Park Ride Victim's Father: "She Was Dead"

(CBS)  A 12-year-old Florida girl is in critical but stable condition after falling more than 100 feet in an amusement park ride in Wisconsin. A safety net did not catch her.

Last Friday, Teagan Marti was looking for a thrill when she signed up for "Terminal Velocity," a freefall ride at Extreme World in Wisconsin Dells.

Teagan told her parents she wanted to do it after seeing the ride on a Travel Channel show. A person is raised to the top of a platform and then unhooked, free-falling at up to 52 miles per hour before, as the ride is designed, hitting the safety net below.

When Teagan was released, police say, the landing net was still fully on the ground. So when she hit, it did not break her fall.

The ride operator released the girl before the net was in place. In a statement to CBS News, the park said the accident was "caused by human error" and the ride operator is on "leave for mental health reasons."

Teagan is in a Wisconsin hospital with 10 fractures in her back and one in her skull. She has yet to speak.

Dr. Alex Marti, Teagan's father, was the first to see his daughter after her fall. He said on "The Early Show" Tuesday, "She was dead."

He explained, "She was basically unconscious, not moving and laying flat on her back with blood coming out of her ears and nose. Just a horrible, horrible scene. At the moment she fell and I heard that loud thud, I just assumed she was dead."

Stuart Grossman, attorney for Teagan Marti and her family, told CBS News that Dr. Marti, a radiologist, performed CPR and brought her back to life.

CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reported the ride did have an age limit. You are supposed to be 14, but 12-year-old Teagan had a signed form of parental consent to get on the ride.

Alex Marti, whose family lives near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said the trip was part of vacation fun for his daughter.

He said, "I figured that it would be safe and be fine to do. ... I watched several people before her. ... I saw several times that it was being done and it looked like everything was organized and done well."

He added, "Except in this case, the platform went up and never reached the top, and we were waiting for it to go to the top, and they were trying to lift the net below and before -- the net was still on the ground, and all of a sudden, she's released from the bucket. And she falls 100 feet directly to the ground. To me, it's just impossible to imagine that something like that could happen."

So who is at fault?

Grossman said, "(The person to blame is) the person who released Teagan early before this had reached its safe height and who didn't bother to check to see if the nets that were going to catch her were in place."

Grossman added, "The fact that you could release a rider prematurely tells you that there must be some design defect that could cause or allow that to happen. There was no failsafe method."

Grossman said there was "no backup" or "no safety net in place."

"This fellow had to make a conscious move to release Teagan," he said. "You can't just do it inadvertently. It has to be a conscious move. I'm curious as to the issues that he's faced with. So we'll see."

The park where Teagan was injured is temporarily closed. Officials say it's cooperating with the police investigation.

Tracy added there is video of Teague's accident, but police haven't released it ywt.

Overall, amusement parks have a pretty good safety record, Tracy points out. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that more than 270 million people visit American amusement parks each year. About 7,000 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries from ride accidents. An average of four people die.

Ride safety experts such as Ken Martin say you shouldn't assume all rides are safe. Martin told CBS News, "Watch the ride, ask questions, make sure the ride operator is paying attention. Make sure other rides are behaving themselves."

[pooh44]

My understanding is that this girl was under the age requirement and the father still signed the waiver to let her ride Why not question the reason the father would let his 12 year old child ride this what has happened to parental responsibility no we would rather just sue people when tragedy strikes as a result of stupid descisions

[ReneeIsMe2day]

I don't care how old you are, falling over 100 feet to the ground below is most likely going to cause serious or fatal injuries. If the ride had operated correctly then she would have been fine. Most 12 year old girls are at their adult size. I'm a 30 year old woman and I haven't grown since I was 12 years old. Well, I've grown more round but that's an entirely different sort of growing.

[AnneMarie0718]

My 12 year old daughter and I were across the street at the Mt. Olympus water park. We saw the "cage" going up so we stopped to watch. We saw the whole event and have been thinking about this family ever since. I can't imagine the terror that this family had been through, I'm sure they relive the event over and over again....we prayed for you all that day and we continue to pray for you now! I hope for updates on Teagan, my daughter asks about her daily!

God Bless,
Anne Marie

[vickieb57]

AttentionDeficit:
When this 12 year old "thrill seeker" finds that the only thrill she has to look forward to for the rest of her life is home health care coming to flip her in her bed I bet she'll be wishing her parents had made her stay closer to the couch.

[ReneeIsMe2day]

What is wrong with you? She went to a legal amusement park to ride a legal ride that worked perfectly fine with the people in line ahead of her. So where do you get off calling her names? Do you get your own thrill bullying accident victims on public forums? Get over yourself and your self righteous attitude.

[sallycat123]

Even if you have a net beneath you, when you fall 100 feet onto it you can break your neck if you land onto the net the wrong way. This ride is not safe even if there were infallible safety precautions put into place.

[tsigili]

People need to really think, before taking these potentially deadly rides in amusement parks. You really need to have a death wish, to do that.

[sallycat123]

I don't think that the park should have a "ride" like this one, even if a net can catch you, you still could break you neck if you land on the net in a wrong position. And they should certainly not allow anyone under 18 to do the "ride"

[boochaka]

I can well imagine had I accidently hurt a child like that I'd not be able to work either. I can't imagine anyone would have done such a thing on purpose. Obviously the ride, or whatever you want to call it, should have been better designed to automatically raise the net once the person began being lifted from the ground. It should never have required two different people to operate it. Accidents happen, mistakes happen, we've all made them and each of you know that. This operator made a terrible one and I have no doubt he's horribly distraught with what's happened, I know I would be! I would be on my hands and knees begging God to let me take the place of that child I injured, and he may be doing that very thing himself, we don't know. Don't be so fast to judge, I'm sure he's self-judging himself thoroughly enough as it is.

[ReneeIsMe2day]

Nice to see a voice of reason. I agree with every point you made.

[lilbear925]

Any so called "ride" that needs to have any safety gear manually deployed needs to be shut down and redesigned to prevent this sort of tragedy. If people really need to have the crap scared out of them, just remind them there will be no Social Security in ten years and they'll have to work until the're 85 before they can retire.

[PR_in_Alabama]

LOL

[Skruffy1]

This is considered a RIDE?

[dagrandma]

Note to people seeking thrills: Life itself will scare the living hell out of you someday. Why do you need to do this kind of stuff?