Accidents & Injuries on rides

We all think that it could never happen to us, but accidents and injuries are up 95% since 1996 at amusement parks.

I was wondering how many coasterbuzz readers have been involved in, or witnessed an accident or injury at an amusement park (not travelling fairs).

Give details of date, park, ride, and injury, and whether you'd ride it again.

I suffered a head injury 1 week ago on "Dudley Doo's Ripsaw Falls" at IOA, and would never ride it again. Incidentally, of late there have been more injuries on water rides (especially river rapids), than rollercoasters. *** This post was edited by Grant on 10/24/2000. ***

I have suffered some bruised thighs after being stapled while in the third row on Magnum. Those bunny hops were murder.

The 95% is a crap number conceived by paranoid politicians and flawed research. It simply ain't true, and the government agency who released the report admited that the numbers might have as much as a 50% error (which means the increase would be about zero). Check out these stories:

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=462
http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=450
http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=442
http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=433
http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=427
http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=138

Note that many of the news links are now dead as the host sites have moved their content.

Blatant plug: CoasterBuzz hooks you up with all the news...

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
*** This post was edited by Jeff on 10/24/2000. ***

95% may be abit steep, but I know of at least 5 accidents this year on rollercoasters that I've ridden this seaon alone:

Batman: Knight Flight - SFO
The Villain - SFO
Space Invader - Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Pepsi Max Big One - Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Space Mountain - Disneyland

I wasn't trying to put people off, just curious to know who else has suffered.

Don't forget, when they say "injuries" it most likely includes things like scrapes and bruises.

Raven tore up my left knee pretty good, I had blood running down my leg and soaking into my sock, but I did not know it. Someone pointed it out to me, so I went to first aid for a band-aid. I have a feeling that my little scrape would go down as a coaster related injury for the year 2000, but like I said, I didn't even know it happened.

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So you want a coaster in your backyard? I hope you have a big backyard.

Soggy identified the problem... the definition of "injury." The problem with the study is that it isn't clearly defined, and furthermore includes places like go-cart tracks in the counts. Seeing as how every large city has a ton of them, that skews things a bit. There hasn't been any consistant reporting.

Of course, some argue that reporting should be mandated, but for the actual number of incidents, why create a whole new government department to handle it? It's a total waste of money.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

my 2 cents is that rollercoaster accidents have been happening since they where invented, the only diffrence between now and then is the reporting of accidents via national newspapers and internet sites, also the keeping of records is alot easier since the computer came along. Can anyone name accidents from the eighties that was not at your local park.
thanks william *** This post was edited by supermandl on 10/24/2000. ***

Jeff: I guess I'm in the minority (nothing new) but I actually am FOR mandatory reporting of accidents at parks/carnivals/etc...However, until the government can find a way to better teach the children of my apt bldg how to read/add/do science, I think the money is best spent on the public school systems.

SuperM: Actually, I can think of an accident in the eighties ('84 to be exact) that wasn't at my home park that I heard about THEN. Furthermore, it was true, not an Urban Legend.

Back to the original question: The only injury that I can think of is a small bruise on my thigh from Villian. Overall, I think that very few things happen. When you count injuries as a percentage of rides or riders, I would be willing to bet that this is an extraordinarily small number.
lata
jeremy
--as we say in the nation's captial, "All statistics lie, and all liars use statistics!"

News stories tend to really play up injuries or malfuntions. I don't think I've ever read an article in the paper about a roller coaster that didn't say something about accidents or malfunctions. For instance, I have an article from a New Jersey paper about Millennium Force, the article was quite good, really playing up how comfortable and pleasurable the ride is. Then, in the last paragraph, it says that accidents and malfunctions can and do occur on even the most well planned rides. Even Millennium Force had a problem with the "rollback", the device that prevents the train from traveling backwards down the hill, it went on to equate this problem with the accident on a Wild Mouse type ride at the Jersey Shore where the car did travel backwards, killing it's riders.

