Hero dad holds son in place when his seat belt terrifyingly fails on a rollercoaster

The whole point of rollercoasters is that they can terrify or thrill you without actually putting you in any real danger. But that wasn’t exactly the case when Delbert Latham and his six-year-old son, Kaysen, boarded the Mousetrap rollercoaster at Wonderland Amusement Park in Amarillo, Texas this week.

According to local news affiliate KVII, the father and son were aboard the rollercoaster for the second time that day when Latham decided to film their ride experience to share with his wife. But as they hit the rollercoaster’s first drop, Kaysen’s seatbelt failed, causing him to fall into the bottom of the cart. Without realizing he was still filming, Latham grabbed his son and held him for the rest of the ride.

“I’ve got you,” Latham tells Kaysen. “You’re fine. I promise.”

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Kaysen appears pretty shaken after the experience, but stayed calm throughout the rest of the ride with his dad’s reassurance that everything would be okay. Once the two left the ride, Latham notified a park employee of the seatbelt malfunction only to be told that the problem had been “happening sometimes.” Immediately afterwards, more parkgoers were loaded onto the ride (although not in the seat the Lathams had just occupied).

“That’s when it made me more angry,” Latham told reporters.

As KVII points out, not everybody has walked away from the Mousetrap scot free. Back in 2014, four people were injured on the rollercoaster. And yet, the ride continues to malfunction. Park officials have blamed the ongoing issue on the fact that the ride was originally built without seatbelts.

“Wonderland Amusement Park has taken great strides over the past 65 years to ensure the safety of our visitors at all times,” said park officials.

We hope the park takes the necessary steps to fix the ride (or shut it down) before a real tragedy occurs.