A malfunction on the AtmosFEAR ride at Oaks Park amusement park in southeast Portland, Oregon, left two teenage girls hanging upside down for around 25 minutes at a height of 30 meters.
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The incident occurred on June 14, 2024, when Chitlali Gomez-Salais, then 13, and Evie Yanota, 14, were celebrating the end of the school year during a summer outing. The ride, which performs 360-degree rotations, suddenly stopped in the middle of operation.
Following the trial, which began on Monday, each of the girls will receive $275,000, bringing the total compensation to $550,000. The verdict was handed down two years after the incident.
During their testimony, both teenagers said they had experienced severe headaches because of blood pooling in their heads. They also saw other passengers in the car vomiting from fear and the pressure of the situation.
The girls said their main concern was the possibility that the safety restraints might come loose. “I thought maybe we didn’t have much time left,” Evie Yanota testified. Meanwhile, Xitlali Gomez-Salais, visibly emotional during her testimony, said: “I didn’t want people to watch me die.”
After the accident, Xitlali said she suffered from anxiety, took antidepressants for a period of time, and began to fear elevators and air travel because she thought she could become trapped or lose her life at any moment.
Evie Yanota, who is a Korean martial arts champion, said the physical consequences forced her to temporarily stop competing. Both girls, who are now 16, received psychological support.
At the time of the incident, around 30 people were in the AtmosFEAR car. Nine of them filed lawsuits, but seven reached out-of-court settlements for undisclosed amounts.
The two teenagers were the only ones to take their case to trial, seeking a total of $2 million from Oaks Park and the Italian company Zamperla, which manufactured the car.
Both sides acknowledged responsibility for the equipment malfunction, as the car should not have completed a full 360-degree rotation because of the uneven distribution of the passengers’ weight. However, the companies’ attorneys argued that the physical and psychological effects had not been long-term and that the girls had continued with their lives normally.
As for Evie Yanota, it was reported that she returned to martial arts and won national titles, despite claiming that a shoulder injury would prevent her from competing again.
Following the verdict, Oaks Park stated that “safety is our absolute priority” and that the park would continue cooperating with manufacturers and state regulators to ensure the protection of visitors.
