ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A German roller coaster maker issending officials to a North Texas
amusement park to inspect a rideafter a woman fell to her death.Tobias Lindnar, a project managerfor
Gerstlauer Amusement Rides in Munsterhausen, Germany, told TheDallas Morning News that the company will
investigate what led toFriday’s fatal accident at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington.Witnessessaid the woman
expressed concern about the Texas Giant roller coaster’ssafety bar not completely engaging as the ride was
starting. Thecoaster is touted as the tallest steel-hybrid roller coaster in theworld."I’m sure there’s
no safety bar that is broken," Lindnar told the newspaper by phone Saturday night from
Germany.Lindnarsaid Gerstlauer has never had problems with car safety bars on any ofthe roughly 50 roller
coasters it’s built around the world over the past30 years."We will be on site and we will see what has
happened," he said.Parkspokeswoman Sharon Parker confirmed in a statement Saturday that thevictim died
while riding the 14-story Texas Giant, but wouldn’t givespecifics about what happened. Arlington Police Sgt.
Christopher Cooktold The Associated Press on Saturday that police believe the woman fellfrom the ride and
that there appeared to have been no foul play.Arlingtonpolice have referred information about the woman’s
identity to themedical examiner’s office in Tarrant County, which hadn’t disclosed hername as of Sunday
night and didn’t respond to phone messages left by theAP.Lindnar wouldn’t address the hydraulic bar’s
operation orwhether park employees should be able to determine if a person’s body istoo close to the front
of the train car to prevent the bar from beingeffective."At this time I don’t want to speak about the
technicals," he said. "It’s not so easy. It’s some special equipment."But he said once the
ride began, there was no chance of opening the safety bar."Weare committed to determining the cause of
this tragic accident and willutilize every resource throughout this process," Parker said in
herstatement. "It would be a disservice to the family to speculateregarding what
transpired."Police, fire and emergency medicalservices responded to the park around 6:45 p.m. Friday
after calls abouta woman who fell from a car while riding a roller coaster. She waspronounced dead at the
scene.Texas Department of Insurancespokesman Jerry Hagins told the AP on Sunday that Six Flags was
incompliance with state regulations requiring amusement ride operators tohave $1 million liability insurance
on each ride and provide proof of anannual safety inspection by a certified engineer.Six Flagsreceived a
state-issued sticker, like an auto inspection sticker, forthe Texas Giant in February. Hagins said the ride
now will remain closeduntil it’s inspected again and certified to be safe."It’s theride owner’s
responsibility to keep it closed, to fix it, then prove tous that it’s safe to start back up again," he
said. "If for some reasonthey can’t figure it out, no safety inspector is going to sign off
onit."Because no foul play is suspected, police are not involved in the investigation, officials
said.Theride first opened in 1990 as an all-wooden coaster and underwent a $10million renovation to install
steel-hybrid rails and reopened in 2011.It can carry up to 24 people.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.