Skip to main content
The sensational images from Oaks Amusement Park on June 14 of riders dangling upside down 50 feet in the air for 25 minutes on the malfunctioning AtmosFEAR ride tapped into every carnivalgoer’s worst fear. Being involved in an incident that attracted international attention was certainly not on the radar of Evie Yannotta, 14, when she organized the middle school graduation trip to Oaks Park for herself and the rest of the 11 kids in her eighth grade class at a charter school in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. On June 20, Yannotta’s mother sued Oaks Park for negligence in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Here is Yannotta’s account, as told to WW nine days after the ordeal:
I realized something was wrong probably 20 to 30 seconds after we were upside down. The first couple of minutes, it was a lot of panicking and screaming and not knowing what to do because you’re helpless up there. We weren’t getting told anything besides “Help is on the way!” And then, after about 20 minutes, people are throwing up, crying, screaming. Some people are passing out.
I thought I was going to die one of two ways. I didn’t know they had cut the electricity so it was impossible for our harnesses to come off, but I was afraid they would accidentally press a button and I would fall to the ground. Or, I would pass out and stop breathing. I was trying not to pass out by keeping my head up.
Kind of what I was thinking on repeat is, I kept repeating my mom’s, dad’s and sister’s names over and over again.
In the last five minutes, we were holding hands with each other and thinking about our loved ones. One of my friends had an Apple Watch. He called his mom from up there and was giving her a goodbye message, which was really sad to hear.
After we got unstuck, we still had to finish the ride, so that was pretty rough on our bodies. It almost went all the way up again, and we were all screaming “No!” because we didn’t want to go back up again. We felt very limp once we got out of the upside-down position, and that’s when the headaches came in really hard.
My legs were asleep. We kind of felt out of it. We couldn’t wrap our heads around what was going on. There was some feeling of happiness that we didn’t die, but we were still in pain.
The first thing I did when I got off the ride was to call my mom. I was in shock and hyperventilating. The first thing I said was, “I’m going to be on the news.”
My physical symptoms are all gone. Up to four days after the incident, I had a lot of soreness in my upper body and a headache as well.
I have a lot of trauma related to this incident because kids that age should never have to think about their death in such a horrible way. I’m trying to find a therapist for myself. Especially when I sleep, I still feel like I’m upside down, so that’s something I’d like to work on.
At first, it was helpful to read the comments on social media, especially on TikTok, to see the perspectives of what other people would do in the situation. But sadly, after we filed the lawsuit, people started saying we’re crazy and it’s a “money grab.” I feel like mainly it’s because it hasn’t happened to them. We’re the first lawsuit, so we’re taking the most heat. Haters are going to hate and I don’t care.