CHICAGO, April 21 (UPI) -- The parents of an Illinois toddler killed after falling from a kiddie roller coaster have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against a theme park, authorities said.
An attorney for the parents of 3-year-old Jayson Danby of Dolton said the boy's death on the Python Pit roller coaster at the Go Bananas indoor theme park April 2 was the result of "gross negligence," the Chicago Sun-times reported Thursday.
Ride operators had told mother Lisa Danby every rider is checked to make sure they are "secured" in the ride, a police report said.
However, Jayson got free of the ride's restraining bar and stood up, falling head-first between the first and second cars of the roller coaster, which did not stop and ran over him, authorities said.
The coaster operator said she pushed the emergency stop button on the ride but told investigators the ride "won't stop until it goes through a full cycle," the police report said.
The lawsuit alleges Go Bananas failed to have an emergency stop function, adequate braking and passenger-restraint systems on the roller coaster and did not have the ride adequately inspected and maintained, the Sun-Times said.
