Roller Coaster Hurtles Wrong Way, Killing 2

By Robert D. McFadden     New York Times     August 30,1999

A roller-coaster car climbing skyward at a New Jersey shore amusement park lost its traction near the peak of its ascent Saturday night and, plunging 30 feet backward onto a sharp curve, hurled a woman and her 8-year-old daughter out to their deaths as dozens of horrified witnesses looked on. Yesterday, as investigators focused on a bizarre double mechanical failure on the Wild Wonder roller coaster in Ocean City, N.J., witnesses gave chilling accounts of the deaths of Kimberly Bailey, 39, and her daughter, Jessica, of Pomona, N.Y., who were among four amusement-ride fatalities nationwide last week. ''I saw the car going up,'' recalled Tammy Matczak, 38, of Tylersport, Pa., whose two children were waiting to board the ride. ''Then something let loose, and the car came slamming back downward. I saw two bodies fly, incredibly. It was a woman and a child. The woman slammed into a beam. The child just flew. I knew right away they had to be dead.'' After a day of intense preliminary investigation, William M. Connolly, director of the state's Division of Codes and Standards, which regulates and inspects amusement rides, said the fatal plunge occurred about 10 P.M. as the car bearing the mother and daughter was being drawn up by a chain to the highest point of the tracks. Beyond the 41-foot pinnacle, Mr. Connolly said, the drag chain is supposed to let go automatically, allowing gravity to take over as the freewheeling car picks up speed and hurtles down on a looping, whipping, zigzag course that takes 60 seconds and has been described by riders as exciting to terrifying. But for reasons that were unexplained yesterday, Mr. Connolly said at a late afternoon news conference, the drag chain ''released prematurely'' and the car plummeted backward. At the same time, he said, an anti-rollback device similar to an emergency brake, intended to prevent a car from falling backward, also failed for reasons not yet determined. After the two failures, Mr. Connolly said, there was nothing the ride's operator could do as the car rushed back toward a 90-degree curve at the base of the ride's initial ascent. It is a curve that the cars pass slowly going up, and was never intended to be negotiated by a car going backward at high speed. While the car remained on the tracks -- gripped by wheels designed to hold them from above, below and on the sides -- the centrifugal force of the car rounding the curve hurled the mother and daughter out, Mr. Connolly said. He noted that a safety bar across the riders' laps failed to hold them in, apparently because it was designed to prevent forward, not backward, movement. Moreover, he said, the car, decorated to look like a puppy or a teddy bear, had no door to prevent an ejection, just an open side, apparently to facilitate the loading and unloading of riders. The victims, who apparently struck the roller coaster's walls and column supports, fell about 10 feet down from the elevated curve, and about 7 feet from the base of the ride. Paramedics and the Ocean City police rushed to the scene, but the victims were pronounced dead at Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, N.J. Autopsies were to be performed there today, but officials said Ms. Bailey and her daughter had apparently died of extensive blunt-trauma injuries. Officials said the empty roller-coaster car, after swinging around the curve, struck another car at the loading platform, and two people in it were slightly injured. Irit Taub, 25, of Clementon, N.J., suffered cuts and a neck strain, and Michael Barteld, 7, of Pine Hill, N.J., suffered a bump on the head. Both were treated at the same hospital and released. Expressions of sorrow for the victims and a willingness to cooperate fully with investigators were voiced yesterday by Jay Gillian, whose family has owned Gillian's Wonderland Pier, the site of the roller coaster, since 1930 on the boardwalk at Ocean City, a resort 10 miles south of Atlantic City. ''This is every park owner's nightmare,'' he said. ''We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and our hearts go out to the family. Our family has been in this business for 70 years and safety has always been our first concern. This is the first major accident in the park's history.'' The park, a