23-07-2025
Boy, 2, horrifically-injured after father took him on theme park rollercoaster ride in Uruguay
A two-year-old boy was seriously injured after his father took him on a roller coaster in Uruguay.
The incident took place Saturday when the Gusano Manzana [Apple Worm] ride turned a corner at the Parque Rodó amusement park in the capital city of Montevideo.
The child, whose name was not released, was sitting on the lap of his 67-year-old father before he crashed to the ground.
Video footage filmed by a man accompanying his son showed the boy's father stand up from the seat and look down.
The concerned father then disappears from the view of the camera before the man who was recording the ride said, 'Oh, a person fell.'
The ride then came to a full stop and a woman could be heard in the background shouting, 'Stop, stop, a child fell.'
Alejandro Montero, an off-duty nurse who was visiting the park with his family, was the first person who rushed to help the child and his father.
'I saw this person on the floor trying to get up, which he couldn't, and there was someone else watching him,' Montero told Teledoce television.
'I went in, approached this man, and the first thing I did was immobilize him. It was the right thing to do as a healthcare professional. It was a fall of [nine or 13 feet] and I didn't know if he had lost consciousness or not.'
Both were rushed to a local hospital, where the child was treated for a fractured skull and remains hospitalized.
His father suffered multiple fractures and underwent surgery.
The Montevideo prosecutor's office told El Observador newspaper on Wednesday that the boy has been healing well and could be discharged in the next couple of days.
The rollercoaster was suspended by the city as part of an investigation.
Alex, one of the workers at Parque Rodo, told local television station Channel 10 that the boy's father was warned that the child could not sit on his lap before they took their spot on the Gusano Manzana.
'The adult is told that the child cannot be on the lap, it seems that once the ride is started, he puts the child back on the lap, without safety measures,' Alex said.
He explained that the ride does not feature an emergency brake system.
'If you get in and yell at me: brake for me, I can't brake it,' he said.
