Mother from Arizona reports horrific incident at SeaWorld in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (NBC, KYMA/KECY) – A mother experienced a huge fright when her daughter’s seatbelt came loose while riding the Electric Eel Roller Coaster at SeaWorld in San Diego.

Salina Higgins, her 10-year-old daughter and her 14-year-old niece visited SeaWorld San Diego from Tucson, Arizona on Tuesday.

After riding rides all day, Higgins and her daughter decided to hop on the Electric Eel while her niece watched and took a video as they reached the peak of the ride.

“And when I happened to open my eyes, my daughter started screaming because her belt, they call it a comfort belt, was dangling in front of her face as we hung upside down. So I grabbed the belt, fastened it and held on desperately while we both screamed until the ride was over.”

Salina Higgins

Higgins says there is also a lap bar designed to keep the rider in place, but she is not sure if that didn’t work either.

“This latch was locked before we left, I checked it. The employee also walked by and pulled on it and checked it. So what’s to say that this latch hasn’t stayed in place now? What’s to say that the bar hasn’t stayed in place either,” Higgins explained.

Once they got off, Higgins told an employee what had happened and the employee apologized before letting more people board the attraction. So Higgins went to guest services to speak to a manager.

“He asked me, ‘Did you read the disclaimer before you got on the ride?’ And I was shocked and said, ‘Does the disclaimer say that the comfort belts are optional? Because if that’s the case, then please, I have no claim here.’ And then he laughed and said, ‘I don’t think so.’ So I told my 10- and 14-year-old kids to run out at 10 p.m. and take a picture of that disclaimer.”

Salina Higgins

This is the disclaimer she is talking about and it is: “Hold on tight and remain seated with the comfort collar secured for the entire ride.”

“And when I showed him, he threw his hands in the air and said I could call the number on the website and security would escort us off the premises,” Higgins said.

Higgins says she emailed more than 100 SeaWorld and OSHA contacts asking for help and then created a TikTok post that went viral.

“Yes, I’m speaking out for all the other people who are now commenting on this post, this TikTok that has almost six million views, who are also saying that this has happened to them. So this has become something bigger now,” Higgins noted.

She says she wants SeaWorld employees to be more cautious and less dismissive, and to remind viewers to speak up if they feel something is wrong.