collection of rides and arcades just off the north end of the 2.3-mile boardwalk in Ocean City, was ordered closed by Mr. Gillian after the accident out of respect for the victims and their families. He said the park would remain closed ''until we have some answers.'' The roller coaster, and one like it in Wildwood, N.J., were closed on orders from state inspectors. Mr. Gillian said the new Wild Wonder roller coaster, with four cars that each hold four passengers on rides featuring sharp curves, was manufactured by an Italian company, Zamperla, which has an American sales and service office in Parsippany, N.J. He said the manufacturer would send engineers to participate in the investigation. The ride was opened on July 1 at ceremonies attended by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who pressed a button to start the ride but balked at trying it herself, acknowledging that she was afraid of roller coasters. Before being put into operation, the ride was inspected by state officials on July 1, and it was inspected again on July 21, the authorities said. Mr. Connolly said no problems were found on either inspection, and in particular no problems were found with the drag-chain or anti-rollback mechanisms. Other officials said the state would study the possible hazards thoroughly in an inquiry that might take weeks. Among other things, they said, the investigators would look for possible design flaws, such as a restraining bar that would not prevent rearward ejections, or low sides to the cars. The State of New Jersey cracked down on amusement park rider operators in 1997 after a series of accidents. Among other things, inspections and other regulatory functions were transferred from the State Labor Department to the Division of Codes and Standards, part of the Department of Community Affairs. The state also increased inspections from one to as many as four a year for each ride, increased penalties for safety violations from $500 to $5,000, and made it a crime for riders to ignore rules or fool around on rides. The tighter safety regulations have reduced serious accidents on the 1,600 amusement park rides in New Jersey by 20 percent this year, said E. J. Miranda, a spokesman for the codes and standards division. He said there had been 443 reported incidents and 12 serious injuries on rides through Aug. 26, down from 548 incidents and 16 serious injuries in the same period last year. Moreover, he said, the deaths in Ocean City were the first involving passengers on an operating amusement ride in the state in the past decade. The state's experience has run counter to a national trend, however, he said. In the nation, accidents and serious injuries have increased by about 20 percent in the past year. And there has been a surge of fatal accidents in the nation this summer, including four deaths on rides last week alone -- one each in California and Virginia, in addition to the two in New Jersey on Saturday. As state inspectors examined the tracks, cars and structure of the roller coaster yesterday, and as the Ferris wheel and other rides at Gillian's Wonderland were silent, the end-of-summer rhythms of Ocean City's boardwalk went on. The wide beach of silky off-white sand was crowded with bronzed sunbathers and swimmers; surfers were catching the big waves; arcades rang with artificial gunshots, and awning-draped stands sold hot dogs, fried clams and oysters. It was a teen-aged crowd, mainly, too preoccupied to sense the tragedy in the wings. But for those who had witnessed the accident -- like Ms. Matczak, a day-care worker, her husband, Mark, a machinist, and their children, Andrew, 12, and Breanna, 8 -- this August would be unforgettable. ''We'd just come for the weekend,'' Ms. Matczak said. ''I've been coming to this park since I was a child. I and my children rode it the night before. It wasn't like a typical roller coaster. It had quick turns. It made you feel like you were going to go off the top.'' ''I was waiting on line with the kids,'' Mr. Matczak recalled. ''My daughter had loved it so much the night before. She wanted me to come with her. I was like, oh, all right.'' Then it happened. ''The car was making a ratcheting noise coming down, quickening,'' he said. ''It just came down and, wham! It was sickening. Just wham! Those people just flew. They just launched out of the car.''

