A 60-year-old Texas woman was thrown from her cart on Copper Mountain's Rocky Mountain Coaster and dragged along the track earlier this month, suffering a traumatic brain injury and a collapsed lung, according to her attorney. The woman, identified as Nicola Parker, was riding the alpine coaster on August 17 when she was ejected as her car rounded a turn, with her husband watching in horror from the cart directly behind her.
Parker's attorney, Joseph Bloch, said she had her seatbelt fastened at all times and followed all of the resort's instructions before being thrown from the ride, according to Westword. As reported by the Denver Gazette, Parker's legal team says she became entangled in her own fastened seatbelt as she was dragged for some distance along the track, an ordeal that ripped off her clothing and left her with deep lacerations, scrapes, and abrasions requiring stitches.
Copper Mountain has offered a different account of the aftermath. The resort says its mountain patrol found the guest seated in the cart with her seatbelt fastened upon arrival at the scene, though it has not disputed that an incident occurred or that mountain patrol responded. The resort said it is unable to provide any additional information beyond that, per the same Denver Gazette report, but added that its thoughts are with the guest and it wishes her a speedy recovery.
Injuries Required Two Surgeries
According to Parker's attorney, the injuries were severe enough to require two surgeries after a broken rib punctured and collapsed one of her lungs. She also suffered a separated left shoulder, per the same account. The severity of her injuries required transport first to St. Anthony Summit Hospital in Frisco, then down the mountain to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood for advanced trauma care — a two-stage transfer pattern common for serious injuries at Summit County resorts, as the Denver Gazette notes.
How the Rocky Mountain Coaster Works
The Rocky Mountain Coaster stretches 5,800 feet and descends 430 vertical feet with an average grade of 10.9 percent, making it, according to Copper Mountain, the second-longest alpine coaster in North America. It was manufactured by Aquatic Development Group and opened to the public in late 2017, per ADG Mountainsides. Riders control their own speed with manual hand brakes, and cars can reach up to 25 miles per hour, according to Copper Mountain.
Resort rules require coaster drivers to be at least 9 years old and 52 inches tall, with a maximum combined weight of 300 pounds per cart, according to Copper Mountain Resort. Similar alpine coasters at other resorts have incorporated automatic distance-control braking that slows trailing carts if they get too close to the one ahead, serving as a secondary safety buffer beyond the manual hand levers, Hoodline has previously reported.
State Regulators and Manufacturer Now Involved
The Rocky Mountain Coaster remains closed as Colorado's Division of Oil and Public Safety investigates, according to both Copper Mountain and Parker's law firm. Under state regulation 7 CCR 1101-12, the division's Amusement Rides and Devices Program requires operators to file annual third-party inspection reports and submit injury reports whenever an incident requires medical attention, per the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety. Copper Mountain says it is working with both the state agency and the ride's manufacturer as the review continues.
Colorado's alpine coasters have drawn regulatory scrutiny before. State records reviewed by 9News show that between 2007 and 2021, regulators evaluated nearly a dozen injury incidents on an alpine coaster in Glenwood Springs, including riders ejected into fences, thrown onto rocks, or left with back fractures. Those incidents culminated in a 2025 civil verdict: a Colorado jury awarded $205 million in a wrongful death suit against Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park after investigators found operator errors led to a 6-year-old girl falling from a ride in 2021 without a buckled seatbelt, according to the same outlet. The park had previously been fined $68,000 over that incident before facing the record judgment, and it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this past February while continuing normal operations.
The Parker case adds to a run of severe recreation incidents scrutinized by Summit County officials this year, following a deadly avalanche near Copper Mountain and a fatal fall in Breckenridge's Lake Chutes earlier this year, both of which drew coordinated response from local sheriffs, coroners, and state regulators, as per Hoodline. Copper Mountain has not indicated when the Rocky Mountain Coaster might reopen.
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