$205 Million Verdict After Girl, 6, Fell From Glenwood Caverns Ride
After trial: On March 11, 2026 the federal bankruptcy court lifted the automatic stay solely so Glenwood Caverns Holdings could appeal the state judgment; enforcement of the judgment stays on hold during the bankruptcy. We found no appellate ruling.
Won by Dan Caplis Law.
A Garfield County jury returned a $205 million verdict against Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park and ride manufacturer Soaring Eagle after finding that operators launched the Haunted Mine Drop with a six-year-old girl sitting on top of an unsecured seatbelt, overriding a warning alarm that should have stopped the ride.
What happened
On September 5, 2021, a six-year-old girl boarded the Haunted Mine Drop at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The ride is a 110-foot vertical free-fall attraction. When the cycle before hers ended, the seatbelt buckle remained in its locked position from the prior rider. She sat down on top of it, unbuckled.
The two operators working that day had been on the job for less than two weeks. They failed to check her restraint before loading the car. A warning light activated, signaling a restraint fault. Rather than stopping to investigate, the operators reset the alarm and launched the ride. She was ejected and fell the full 110 feet to her death.
Her parents brought a wrongful death action against Glenwood Caverns Holdings LLC, the two operators, and Soaring Eagle Inc., the Utah-based company that designed and built the ride. Discovery revealed that Soaring Eagle had not disclosed at least two prior ejections linked to the same restraint system design, a fact the jury weighed heavily in assessing the manufacturer's liability.
Dan Caplis represented the family at trial in Garfield County District Court. The case turned on what the operators knew and ignored: training records, maintenance logs, and the alarm-override sequence documented that the warning system worked as designed and that the operators chose to bypass it. After nearly seven hours of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict on September 19, 2025.
The total award was $205 million: $82 million in non-economic damages, for which the park and Soaring Eagle were found jointly liable at a combined 98 percent fault, and $123 million in punitive damages assessed against Glenwood Caverns Holdings. CBS Colorado described the award as one of the largest wrongful death verdicts for a single plaintiff in Colorado history. Colorado caps non-economic and exemplary damages by statute, and the trial court entered final judgment in November 2025 reducing the total to roughly $116 to $120 million. Glenwood Caverns Holdings later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2026, a move the family's counsel characterized as an attempt to avoid responsibility. Criminal charges were declined by the Ninth Judicial District Attorney in 2022. On March 11, 2026 the bankruptcy court lifted the automatic stay only to let the park pursue its appeal of the state judgment; collection stays on hold while the bankruptcy case proceeds.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.KKTV: Jury awards $205M to family of El Paso County child who fell to her death from amusement park ride·Archived copy
- 2.Denver7: Family whose 6-year-old died on ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park awarded $205M·Archived copy
- 3.Post Independent: Jury awards more than $200 million in Glenwood Caverns wrongful death lawsuit·Archived copy
- 4.CBS Colorado: Colorado jury awards $205 million to family of 6-year-old who fell to her death on theme park ride·Archived copy
- 5.Adventure Park Insider: Jury Awards $205 Million for Theme Park Death·Archived copy
- 6.Elevenflo: Glenwood Caverns Holdings Chapter 11 and the March 11, 2026 stay-relief order
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