Roller Coaster That Killed 2 Had Past Problems, Riders Report

By Robert Hanley     New York Times     August 31, 1999

The roller coaster that malfunctioned Saturday night, killing a 39-year-old woman and her 8-year-old daughter, had had previous problems, according to earlier passengers of the ride who have now reported the incidents to New Jersey investigators. William M. Connolly, director of the state's Division of Codes and Standards, said that the past riders of the coaster, Wild Wonder, in Ocean City, N.J., reported experiences he characterized today as ''unusual'' and ''out of the ordinary.'' Mr. Connolly declined to provide any details of the passengers' reports while his staff is investigating and attempting to confirm them. But, he said, some of the reported problems, if true, would have required the owner and operator of the ride, Gillian's Wonderland Pier, to notify his office, which oversees ride safety at amusement parks and carnivals. ''Some of the things we're hearing could have conceivably been reported,'' he said at a news conference here. Cautioning reporters that he was speaking hypothetically, Mr. Connolly said any mechanical problems that forced the roller coaster to be shut down during operation should have been reported to his office. But he declined to say whether any of the previous passengers had described a shutdown or any operational problem similar to the two malfunctions Saturday night that prompted the roller coaster to stop near the top of a 41-foot ascent and then slide rapidly backward down the slope into a car waiting in the loading platform. The two victims, Kimberly Bailey, of Pomona, N.Y., and her daughter, Jessica, were hurled from their car around 10 P.M. as the coaster whipped into a 90-degree curve in front of the platform. Both apparently struck the ride's support columns and then fell to the ground. The ride's safety bars are only designed to stop riders from being thrust forward out of the cars, not backward, Mr. Connolly said. He said his staff is considering requiring that all roller coasters in the state be equipped with seat belts to prevent an ejection in either direction. Mr. Connolly said he hoped to have a report on the cause of accident prepared by late this week. Two ride inspectors and an engineer are conducting the investigation and focusing now on mechanical failure, he said. He said they are exploring four possible factors: design defect, equipment defect, maintenance problems or operator error. The ride was manufactured by an Italian company, Zamperla Inc., and erected in late spring at Gillian's Wonderland, Mr. Connolly said. It was inspected during construction in April and again in June, he said. Inspectors examined it again when it opened on July 1. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman attended opening-day ceremonies and pressed the button to start its first trip. State inspectors examined the ride again on July 17 and July 21, Mr. Connolly said. No problems were detected, he said. He said the ride was inspected three times in its first month of operation because all new rides are routinely inspected frequently. Zamperla, which has an office in Parsippany, N.J., issued a statement today saying it was ''deeply saddened by the accident.'' Mr. Connolly said Gillian's had not informed his office of any problems with the ride during its eight weeks of operation. The state requires amusement park operators to file so-called incident reports for a wide range of problems on rides. The authorities must be told immediately, via hot line, about any passenger who suffers a broken bone, a dislocation or other serious injury requiring immediate medical treatment. Less serious injuries must be reported within 24 hours via fax. A third type of report covers just about any other type of incident -- from a vomiting passenger to malfunctioning equipment. It must be filed within 10 days. Since the accident, Mr. Connolly said his staff has interviewed 20 to 30 people, including some eyewitnesses to the deaths. Mr. Connolly declined to say which type of report would have covered the earlier incidents. The president of the amusement park, Jay Gillian, did not return calls left at his office late this afternoon. The two pieces of equipment that failed Saturday operated independently, Mr. Connolly said. The coaster is pulled up by a chain driven by an electrical motor and attached to a cog beneath the coaster. At the peak of the ascent, the cog and chain disengage and gravity takes over. On Saturday, the cog and chain came apart too early, he said. Normally, the coaster's anti-rollback braking system would have prevented the backward slide, he said. Braking devices should have pressed against the rails beneath the cars, stopping them. ''Something went very wrong with it,'' Mr. Connolly said.

