Disneyland employee dies after head injury after falling from golf cart

Club 33 at Disneyland

Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

A Disneyland employee died Friday after suffering a head injury in a golf cart accident, Anaheim police confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

The employee, identified in reports related to the Orange County Coroner’s Office and Disneyland as 60-year-old Bonnye Mavis Lear, fell from a moving golf cart and hit her head Wednesday morning, a police spokesman said. Lear was a passenger in the cart and the driver was not injured and drug or alcohol poisoning is not suspected, according to TMZ.

According to police, Lear was taken to a local hospital in serious condition and succumbed to her injuries on Friday.

“We are heartbroken over the loss of Bonnye and extend our sincere condolences to everyone who cared for her,” Ken Potrock, president of the Disneyland Resort, said in a statement. “At this time, our focus is on supporting her family and our staff through this tragic event and making sure they have the resources they need.”

Lear supported member services at Disneyland’s exclusive Club 33 restaurant and worked for the Disneyland Resort for 24 years, a Disney spokesman said.

Opened in 1967, the elite members-only restaurant Club 33 is located near the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

The Hollywood Reporter announced last month that Club 33 would be made into a movie. Goose flesh And Shazam! Author Darren Lemke is writing the screenplay for the feature film, which is set in a fantasy world about the club.

Shawn Levy is one of the producers of the 21 Laps Entertainment project.

Rae Delgado, a cast member at Disney California Adventure attractions who did not know Lear, wrote on Facebook that Lear suffered a skull fracture and brain swelling as a result of the accident.

“Bonnye was traveling behind Critter Country in a rear-facing golf cart seat with three other passengers,” Delgado wrote on Facebook. “The driver of the vehicle was traveling at least 20 miles per hour on the track. The golf cart struck a bump/depression in the road, requiring Bonnye to react immediately. As she tried to grab the handrail, it gave way and she fell from the vehicle. … By the time paramedics arrived, she was believed to be unconscious.”

Although doctors performed surgery, the condition was “incurable,” Delgado said, and Lear was declared “brain dead” on Thursday morning.

Delgado argued that Lear’s death must be treated with compassion and justice.

“Managers are telling CMs (cast members) not to speak to others about the circumstances of Bonnye’s death,” Delgado wrote on Facebook. “They are demanding silence. They want it to be forgotten.”
Degado adds: “Justice is ultimately not about finding someone to blame – it’s about righting a wrong. It’s about taking responsibility. It’s about finding out what went wrong. It’s about fixing what’s broken.”