This served no useful purpose in the article and wrongly slandered a perfectly safe ride by implying that it's safety systems don't work. Obviously, the safety systems did work, as no Millennium Force train traveled down the hill backwards! The anti-rollback engaging is not a malfunction, it is doing what it was designed to do.

There have not been any accidents that I've witnessed or heard about that would prevent me from riding an amusement park ride (traveling fairs are a different story). I have been on rides that have hurt me in some way and sometimes I choose not to ride rides because I find them painful. This doesn't mean the ride is neccesarily dangerous. Different people respond to different forces in different ways. *** This post was edited by millrace on 10/24/2000. ***

Coaster accidents happen, yet the people who care are the ones who never ride. I was injured on the Hurler in Carrowinds. Also that could be my fault. I am a 6'5 man on a ride that was not designed for people so tall. So that in my mind is user error. All people need to do is follow the instructions, and no injuries will happen. I also witnessed a blatant disregaurd for the rules on tower of terror. Guy stood up at the wrong time during the ride injuring his leg on the lap bar. Sounds like stupid user syndrome again...

I know that inteligence can not be legislated, but I would be infavor of having parks report all accidents that involve some kind of mechanical failure on the ride. If nothing else, it will shut the critics up.

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Where would we be without the rumor mill?

The U.S. Govt isn't set up to handle every problem. I think that parks are doing a great job with safety and shouldn't have to waste their time or money with the costs of people coming in.

From personal experience I know that bureacrats use up a lot of money by making long distance on your phones. Not fun stuff. Secondly, money doesn't grow on trees and I agree with Jeff that its a waste of money to set up a new govt program to handle this.

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Randy Hutchinson
You build it, I'll ride it

I don't know how reliable this is but my science teacher said she use to work at SFOG. She said that a lot of people would get hurt on the Dahlonaga Mine Train but they would pay the people and give them things so they wouldn't sew. Grant, how did you get hurt on Dudley Doright?

sew what? :)

My coaster related injuries? I'm a fragile one,I suppose.

Bruised 3 Ribs- Rolling Thunder- SFGAd (1999 CCIV)
Fractured 3 Ribs- Rolling Thunder- SFGAd (5/00)
Bruised 2 Ribs- Medusa- SFGAd (10/99)
Badly Bruised Shoulderblades- Viper- SFGAd (04/98)
Bruised Kneecap- Gwazi's PTC's- BGT (11/99)
Bruised Pelvis- Magnum XL 200- CP (8/00)
Bruised Stomach Tissue- Mean Streak- CP(8/00)
Mild Case of Sunstroke- PKI/CP- (05/99)(08/00)
Chipped Elbow- Raven- Holiday World- (05/00)

D'oh!

Rob Vaccaro

Here's my list
Countless Headaches- Steel Phantom
Mild Food Poisoning- Hot Dog or French Fries-SFO
Twisted Ankle- Getting off of CCMR- CP
Brusies- Magnum, Mean Streak, Gwazi, Exterminator, Kumba, ect-
I'm not even going to start in on my Mantis injuries. :)

Millrace -

Actually, the Millenium Force train DID roll down the hill backwards that day. I was there. The employees were doing the daily morning test run, running empty trains, and a gust of wind caught the train on top of the third hill and it rolled back, resulting in the ride being closed for much of the day.

That's not the lift hill... the issue at hand. The wild mouse ride in Jersey failed because of non-standard anti-rollback parts manufactured by the operators, if I remember correctly.

While The Force has rolled back, so have most coasters at some point in time. That's not an accident or something that causes injury (in most cases). All it really is is a huge inconvenience, not a reason to sensationalize headlines.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

I poped a bracket (on my braces) on Raptor when I hit it on the restraint on a flat spin I believe, but I think the fries I had just before getting on loosened it first ;)

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Rollercoasters: They're not a hobby, they're not an interest, they're an ADDICTION!

RideMan

A 9 year old boy was ejected and killed on Blackpool Pleasure Beach's "Space Invader" indoor rollercoaster this year.

I also think (but may be wrong), that a boy died on a similar ride called "No Way Out" at Thorpe Park, UK.