Memories of a Devoted Mother and Child

By David W. Chen     New York Times     August 31, 1999

At her job as a vice president of a publishing company, they called her Wonder Woman. In her quiet neighborhood here in Rockland County, they called her ''the greatest mom ever.'' But for those people who intersected with Kimberly Cavellero Bailey, no words, really, could capture her generosity, kindness and humanity, day in and day out, anywhere, any time. ''If I could be that good, I'd be a lucky human being,'' said Mike Dari, 32, a neighbor whose two daughters played with Mrs. Bailey's two daughters. Now there will only be old memories to savor. Mrs. Bailey, 39, and her daughter Jessica, 8, were killed on Saturday night in a roller coaster accident at an amusement park in Ocean City, N.J. As dozens of stunned witnesses gazed skyward, the car carrying the mother and daughter plunged 30 feet backward onto a sharp curve, and the resulting centrifugal force jettisoned them to their deaths. Today, as news of the accident spread, Mrs. Bailey's colleagues and friends preferred to talk about something other than death, because life, they said, was what the Baileys were all about. A graduate of the State University at Plattsburgh, where she met her husband, John, Mrs. Bailey was, first and foremost, a devoted mother to Jessica and Kathryn, 5, friends said. For years, Mrs. Bailey and her two daughters were popular regulars at Ann and Andy Child Care in Elmsford. In recent years, Mrs. Bailey had immersed herself in Jessica's activities and progress. Despite her busy work schedule, she always found time to drive Jessica to the Transfiguration School in Tarrytown, N.Y., where the girl was about to begin third grade, said Mary Margaret Henshaw, the principal of the Roman Catholic school. Jessica was a good student, and had successfully completed her initial sacraments, Ms. Henshaw said. ''She was a very pleasant, very happy child,'' she said. ''This was a picture-perfect family.'' Jessica was particularly magnetized, it seems, by the Brownies. She participated in a St. Patrick's Day parade this year, went camping in Mahopac, N.Y. in June with her troop and made friends with everyone, said Laura Milhaven, troop leader of Westchester-Putnam Girl Scouts' Troop 1319. Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Milhaven recalled, Mrs. Bailey -- who helped bake cupcakes, build floats and sell cookies for the Brownies -- had attached a note thanking the troop leaders for the Mahopac trip, adding that the Brownies were welcome, any time, to drop by and frolic in their pool. By all accounts, that kind of generosity of spirit was second nature to the Baileys. Earlier this year, in fact, they told several neighbors that they had bought a dozen additional lounge chairs for the pool, just because they enjoyed company so much, and because they wanted all visitors to feel as if they were family, too. ''Kim was the glue,'' said Steve Costallos, 32, a neighbor whose boy and girl played with the Baileys' children. ''There wasn't a thing she wouldn't have given you. She was the greatest mom I've ever seen.'' Her husband, John, 40, recently resigned as a firefighter with the Scarsdale, N.Y. Fire Department and had done some catering and cooking on the side. The wake for Mrs. Bailey and her daughter is scheduled for today and tomorrow at the Wyman Fisher funeral home in Pearl River. They will be buried Thursday after a 10 A.M. Mass at St. Anthony's Church in Nanuet, The Associated Press reported. Donations can be made to the Kathryn Bailey Scholarship Fund, 3 Summit Place, Nanuet, N.Y. 10954. Mrs. Bailey was so devoted to her family, her neighbors said, one would never know that she juggled a successful business career, too. Known professionally as Kim Cavellero, she was a vice president and director of marketing and sales for M. E. Sharpe Inc., an academic publisher, overseeing a staff of more than 100 people around the country. This summer had been a particularly good one professionally, as one of the titles she was promoting, ''Waves of Rancor: Tuning in the Radical Right,'' by Robert Hillard and Michael Keith, had appeared on President Clinton's summer reading list, said Vincent L. Fuentes, M. E. Sharpe's senior vice president and chief operating officer. Other colleagues said Mrs. Bailey occasionally brought Jessica to the office and lavishly decorated her desk with drawings that her children had etched, and photos of her entire family. ''She worked all day and all night and she still had the perfect family at home,'' said Lynda Tinari, a marketing manager who considered Mrs. Bailey, with whom she had previously worked at another publishing company, a mentor. ''I didn't know how she did it. We called her Wonder Woman.''

TEARS AND MEMORIES AT SERVICE FOR COASTER PAIR

By Mark Stamey     New York Post     September 3, 1999

Hundreds of weeping friends and relatives turned out last night at a Rockland County funeral home to mourn an 8-year-old girl and her mother, both killed in a bizarre roller-coaster accident last week. Kimberly Cavellero-Bailey, 39, and Jessica Bailey died Saturday at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, N.J., when their car plummeted backward down an incline, hurling them out of the car. The devastated husband and father, John Bailey, stood weeping at the service at Wyman-Fisher Funeral Home in Pearl River as fellow Scarsdale, N.Y. firefighters held him and offered quiet words of comfort. The tragedy occurred on Bailey’s 40th birthday. The line of mourners stretched around the corner as relatives and friends filed by the two white caskets lying beneath blankets of roses. Family photos of the beaming mother and child were spread around the somber caskets. Close friends Steve and Linda Leone said everyone in their close-knit community of Pomona, N.Y. was stunned by the deaths. “It’s a nightmare, losing an 8-year-old and her mother,” said Steve. “We feel very bad for Kathy, Jessica’s 5-year-old sister. How can we ever answer her when she asks, ‘Where is Mommy?’ How do you answer her when she asks, ‘Where is Jessica?'” Linda said her friend Kim was a successful vice president at a publishing company who always found time for her little girls. “Kim was a super mom. She was just great. She was a career woman, but still she was a dedicated mother,” sobbed Linda. “I used to ask her how she did it. I really looked up to her. “You don’t expect this to happen to people who are very special to you.” The deaths, and those of two other roller-coaster riders in a six-day span – have sparked angry questions about the safety of the nation’s amusement parks, especially the new, high-tech roller coasters. Safety officials probing the Bailey accident say it apparently was caused by the failure of a “rollback” bar designed to keep cars from sliding backward.

