The owner of a French amusement park has been charged with involuntary homicide after a woman plummeted to her death from a roller coaster ride at the weekend.
Gilles Campion, the owner of the Saint-Paul fairground in Beauvais, northern France, has been placed under investigation on a charge of involuntary homicide resulting from security breaches, prosecutors said.
Being charged in France does not necessarily result in a trial.
Elodie Duval, 32, fell Saturday afternoon from the seat she was strapped into, next to her husband, on the ‘Formula 1’ roller coaster ride which also takes children.
Gilles Campion (pictured), the owner of the Saint-Paul fairground in Beauvais, northern France, has been charged with involuntary homicide after Elodie Duval, 32, plummeted to her death from a roller coaster ride in front of her family at the weekend
Ms Duval fell Saturday afternoon from the seat she was strapped into, next to her husband, on the ‘Formula 1’ roller coaster ride which also takes children
Her death came 11 years after a 35-year-old woman lost her life on the same ride. No one was charged in that case.
After the fall on Saturday, rescuers were unable to revive Ms Duval. She was celebrating her son’s second birthday.
Campion said after Saturday’s incident that the required yearly inspection was carried out last November.
Beauvais prosecutor Florent Boura told the Parisien newspaper that new seat belts installed on the ride after the 2009 accident were still in use when the inspection was done.
They have been replaced since then, triggering an obligation on the park’s management to report the modification and request a new inspection.
Campion on Thursday said he looked forward to providing input for the investigation, and said he wished the ride to be dismantled.
Ms Duval, who was at the Parc Saint-Paul theme park near Beauvais for her son Allen’s second birthday, slipped over the safety bar of the ride (File image of the ride)
Ms Duval fell after she lipped over the safety bar of the Formula 1 ride
Her husband Michael desperately tried to grab her foot but could not stop her falling, witnesses claim.
She was joined by her sister Laurianne, her husband Michael, her mother and her son Allen.
Speaking to Mirror Online, Laurianne said that Allen had been told his mother had ‘gone to heaven’.
The woman’s husband desperately tried to grab her foot after she slipped over the safety bar on the Formula 1 ride (file image)
‘We explained to him that his mum had gone to heaven. He doesn’t understand,’ she said.
‘(Elodie) was an amazing person who brought a lot of love to her family. She was full of life. She was a fighter. Her son was her life.’
She added that the family, from Verneuil-sur-Avre in Normandy, were ‘devastated after losing such a beautiful angel.’
Saturday’s incident happened at around 1.45pm local time and was witnessed by parents and children, who were left devastated.
An onlooker who was present at the time of Elodie’s death said: ‘My children wanted to get in the carousel, and we heard screaming, then I saw the lady, who was strong, fall.
‘She went over the bar and her husband tried to catch her by the foot.’
Ms Duval is understood to have been visiting the park (stock image, pictured) for the first time to celebrate her two-year-old son’s birthday
Another onlooker added: ‘We have seen children feeling sick or crying. Some were at the top when the carousel stopped.’
One witness paid tribute to Elodie on Facebook following the tragic incident. ‘It is with great sadness that I just learned about Elodie’s death in a terrible carousel accident,’ they wrote.
‘Our thoughts are with Michael, her companion, and little Allen their child, Laurianne her sister, their whole family and the medieval festival team in Verneuil-sur-Avre.
‘Have a nice trip my beautiful, may the angels watch over you.’
In 2009, a 35-year-old woman lost her life on the same ride due to her own ‘inappropriate behaviour’ and the park was not held responsible, local media reports.
The park’s manager Gilles Campion was ordered to pay damages and was handed a suspended four-month prison sentence for two other incidents.
In 2005, the Nacelle rollercoaster broke loose. Four people were seriously injured after it slammed into a metal pole, Le Parisien reports.
A similar incident left 11 people injured a month earlier.