Julie Marti

Julie Marti, mother of Teagan Marti, the girl seriously injured on the Terminal Velocity ride in the Wisconsin Dells, publicly spoke about the family's ordeal for the first time on Friday.

Through tears, she describes what happened and what it was like to watch her precious 12-year-old daughter free-fall 100 feet and hit the ground rather than be protected by a net.



From FOX News:

Teagan Marti saw the free-fall ride Terminal Velocity at a Wisconsin Dells amusement park featured on a cable travel show and, being an adventurous 12-year-old, convinced her family to make the trip north from Florida to check it out.

Standing in line for the ride at Extreme World, the girl's mother Julie Marti recognized the ride operator as the same man who spoke on the show about how safe Terminal Velocity was, even though participants were dropped more than 100 feet into a net with no bungee cord or other tether.

Pictures of Teagan taken just before she got in the ride show her smiling broadly.

Her father started the video camera. Her mother watched anxiously from below.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Teagan Martin plummeted to the ground with nothing to break her fall.

Her mother rushed to her side.

"I saw her fall. I ran to her. She was bleeding out of her ears and mouth and nose," Julie Marti said Friday at a news conference inside the hospital where her daughter was flown from the accident site. "Her eyes were rolling back in her head and her lips were turning purple and I couldn't feel a pulse and I said, 'Teagan, it's mommy. Stay with me.'

"...It was the worst day of my life. I can't believe she's alive. I'm so glad she's alive."

Teagan Marti remains on a ventilator in stable but critical condition at American Family Children's Hospital. Doctors have said she suffered swelling in her brain, multiple severe fractures of her spine and pelvis and lacerations to her liver, spleen and intestines. They said she could end up paralyzed.

The ride operator, 33-year-old Charles A. Carnell of Lake Delton, Wis., was charged Wednesday with one count of first-degree-reckless injury, a felony punishable by up 25 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. Carnell told investigators that he "blanked out" and never saw the "all-clear" signal before releasing Teagan.

The Martis' attorney, Stuart Grossman, said he expects to file a civil lawsuit within three weeks. He said there were three steps Carnell had to take before releasing Teagan, leading him to wonder when Carnell "blanked out."

...Grossman also reacted to news that Lake Delton police caught employees at Extreme World doing repairs on the ride a week after the accident and the night before a state inspection. Grossman said he sent park operators a letter two days earlier telling them not to tamper with the ride.

It's horrifying.

Here's more about those late-night repairs, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Employees at a Wisconsin Dells amusement park where a 12-year-old girl was critically injured after falling from a ride last month made last-minute repairs to the ride the following week, just hours before a state inspection, according to a newly released police report.

A Lake Delton police officer was patrolling about 2 a.m. Aug. 5 when he noticed that lights were on at the Extreme World amusement park, according to the report, which was first obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal.

The officer entered the park and saw employees working on Terminal Velocity, a free-fall ride where a 12-year-old girl fell about 100 feet to the ground July 30 because of operator error.

A park employee told the officer that workers were repairing control arms that help to move the ride's drop net, according to the police report.

The employee told the officer that the control arms had not been replaced in eight years and were rusted "beyond the ability to turn them," the report says.

The employee also told the officer the control arms needed to be replaced before a state inspection was conducted later that morning, according to the report.

"We did nothing inappropriate," Extreme World owner Bill Anderson said Friday when asked about the repair work.

Nothing inappropriate?

Anderson can't be serious! He's busted.

This will be settled in court and, hopefully, justice will be done. That will likely be the easy part.

The real struggle will be Teagan's recovery. Her parents have to recover from the trauma as well. Naturally, as revealed in the video, this has taken a tremendous toll on Julie Marti.

What was supposed to be a fun family trip to the Dells turned into an absolute nightmare. In an instant, their lives changed forever. My heart goes out to the entire family.

Thank God Teagan survived.
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Read the police report.