TEARS FOR COASTER VICTIMS – WEEPING DAD BIDS FAREWELL TO WIFE & CHILD

By Ikimulisa Sockwell-Mason     New York Post     September 3, 1999

Slumped in his seat with tears streaming down his face, John Bailey could barely contain his grief during yesterday’s funeral service for his wife and daughter, who were tragically killed in a freak roller-coaster accident. More than 400 people – family, friends and co-workers from as far away as Canada – gathered to bid farewell to Kimberly Cavellero-Bailey, 39, and 8-year-old Jessica Bailey. The two were riding the coaster at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, N.J., on Saturday when a “rollback” bar failed and the car they were in rolled backward, slamming into another car with such force that the mother and child were thrown from the ride. During the 90-minute service at the Church of St. Anthony in Nanuet, N.Y., Bailey at one point couldn’t stand during prayers before Holy Communion. He sat, bent over – his wife and daughter’s pristine white caskets to his left – and cried into a handkerchief as a loved one tried to comfort him. He lost his wife of 11 years and his oldest daughter on his 40th birthday. He also has a 5-year-old daughter, Kathy. The mourners who filled the church frequently wiped tears from their eyes and listened as family members and a close co-worker praise the dedicated mother, who succeeded at doing it all. Cavellero-Bailey’s sister Cheryl called Kimberly “the most amazing person.” “Her family was the most important thing in her life,” she said. She said she would never forget her sister’s “smiles, laughter, hugs and kisses. She’d walk up to you and, for no reason, hug and kiss you and say, ‘I love you,'” Cheryl said. And the way they celebrated the day Jessica was born. “Jessica was a gift to us all,” Cheryl said. Evelyn Fazio, a vice president at the publishing company where Cavellero-Bailey worked for 12 years, commented on how much everyone loved her, not only in New York, but around the world. “She was a breath of fresh air,” Fazio said. “She had a grace and class and a sense of humor that always made me laugh.” 

