14-year-old contemplated death, vomited twice on stuck AtmosFEAR ride: 2nd lawsuit filed against Oaks Park

A second family of a child stuck upside down for 25 minutes on the AtmosFEAR amusement ride in mid-June filed a $345,000 lawsuit Friday against Oaks Park in Southeast Portland, saying their 14-year-old feared that the over-the-shoulders safety bar holding her 50 feet in the air might release at any second.

“She said there was so much going through her mind,” the girl’s mother, Sherrie Threadgill, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “‘Are we going to get down? Are we going to die?’ Because she had heard some folks yelling ‘Are you guys going to die?’ She was trying to stay calm but after about five minutes, she said, ‘Mom, I started to lose hope.’”

Threadgill’s lawsuit — filed on behalf of her daughter, who was at the park with friends to celebrate her eighth-grade graduation from George Middle School — follows a suit filed eight days earlier by the family of another 14-year-old who was marking her graduation from a West Linn-Wilsonville charter school.

Oaks Park didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Friday afternoon’s lawsuit, but earlier in the day a spokesperson said the park would not comment about the first lawsuit or any pending litigation.

In all, 28 people — many of them children celebrating the start of summer vacation — were stranded on the “extreme” 360-degree pendulum ride when it froze while dangling them head first in the air in its “apex position.”

Ride malfunction — Oaks Park riders are shown here stuck in an inverted position on Fri., June 14, 2024.Courtesy: Illya Plaksey

Portland Fire & Rescue reported no major injuries, though one rider was taken directly to a local hospital because of a pre-existing condition, epilepsy, exacerbated by being inverted for so long.

Threadgill said she ultimately ended taking her daughter to the hospital, as well.

“When she called me, she was just screaming, crying, like that heart-pinching scream,” Threadgill said. “The one you just never want to hear from your kids.”

Threadgill said her daughter vomited twice on the ride and then again after off-loading. She said the teen also suffered bruising on her shoulders and is still struggling with severe migraine headaches two weeks later.

She said her daughter never wants to step into an amusement park again. That includes a planned family trip to Disneyland next year.

“She’s not interested,” Threadgill said.

The ride was closed for 11 days and reopened Tuesday, with the park stating it hadn’t identified any reason for the malfunction due to the equipment or operator error.

Both lawsuits were filed by Portland attorney Michael Fuller in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

— Aimee Green covers breaking news and the justice system. Reach her at 503-294-5119, agreen@oregonian.com or @o_aimee.

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