Elitch's closes Tower of Doom after accident in Ky.

Ride is similar to one on which teen's feet severed

Justin Coons, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 23, 2007 at midnight

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Elitch Gardens has closed its Tower of Doom ride following an accident at a Kentucky amusement park in which a 13-year-old girl's feet were severed.

The girl was on the Superman Tower of Power, a ride on which passengers are raised into the air and dropped. Officials think a cable broke loose and hit the girl above her ankles.

Her condition was not released Friday.

Bill Clary, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which inspects amusement park rides, said inspectors don't know what caused the cable to break.

Since Thursday's accident at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, at least eight theme parks across the country with similar free-fall rides have shut them down.

"We have done it as a precautionary measure until it can be determined what caused the accident at Kentucky Kingdom," said Elitch Gardens spokeswoman Beth Gabbert.

The company that designed Denver's 220-foot Tower of Doom - Swiss-based Intamin AG - also designed the Kentucky ride.

Intamin was named in a lawsuit after a woman was ejected from a water ride at Knott's Berry Farms in Buena Park, Calif., in 2001.

The company also was named in a 1999 wrongful- death suit filed after a woman drowned on a water ride at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington.

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