10 Worst Amusement Park Accidents

Found this on WLWT.com today. Submitted to news but better here:

http://www.wlwt.com/slideshow/entertainment/28624587/detail.html

Surprised they didn't have Perilous Plunge on there.

Oh geez, WLWT - that's out of Cincinnati. What rattled their cage?

Ok, not so much a story as a slideshow. Amusement parks have got to love when media outlets in markets that haven't even had a recent accident run stories like this right in the middle of their high season.

So let' see:

1. Hellevator (SFKK) - yep, that was grisly
2. Batman (SFoG) - Hat Boy - it even notes he jumped two fences
3. Big Thunder (DL) - derailment
4. Big Thunder (DL Paris) - Passengers struck by falling rocks. I could make a joke about them going for realsim with their mine train.
5. Xtreme (Dixie Landings) - rider fell out.
6. Ride of Steel (Darien Lake) - You know what happened.
7. Space Journey (EcoValley, China) - a simulator managed to kill 6.
8. Wet N Wild -(Texas) - boy found drowned in pool.
9. "El Pendulo" - Barcelona Spain - Skyscraper type ride breaks into pieces in mid air.
10. Scrambler - Rye Playland - goes into the mulitple incidents this seemingly cursed flat ride has been implicated in.

No word of the Haunted Castle fire (SFGAdv)? I thought that was the textbook amusement park tragedy?

delan said:
Surprised they didn't have Perilous Plunge on there.

...and Oakwood's Hydro. But yes, the Haunt at GAdv was a game-changer, one that couldn't really be overlooked unless you qualify the list as "RIDE" accidents.

I give them credit for having an accurate picture of the ride listed, even the Batman clone.

How about the fire at Forest Park Highland? I'd say having most of an amusement park destroyed on live TV qualifies as a bad accident. But I guess they wanted to go with the evil rides that want to harm people angle.

I think Lake compounce has the worst luck when it comes to deadly accidents. I think they have had 5 deaths at the park in the last 20yrs!

gamerguy said:
I think Lake compounce has the worst luck when it comes to deadly accidents. I think they have had 5 deaths at the park in the last 20yrs!

I don't keep up with these stories the way many do, but that seems off. Could you possibly be thinking of Rye Playland?

I don't know the details but wasn't there a pretty awful accident up in Edmonton on the Anton in the mall?

rollergator said:...and Oakwood's Hydro. But yes, the Haunt at GAdv was a game-changer, one that couldn't really be overlooked unless you qualify the list as "RIDE" accidents.

If they ever listed them by park, SFGADV would take up the entire story..

Lightning Loops
Haunted House
Rolling Thunder

More?

"I don't know the details but wasn't there a pretty awful accident up in Edmonton on the Anton in the mall?"

Yeah it was the Mindbender I believe and there are photos out there with the bodies covered up.

The sale of Geauga Lake to Six Flags has gotta be up there.

^ Nice.

When I think of "Worst Amusement Park Accidents" I'm always reminded of Black Sunday at Kings Island. The Flight Commander falling death of a woman and pond electrocutions of two other guests in the same day had to be a pretty grim time for the park.

The Mindbender accident is pretty heinous too. The back car detached from the rails and fish tailed wildly into a support pillar. 3 riders were killed and a fourth seriously injured.

Coasterville Dave said:
No word of the Haunted Castle fire (SFGAdv)? I thought that was the textbook amusement park tragedy?

It actually was in the textbook for a risk management class I took in school around '93.

The Haunted Castle fire is studied a lot by haunt designers. It totally made safety THE first priority in walk-through attractions. Laws were written because of what happened that terrible day. Fire and City Code Inspectors enforce those laws because they do not want to see anything like that ever happen again.

So what I am trying to say here is, that incident should have at least been mentioned in the article.

They mentioned the Chinese simulator thingy that broke apart and killed 6, but no mention of the Battersea coaster incident in 1972 that killed 5. This list seems to be the 10 Worst Amusement Park Accidents That The Reporter Could Think Of Off The Top Of His Head.

There is some truly sloppy reporting going on these days...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The time I was sweeping the Blue Streak's brake run after the rain and fell between the brakes and track :( And guests were still running up to me (one leg near the ground, one stuck sideways and face firmly on track) asking "when is it gonna open!?"

Did anyone else see the "See who got arrested" slideshow after the accident slide show? Talk about a slow day in news.

Billy, that's hilarious, and it's even funnier that you posted it in this topic. lol

Given this is coming out of Cincy, I'm kind of surprised they didn't mention Black Sunday.