{"id":248756,"date":"2026-04-27T21:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248756\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:34:06","slug":"amusement-center-agrees-to-pay-300k-after-investigation-into-girls-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248756\/","title":{"rendered":"Amusement center agrees to pay $300K after investigation into girl’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

WPTV’s Dave Bohman obtained documents showing the Florida Department of Agriculture has reached a $300,000 settlement agreement with Urban Air Adventure Park following an investigation into the December death of a 6-year-old in a go-kart crash<\/a> in Port St. Lucie. <\/p>\n

The agreement, similar to a fine, comes after inspectors found several operator violations resulting from the investigation into the death of Emma Riddle.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Urban Air agrees to $300,000 settlement <\/p>\n

Amusement center agrees to pay $300K after investigation into girl’s death<\/p>\n

Among the findings, go-kart drivers are required to be 18 years old, but the investigation found the 6-year-old girl, and not her mother, was driving the go-kart that crashed before her death. <\/p>\n

The report says go-kart drivers need to be 60 inches tall. Riddle was just 49 inches.<\/p>\n

The manufacturer\u2019s manual reads, “The ride operator is required to check that the seat belt is latched properly and adjusted correctly for each patron.” <\/p>\n

Riddle was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

WPTV Investigates<\/p>\n

This amusement center is in debt after 6-year-old’s death<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The investigation also found the go-kart was traveling faster than the manufacturer’s recommendations.<\/p>\n

According to the settlement agreement, Urban Air agreed to pay $300,000 within 30 days.<\/p>\n

Amusement ride safety expert Brian Avery has not seen this report but says operators in charge of rides sometimes fail to perform needed safety checks.<\/p>\n

“We know historically that a lot of the operators are employing young people who might not have a vested interest in the safety of every guest. They might not appreciate the risk associated with the activities, and therefore, they become complacent,” Avery said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

WPTV Investigates<\/p>\n

Family attorney to probe mechanical failures, training in fatal go-kart crash <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One question WPTV is still looking to have answered is whether the Urban Air franchiser can afford to come up with the $300,000 settlement agreement in 30 days. <\/p>\n

In my last investigation<\/a>, I found court papers that showed Urban Air owed $270,000 in rent and $80,000 in tangible property taxes.<\/p>\n

Urban Air\u2019s owner has not returned my calls. <\/p>\n

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION: <\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WPTV’s Dave Bohman obtained documents showing the Florida Department of Agriculture has reached a $300,000 settlement agreement with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[43796,43739,171,173,172,83642,44160],"class_list":["post-248756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-emma-riddle","tag-florida-department-of-agriculture","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-settlement","tag-urban-air-adventure-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}