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Riding for a Fall

By Patrick Rogers     People Magazine     September 20, 1999

Kathryn Bailey was anticipating the ride of her life as she approached the Wild Wonder roller coaster on the Ocean City, N.J., boardwalk on Aug. 28. She was 5 years old and about to take a grown-up thrill ride. But a sign at the entrance alerted her mother, Kim Bailey, 39, that Kathryn was too small to be allowed on the coaster. Disappointed, Kathryn stood with other family members as her mother and big sister Jessica, 8, climbed aboard and began their slow ascent toward the ride’s first dizzying drop. Then, in an instant, the Baileys’ high spirits turned to horror. The car carrying mother and daughter was nearing the top of the incline when suddenly it was released prematurely. The ride’s fail-safe mechanism—a system of emergency brakes designed to stop runaway cars—also failed, sending the car hurtling backward down a 41-foot grade. Jessica and her mother were flung from the car as it whipped around a 90-degree bend at the base of the drop. Both struck the ride’s steel support beams and were killed. “They were right at the top, but the car just didn’t go over,” says Mark Matczak, 39, who was waiting in line at the ride. “I said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s coming back.’ The impact was horrible.” Kim’s husband, John, learned of the accident two hours later on the night of his 40th birthday. “The hardest part is I wasn’t there to give them a last hug or a last kiss,” says Bailey, a Pomona, N.Y., landscaper who had planned to join his family for their annual week on the shore the following day. Now he is consulting a lawyer. “You put yourself in the park owners’ hands,” says Michael Grossman, the family’s attorney. “You have the right to assume that you are going to be safe.” That, at least, has always been the assumption underlying Americans’ appetite for thrill rides, which of late has seemed nearly insatiable. Attendance at the country’s 750 amusement parks reached 300 million last year, up nearly 20 percent since the beginning of the decade, and rides at carnivals and state fairs attracted millions of others. But with this summer’s string of six deadly accidents—five people were killed during a two-week period in August alone—even intrepid thrill seekers have to wonder: Are the rides safe? According to John Graff, president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, the answer is yes. Acknowledging that theme park accidents accounted for some 4,500 trips to hospital emergency rooms in 1998 as well as four fatalities, Graff still considers the $8.7 billion-a-year industry’s safety record outstanding. “There’s nothing out there that produces fewer accidents than our rides,” he says. Others, however, are less sanguine. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the number of accidents at theme parks has risen more than 60 percent since 1995, far outpacing increases in attendance for the same period. Massachusetts Congressman Edward J. Markey, for one, suspects that since the amusement park industry is under constant pressure to provide greater thrills and scarier rides, it may be pushing the safety envelope too far. Citing recent mishaps on increasingly sophisticated rides, Markey has proposed legislation that would bring amusement park rides back under federal regulation, as they were until 1981, when Congress, at the urging of amusement park lobbyists, passed a law that ended U.S. oversight of the industry. Currently, thrill ride operators are regulated by “a patchwork quilt” of state and local laws that vary dramatically across the country and often result in only spotty attention to safety, says Joe Crews, an Austin, Texas, attorney who represents the family of a 15-year-old girl who was killed on a ride last year. In the case of the Wild Wonder coaster in Ocean City, for instance, it was only after the accident that killed the Baileys that the New Jersey Division of Codes and Standards learned of several alleged mishaps since the ride began operating last July 1. This year’s fatalities began well before the Memorial Day start of the amusement parks’ traditional peak season. On March 21, at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, secondary school counselor Valeria Cartwright, 28, arrived for a weekend with a group of friends and relatives from West Helena, Ark. “We were raised with amusement parks,” says Cartwright’s sister Colletta Moore, 30. “We’ve gone to them all, I think. Disneyland, Disney World, Universal Studios—all of them.” Cartwright, mother of a 5-year-old daughter, was floating down the Roaring Rapids white-water ride when her 12-seat raft snagged on a pipe on the bottom of the man-made chute. Park officials later said that a rubber tube encircling the raft had partially deflated, causing the raft to ride low in the water. In any event, the force of the water behind the trapped raft caused it to flip over, trapping its passengers underwater. Valeria’s brother Dewayne Cartwright, 35, was one of the 11 who survived the accident. He says a professional scuba diver who happened to be standing nearby jumped into the water to help the victims, who were struggling to undo their seat belts, but arrived too late to save Valeria, who drowned. Valeria’s family has brought a multimillion-dollar wrongful death suit against Six Flags. (A family of four and four other passengers were submerged in 2½ feet of water when the raft of a similar ride at Riverside Park in Agawam, Mass., flipped over last month.) A Six Flags spokesman says the Roaring Rapids ride “has an exceptional safety record…. Of course, that does not diminish the terrible tragedy suffered by the Cartwright family.” Three months later, another accident, this time in New York City, also robbed a child of his mother. On June 11, Nadine Caban, 17, was visiting the boardwalk at Coney Island with her sisters Elsie, 19, and Nagalie, 23, when a piece of wooden scenery fell from the roof of a bobsled-type ride called the Super Himalaya, causing the car in which Nadine was riding alone to jump the tracks. She was thrown 15 feet in the air before being pinned between the track and a car. Caban later died of internal injuries, leaving behind a 10-month-old son, Kahjuan. California, with more amusement parks than any other state, has long led the nation in theme park deaths—14 since 1975. But a fatal accident there last month has apparently galvanized public support for a proposed new law that would mandate state inspection of rides and certification of theme park workers. Joshua Smurphat, 12, of Sunnyvale, Calif., had already ridden the Drop Zone—a 207-foot tower from which passengers in four-seat cars plunge earthward at up to 60 mph—some 40 times over the course of the summer. “That feeling of what it does to your tummy—God, he just loved it,” says his mother, homemaker Tami Smurphat, 39. But somehow, on the afternoon of Aug. 22, Joshua came free from the ride’s safety harness and fell more than 100 feet to his death. After a preliminary probe, Great America officials say they have found no evidence of mechanical failure and are still investigating. Remarkably, considering the hazards involved in such thrill rides, some are operated by summer help as young as 15. On Aug. 20, one such worker, Matthew Henne, 16, was working as an assistant at the Lake Compounce amusement park in Bristol, Conn., on a ride known as the Tornado, when he fell from a platform and was partially crushed under the ride. Henne, a popular linesman on the Southington High School Blue Knights, was buried in his football jersey four days later. His parents may sue the park, which counters that Matthew had improperly crossed a yellow safety line before the ride had come to a stop. Whatever the outcome of the lawsuits brought by the Henne family and the relatives of others who died on thrill rides this summer, the amusement parks will surely survive even if they are forced to pay damages; The victims’ families will carry a heavier burden. For John Bailey, who buried his wife Kimberly and daughter Jessica on Sept. 2, the sense of loss is just beginning. “We were a team,” he says quietly. “We had a dream.”

