‘Hero’ passengers secure girl mid-roller coaster as her seatbelt fails

Cassie Evins has ridden the tallest roller coaster at a Missouri amusement park more than 150 times over two decades. She often has a passing fear that she could fall, but until recently, she had always walked off the ride with a surge of adrenaline and a smile.

Her fears took on new meaning last month, when on the Mamba roller coaster’s 205-foot drop, a girl sitting behind Evins and her husband shrieked that her seat belt had come undone, Evins said. The lap bar was about a foot in front of her, the couple said.

“The first thing that popped in my head was like: ‘What if this is my daughter? What if this was my kid? What would I want to do for my kid?’ ” Evins told the Washington Post. “And so I just wanted to protect her – as a mother.”

Cassie turned around and pushed her right arm against the girl’s legs while her husband, Chris Evins, wrapped his left arm around the girl’s left arm – holding her in place while their train reached speeds of up to 75 mph .

The couple sighed in relief when the three-minute ride ended and the girl was still in her seat at Worlds of Fun amusement park in Kansas City.

The Evins’ said the girl might have fallen if they had not intervened. The Missouri Department of Public Safety was called to inspect the ride and found that about 20 of the ride’s 36 seat belts failed to lock tightly and needed to be replaced.

The couple are being hailed as “heroes” on social media and are trying to get a bill before state lawmakers that would require amusement parks to be more transparent about their safety violations.

“I reacted the way I would hope anybody would,” Chris said, “and while I’m glad we were there to help, it sucks that we had to.”

Cassie, who grew up in Olathe, Kansas, has visited the amusement park since she was a child. The first roller coaster she went on was the Mamba, and it soon became her favorite ride.

Worlds of Fun, owned by Six Flags, calls the Mamba its “iconic roller coaster” that “produces a stunning view of the entire park, and even downtown Kansas City.” The Mamba was among the world’s tallest and fastest roller coasters when it was introduced in 1998, according to the theme park.

The Evins, who have purchased Worlds of Fun season passes for more than a decade, visited Oct. 11 for a date night. The Mamba is usually the first or last roller coaster they ride.

“This time it happened to be both,” Cassie said.

They were in the second row of a black train with green and yellow stripes. They buckled their orange seat belts.

On the first drop, a girl in a pink sweatshirt behind them screamed that her seat belt was loose. The Evins spent the rest of the ride holding down the girl with their arms, they said, as wind whipped their faces.

Chris, who previously was an EMT in Johnson County, Kansas, recalled telling the girl: “We’ve got a hold of you. We’re going to get through this ride. Just hold on.” The girl, who the Evins estimated was 15 years old or younger, clung to Chris’s left wrist so tightly that she left scratch marks, he said.

Near the end of the ride, Cassie, 33, said she pushed harder to hold the girl down, and Chris, 44, said he gripped the girl’s arm tighter as they sped over consecutive hills that sometimes lift passengers a few centimeters from their seats.

After exiting their train, Cassie purchased an in-ride photo that showed her turned to the side and, she said, Chris yelling “push” as the girl clung to them. The Evins’ said they wanted proof of the incident for the girl’s family, whom they did not know, but who got in touch later and asked to remain anonymous.

Chris said he rushed to the front of the park to speak with management and ask for a refund on their season passes, as they did not plan to return.

Six Flags spokesperson Sara Gorgon said in a statement that the amusement park shut down the ride that evening and reopened it the same night after a “thorough inspection.” Gorgon said “the ride has operated safely since the initial concern was raised.”

But another woman who said her son faced a similar problem as the girl sitting behind the Evinses reported the seat belt issue to the Missouri Department of Public Safety on Oct. 29. During an inspection the next day, officials found about 20 seat belts that didn’t tighten correctly, Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O’Connell said.

While black lap bars also protect passengers during the ride, the faulty seat belts were a safety violation that required the ride to shut down, O’Connell said. The ride reopened the same day after the park replaced the seat belts, according to a Department of Public Safety inspection report. The development prompted Missouri news outlets to cover the story.

Gorgonsaid the seat belts “serve as a secondary restraint” and they received “slight modifications” after the Department of Public Safety’s inspection.

“The ride is equipped with a multi-layered restraint system,” Gorgon said, “with lap bars being the primary restraint.”

The Evins said the bill they are hoping to get before lawmakers would require Missouri amusement parks to publish the results of their inspections and repairs within 24 hours so riders know what risks might be involved. The couple is looking for a state lawmaker to sponsor it.

Cassie’s 9-year-old daughter, Luna, recently grew to four feet tall, the required height to go on the Mamba. She wants to ride it, Cassie said, but she and Chris said no.

Memories of the girl behind them screaming and crying are in the forefront of their minds.

“Even though she’s not our kid,” Chris said, “she’s somebody’s kid.”