," reads a press release from 2017, when the attraction opened.

The nature of the unidentified victim's injuries was not immediately available and an autopsy is scheduled for this week, the coroner's office said Monday.

The statement said the incident is being investigated by the sheriff's and coroner's offices. It did not provide any details on what might have happened.

"Immediately following the incident, Glenwood Caverns employees initiated first aid until paramedics with the Glenwood Springs Fire Department arrived and determined the child had died," says the coroner's office statement.

Some of the rides have age and height requirements, according to the park's website. The Haunted Mine Drop has a height minimum of 46 inches.

"We are deeply saddened and ask that you please keep the family of the deceased in your thoughts and prayers," the amusement park said in a statement posted to its website.

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park said it would be closed until Wednesday following the fatality.