Wild Wonder

Journal News August 31, 1999

Jessica Morgan Bailey of Pomona NY died Saturday August 28, 1999 in Ocean City NJ. She was born on February 17, 1991 in Ossining NY to John J. Bailey Jr. and Kim Cavellero-Bailey. Jessica was a student at Transfiguration School in Tarrytown NY. She is survived by her father, sister Kathryn, maternal grandmother Florence Cavellero of Dobbs Ferry NY, and paternal grandparents John J. Sr. and Caroline Bailey of Nanuet NY. Visiting will be held Tuesday 7-9 pm and Wednesday 3-5 pm / 7-9 pm at the Wyman-Fisher Funeral Home in Pearl River NY. A Mass of Christian Burial to be held Thursday 10 am at St. Anthony's R.C. Church in Nanuet. Burial to follow in Rosewood Mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale NY. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Kathryn Bailey Scholarship Fund, 3 Summit Place, Nanuet NY 10954.

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He was found dead (according to an informed source by his own hand) at home on January 6, 2004.

Journal News   September 3, 1999

Gillian's Wonderland Pier

Journal News August 31, 1999

Kim Cavellero-Bailey of Pomona NY died Saturday August 28, 1999 in Ocean City NJ. Kim was born on June 16, 1960 in Dobbs Ferry NY to Arthur John and Florence Cavellero, nee Muscari. She graduated from Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale NY and earned a bachelor's degree from SUNY Plattsburgh. Kim married John J. Bailey Jr. in November 1987. She lived in Pomona for 11 years. KIm worked as a Vice President for M.E. Sharpe Inc., an academic publisher in Armonk NY. She is survived by her husband, daughter Kathryn Bailey, mother and brother Arthur John Cavellero Jr. of Dobbs Ferry, and sister Cheryl Cavellero of Croton-on-Hudson NY. Kim was predeceased by her father on June 12, 1980. Visiting will be held Tuesday 7-9 pm and Wednesday 3-5 pm / 7-9 pm at the Wyman-Fisher Funeral Home in Pearl River NY. A Mass of Christian Burial to be held Thursday 10 am at St. Anthony's R.C. Church in Nanuet NY. Burial to follow in Rosewood Mauoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Kathryn Bailey Scholarship Fund, 3 Summit Place, Nanuet NY 10954. 

New York Times Septemer 2, 1999

CAVELLERO-BAILEY-Kim, Vice President & Director of Marketing and Sales of M.E. Sharpe Inc., died along with her 8-year-old daughter, Jessica, in a tragic roller coaster accident in Ocean City, New Jersey, on August 28. She was 39. Known to everyone in the publishing trade as Kim Cavellero, she began her career as an Advertising Coordinator at Pergamon Press in 1984 and rose to the position of Associate Director of Marketing in 1991, before joining M.E. Sharpe in 1997. Ms. Cavellero was born in 1960 in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., where her parents operated Dick's Cabin, a restaurant begun by her paternal grandparents that was frequented by Broadway actors and professional baseball players. After graduating from Maria Regina High School she attended the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Here she met John Bailey Jr., her future husband. A dynamic executive universally respected both for her intelligence and her genuine concern for all her colleagues, Ms. Cavellero was also a devoted wife and mother who invariably found time for family and friends, and was known to co-workers and neighbors alike as ''Wonder Woman.'' The Cavellero-Bailey home in Pomona, New York, was a frequent gathering place for neighborhood children and adults. She is survived by her husband; their 5-year-old daughter, Kathryn; her mother, Florence Muscari Cavellero of Dobbs Ferry; her sister, Cheryl Cavellero of Croton, N.Y.; her brother, Arthur John Cavellero Jr., and her paternal grandmother, Madge Cavellero, both of Dobbs Ferry; and three nieces and nephews. Her father, Arthur John Cavellero, died in 1980. A funeral service will be held at 10 A.M., today at St. Anthony's Church in Nanuet, N.Y. Donations/contributions may be sent to Kathryn Bailey Scholarship Fund, 3 Summit Place, Nanuet, New York 10954.

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