A mother died after crashing off a high-thrill extreme slide ride in Colombia on Thursday.
Cristel Camila Garcia, 28, suffered fatal injuries after falling 15ft to the ground when she crashed off an amusement park slide, which opened just two weeks ago, to the ground below.
Ms Garcia, who has a four-year-old daughter, was told ‘don’t be afraid’ by a male worker at the top of the slide before she set off on the near-vertical drop.
She was pushed on a tyre by a female colleague on to the slide after asking: ‘Will anyone be waiting for me?’
Workers had told Ms Garcia she would end up in a swimming pool below but she flew off the slide at the first bend.
Ms Garcia died on the way to the hospital after suffering severe injuries, including to her head.
She had been at an amusement park in Chinacota, a small town in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department in the north-eastern region of the country, where she was visiting with her family.
A police investigation was ongoing and the attraction, which opened on February 21 according to Colombian media, had been closed until it was finalised.
Council chiefs said the attraction had been closed after initial investigations revealed it had not been operating with the proper license.
In a promotional video before Thursday’s tragedy a female worker boasted: ‘This is the only slide with a bend. Come and enjoy an extreme adventure with us.’
Attraction operator Entre Flores said: ‘In light of this painful event, we would like to express our condolences and sincere sympathy to the family, friends and loved ones of Cristel Camila Garcia.
‘We wholeheartedly join them in their grief during this difficult time.’
It said it had ‘activated the emergency and assistance protocols provided for such cases and initial support was provided’.
‘Entre Flores expresses its full willingness and commitment to cooperate with the competent authorities in the process of verifying and clarifying the facts,’ it added.
‘We are providing all the information required to ensure that the investigations proceed diligently.
‘Our priority always has and always will be the wellbeing of those who visit us.’
A relative of the dead woman, whose full name was Yuris Cristel Camila Garcia Manrique, insisted no-one from Entre Flores had been in touch with them.
She said: ‘So far this establishment has not contacted us at any time to say that they will assist us with the young woman’s funeral or to say that they will respond.
‘We reject what the lawyer for this establishment said, that they have contacted the family.
‘At no point have they contacted the girl’s mother or us.
‘We demand that the investigation be carried out properly and that they answer for Camila’s life, because she lost her life in an establishment where there was no security.’
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