ARLINGTON, Texas — Investigators will try to determine whether a woman who died while riding a roller coaster at an amusement park in northern Texas fell from the ride after some witnesses said she was not properly secured.
The accident happened just after 6:30 p.m. Friday at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, 17 miles west of downtown Dallas. Park spokeswoman Sharon Parker confirmed that a woman died while riding the Texas Giant roller coaster — dubbed the tallest steel-hybrid coaster in the world — but did not specify how she was killed. Witnesses told local media outlets the woman fell.
‘‘We are committed to determining the cause of this tragic accident and will utilize every resource throughout this process,’’ Parker said Saturday. ‘‘It would be a disservice to the family to speculate regarding what transpired.’’
Arlington police Sergeant Christopher Cook, the department spokesman, referred all questions to Parker. Messages left for Parker were not returned.
Carmen Brown told The Dallas Morning News that she was waiting in line to get on the ride when the accident happened and had witnessed the woman being strapped in.
“She goes up like this. Then when it drops to come down, that’s when it [the safety bar] released and she just tumbled,’’ Brown, of Arlington, told the newspaper. ‘‘They didn’t secure her right. One of the employees from the park — one of the ladies — she asked her to click her more than once, and they were like, ‘As long you heard it click, you’re OK.’ Everybody else is like, ‘Click, click, click.’
‘‘Hers only clicked once. Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn’t feel safe, but they let her still get on the ride,’’ Brown said.
Six Flags said the ride will be closed as the investigation continues, and a concert scheduled for Saturday was canceled.
The Texas Giant is 14 stories high and has a drop of 79 degrees and a bank of more than 95 degrees. It can carry up to 24 riders. It opened in 1990 as an all-wooden coaster but underwent a $10 million renovation to install steel-hybrid rails and reopened in 2011.
When the car the woman had been riding in returned to the loading zone, two people got out and were visibly upset, Rockwell resident John Putman told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
‘‘They were screaming, ‘My mom! My mom! Let us out, we need to go get her!’’’ Putman told the newspaper.
Also Friday, an Ohio amusement park’s thrill ride malfunctioned when a boat accidentally rolled backward down a hill and flipped over in water, injuring all seven people on board. Operators stopped the Shoot the Rapids water ride after the accident, said officials with Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.