[CarolinaCoasterFreak]

A 15-year-old girl died and two other people were hospitalized with severe injuries after an amusement park ride in Barcelona, Spain, broke in midair, a city spokeswoman said.
A young boy who was on the ride suffered minor injuries, but walked away from the twisted metal on his own, Barcelona spokeswoman Rosa Diaz said.
The names of the victims have not been announced.
The mechanical arm of "El Pendulo" (The Pendulum) broke and the basket carrying the teens fell on top of the ride known as "The Golden Mine," said Sara Jaurriete, director of the Tibidabo amusement park.
The park's website describes El Pendulo as "the ultimate free fall and the first of its kind in Spain."
The ride has a "long articulated arm where passengers are taken up to 38 meters (124 ft). From here, you are dropped in a free fall reaching 100kph (60 mph) in 2.8 seconds. Once you reach the bottom, the arm takes you through a 50-metre arc," the park's website says.
The Pendulum has been in operation for the past four years, and it is billed as one of the park's main attractions.
About 4,000 visitors were in the park when the accident happened Saturday evening, Jaurriete said.
The park will be closed on Sunday as an investigation begins.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/18/spain.amusement.park.death/index.html?iref=NS1

Another article said:

At least 12 people have died in theme park and fairground accidents in Spain since 2000, eight of them children.

Anyone know how that number is compared to the US?

[TrojanCamMan]

That is crazy!

For images of the ride pre failure, see the link below.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=229&linkid=2440

Also for all ride accidents you since 1998 you can go to this website.
http://www.rideaccidents.com/

[Jay]

This is quite creepy, as I did ride that very ride in 2007.

Some pics:





It was one of the scariest rides I had ever been on, but how did it operate for so long before this happened? I wonder if it was a maintenance issue or something else entirely. Tibidabo was an awesome park, but a few of the rides did seem "unsafe." I hope everything works out for them.

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

I read about this on coasterbuzz, there are a lot of accidents happening all of a sudden, very strange... Thats crazy that you had rode that ride a few years ago, I guess that better than a few weeks or days before it happend. Its amazing some others walked away unharmed... sad that the 15 year old had to die like that.. Well hopefully all of these accidents will stop happening and I hope nothing like this ever happens at carowinds..