Officials Still Don’t Know How Man Lost Fingers to ‘Pirates’
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, but for a British tourist, losing two fingertips to the Pirates of the Caribbean does not make for a happy time.
According to officials at the world famous theme park, an unidentified man visiting from the United Kingdom lost two fingertips on the wildly popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride on the morning of July 10. WKMG Local 6 in Orlando reports the man lost the tips of his ring and pinky fingers on his right hand.
Park officials still don’t know how the man was hurt, and the ride was shut down for the rest of the day Thursday while an investigation took place. The ride has since reopened after officials found no fault with the ride itself. The injured man has yet to come forward with an explanation of what happened and officials are left to speculate on how the bizarre injury occurred.
This is not the first time that a guest has been injured on a Disney park ride. As The Inquisitr reported on Saturday, there have been quite a few accidents on Disney rides, some of which resulted in death. Two of those deaths occurred on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, the last in August, 2009 when a park performer and actor slipped and fell during a staged sword fight and later died from his injuries.
The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is a mainstay in the Adventureland area of Disney World. The ride originally opened in March of 1967 at Disneyland in California, and was replicated in the Orlando theme park in 1973. It is a slow-moving, water-based ride where cars of park guests glide along a track watching animatronic characters sing and dance and live “the pirate life.” The characters are modeled after pirates, british sailors, wenches, and even animals, and as the ride goes on, the themes get darker and more macabre as the pirates turn into ghouls. In 2006, the ride was altered from its original concept to adopt themes and characters from the Walt Disney Pictures film franchise starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.
As reported by E! Online, the ride begins with a booming voice of an actor portraying a pirate telling all patrons to, “Sit closer together and keep your ruddy hands inboard. That be the best way to repel boarders. And mark well me words, mateys, dead men tell no tales.” Apparently, the British tourist ignored the pirate and paid the very steep price of two fingers.
[Image Courtesy of Gothicpirates.wordpress.com]
