Jurors on Thursday began hearing testimony in the civil trial over the death of 6-year-old Wongel Estifanos, who died on a ride at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park nearly four years ago.

Wongel, who was visiting with her family from Colorado Springs, died Sept. 5, 2021, after falling from the Haunted Mine Drop, a 110-foot plunge ride since renamed Crystal Tower. A state investigation later determined she was not secured by the seat belt and had been sitting on top of it when the ride began.

Her parents, Estifanos Dagne and Rahel Estifanos, filed a wrongful death civil action lawsuit against the park’s parent company, Glenwood Caverns Holdings. The complaint alleges that operators failed to fasten her restraints, ignored a console warning light, and overrode the system to launch the ride while she remained unbuckled. It also claims the park never trained its employees on how to respond when the ride displayed safety alerts. State regulators concluded that passengers cannot be expected to secure themselves and fined the park $68,000 for safety and training violations.

Then-9th Judicial District Attorney Jefferson Cheney announced in February 2022 that no criminal charges would be filed. His office considered manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide but said prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any one person or entity acted with criminal negligence.

The trial’s first witness was Scott Narreau, who oversees amusement ride safety and explosives regulation programs for the State of Colorado. He was recognized as an expert in amusement ride safety and accident investigation. Narreau told jurors the ride itself was functioning properly but that operators did not follow mandatory procedures to pull, tighten and visually confirm seat belts on every rider.

He walked the jury through surveillance footage of the day Wongel died. The video showed a red indicator for her seat, warning that the restraint had not been reset after the prior ride. Narreau testified that operators attempted to override the warning rather than fix the problem, eventually resetting all the restraints at once and clearing the system to allow the ride to launch while Wongel sat unrestrained on top of closed belts.

Jurors also heard from Cassidy Blackard-Weeks, a death investigator with the Garfield County Coroner’s Office. She described arriving at the park that night, photographing the ride and descending into the shaft where Wongel’s body was found. The autopsy, performed Sept. 7, 2021, concluded Wongel died within seconds from multiple blunt force injuries. Her death certificate listed the manner of death as an accident.

The final witness of the day was one of the operators on duty during Wongel’s ride. His testimony began late in the afternoon and is scheduled to continue Friday. Investigators have said the witness is the operator seen on video struggling with the warning for Wongel’s seat in the minutes before the fatal launch.

The trial is scheduled to continue through Sept. 11.