The Matterhorn Bobsleds are a familiar ride to any visitor of Disneyland. This manmade mountain was created to resemble the Matterhorn mountain located in the Alps between Italy and Switzerland. The smaller, more family-friendly Matterhorn was constructed and opened to park visitors in 1959 and has remained a staple of the park between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland ever since.
Until 1994, guests riding the Disneyland Skyway would be transported through the impressive facade of the Matterhorn and could look down into the interior of the mountain to watch the bobsleds pass.
Although the ride has undergone a number of refurbishments over the years (including one that saw the addition of the iconic Abominable Snowman), the Matterhorn Bobsleds have remained relatively unchanged and unduplicated. To this day, there is only one version of this ride found in any of the Disney parks.
Despite the ride’s position as a classic to visitors of Disneyland, the Matterhorn Bobsleds has seen its fair share of incidents. In fact, two incidents twenty years apart resulted in the deaths of passengers on board the ride.
In May of 1964, five years after the Matterhorn Bobsleds opened to the public, a 15-year-old boy named Mark Maples boarded the ride with two of his friends. In the dark of the ride, it was impossible to determine for certain the cause, but as one of Mark’s friends looked over to him at one point, Mark was already falling out of the bobsled. Once the sled had returned to the loading station, it took ride operators a moment to understand the severity of the situation. It was not until a second sled returned with a corroborating story that the ride was halted and emergency services were called. Maples was found unconscious, taken to the hospital, and treated for severe head trauma where he tragically passed away four days later.
Although potential explanations were brought forth, including allegations of hazing from his two companions, what happened to Mark Maples that day on the Matterhorn Bobsleds remains a mystery. His friends and the evidence provided refute the suggestion of hazing, and ultimately Anaheim police ruled that his death was accidental. This was the first death recorded in Disneyland’s history.
Twenty years later in 1984, a 48-year-old woman named Dolly Regina Young and her companions boarded the Matterhorn Bobsleds at around 3:30 PM. Young had been seated in the back of the ride alone while her friends were seated in front of her. About halfway through the ride, Young somehow fell out of the bobsled. Her friends did not realize this until they returned to the station and found Young was no longer with them.
At the time this accident occurred, the Disneyland Skyway was still in operation, carrying guests through the center of the false mountain. A gondola was passing through, carrying a father and two teenage daughters, as the accident took place. Reportedly, one of the teenage daughters was the first to witness Young’s fall from the bobsled and onto the ride track. The father of the girl remembered telling his daughters to look away from what happened next.
A second bobsled was passing through only thirty seconds after Young’s fall, and although she had attempted to get up, she could not move aside in time. The family in the bobsled that struck Young initially believed the body on the track was a prop, and it was not until too late that they realized the severity of the situation. The bobsled struck Young in the head and torso, killing her instantly and bringing the bobsled to a halt. The ride system detected a motionless bobsled on the track and halted any further sleds from making their descent. A cast member was alerted to the situation and went to investigate the cause and horrified at the scene, was quick to call paramedics. Young was declared dead on the scene.
An investigation was launched following the accident and police focused their attention on the ride’s seatbelt. After the accident, Young’s seatbelt was found unfastened on her seat leading investigators to believe she had either unbuckled of her own accord or had somehow come undone during the ride.
Again, what happened on the Matterhorn Bobsleds that day will never be known for certain. Disney officials vehemently believed that there was no way she had left the station unbuckled for her ride as it was part of the protocol to double-check that all seatbelts were fastened before sending the ride off. Her death was ruled accidental.
The Bobsleds were open again the day after the incident as no issues were detected with the ride system itself. In the aftermath of the accident, Young’s husband attempted to sue Disney, stating that his wife was not the type of person to unfasten her own seatbelt on a ride. After four years, the case was settled privately.
Both incidents were the result of a malfunctioning seatbelt or disregard for rider safety. Regardless of whether the victims stood up of their own accord while riding or the lap restraint somehow came undone as the bobsleds ran their circuit, the result of the two deaths that took place on the Matterhorn Bobsleds paved the way for new, safer technology to be implemented.
Following these accidents, the Bobsleds revised their restraint system, changing from belt fitted through a buckle to a traditional seatbelt style used in cars, to hopefully prevent any accidents such as the tragedies that befell Mark Maples and Dolly Young from happening again. As horrible as the occurrences were, the Matterhorn Bobsleds have maintained a spotless safety record since 1984 due to consistently changing safety regulations and updated technology.
Learning about tragedies at theme parks is a grim subject of course, but it is nonetheless important to pay homage to those whose lives were forever changed by incidents such as these, for without their experiences we would not have nearly as many safety measures in place today.
