Mystery surrounds woman's horror Disneyland death on ride with 'no faults'

The Matterhorn Bobsled ride at Disneyland Resort in California has been a popular attraction for decades, but it has been the site of two fatal accidents involving unbuckled seatbelts

08:00, 05 Dec 2025

[ANAHEIM, CA - JULY 12: The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, The Monorail, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, July 12, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)]

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She was instantly killed when another cart hit her on the track(Image: MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images, MediaNews Group via Getty Images)

A chilling incident unfolded at the Disneyland Resort in California, when a visitor tragically lost her life on one of the park's popular rides.

Dolly Regene Young, aged 47, was decapitated when she was thrown from the Matterhorn Bobsled ride and hit by an oncoming cart back in 1984.

It was late afternoon, around 3.30pm, when her unfastened seatbelt led to her sudden ejection. It was so swift her friends didn't notice her absence. Dolly was seated at the rear of the cart, making it difficult for her companions to realise that she had been forcibly ejected.

Investigators remain uncertain whether the seatbelt was deliberately undone or if there was a malfunction. Fatal accidents of this nature are incredibly rare in the park's 70-year history. In fact, such a horrific death hasn't occurred for decades.

[Anaheim, California, USA - April 30, 2013: A large group of people entering the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, where Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park are located.]

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There have been several deaths at the theme park(Image: LordRunar via Getty Images)

Reports suggest the ride was halted within 30 seconds of the accident to prevent further injuries and to provide immediate assistance to Young. Disneyland spokesman Bob Roth, speaking at the time of the incident, revealed Regene's friends were unaware she had fallen out until the ride ended. He added that, thankfully, no one in the other sled, which struck Regene with force, was injured.

He added: "That's the big question: how did she come out? There was nothing mechanical. There was no breakdown. It's the matter of a woman coming out of the vehicle somehow. How does that happen?".

The Matterhorn ride was immediately shut down after the shocking incident, though it's understood to have reopened the next day. The attraction seated eight people, all buckled in one behind another across two carriages, as they travelled along a track winding around a snow-covered mountain.

[Disneyland in the 1950s. A theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, and opened on July 17, 1955. On the left the Swiss Chalet Skyway cable car. In the center the Matterhorn bobsled roller coaster. 1959. Anders Svahn ref SVA9 (Photo by Sjberg Bildbyr/ullstein bild via Getty Images)]

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The Theme Park has since renovated the ride (Image: Sjberg Bildbyr, Sjberg Bildbyr/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

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The cart that struck Regene was moving at an estimated 20 mph, killing her immediately. Tragically for Disneyland, this wasn't the only fatality to occur on this particular attraction. The first death happened in May 1964, just five years after the ride launched, claiming the life of a 15-year-old boy.

Mark Maples joined the queue at the Matterhorn with two teenage schoolmates before taking the middle seat of the carriage, and owing to the darkness of the evening, what unfolded next remains unclear. As the ride began its descent, one of the lads felt Maples knock into him, which wasn't out of the ordinary for such a jolting ride.

But within moments, he had vanished. He told the Press-Telegram: "I was looking up, heard a noise, looked down, and recognized Mark's sweater as he was falling out the side. It's believed that after possibly unfastening his seatbelt, he tumbled and struck his head, plunging to his death beside the tracks.

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