Favorite Amusement Park Legends

What are yours? Like CP's Magnum is sinking. (I know it's not. Don't have a conniption.)

Hmm...it's worded as a favorite topic, but could be interesting to hear about park legends generally. I don't know any, but would like to hear some if there are others out there.

Famous Park Legends:
How many people died from the Crystal Beach Cyclone & how many others had broken bones from the ride experience as well as bruises & other injuries for the nurse to attend to.

Truth is:
One person died from his own stupidity (I think he tried to stand up) & the injuries were mostly minor such as fainting from the intense ride or minor bumps & bruises.

Someone died on <insert coaster name>.

Someone died on Woodstock Express ???!? When did this happen?! ;)

*** Edited 12/3/2003 8:26:49 PM UTC by DawgByte II***

Six Flags Great America will tear down the American Eagle.....year after year after year. Obviously until it does happen that one is not happening.

A person got ejected from the American Eagle but lived to tell about it. I have my doubts on this as it never made it to the papers/news and the park sure is not talking about it.

Several people died in the Edge accident. In actuallity several people found some cozy beds in the hospital for a few days. The people lived on. So did the ride and is now Mr. Hyde's Nasty Fall at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.

When I was a ride op at Kennywood back in the 80's, I was asked almost daily obout 2 incidents:

1) The Laser Loop (shuttle loop)went too fast one day and flew off the end of the track.

2) The Pirate (swinging ship) was going too fast and that it went upside-down and all the people fell out.

Most of these questions came from young kids; but every now and then I would get a straight-faced question like those from an adult who heard all about it from his "neighbor's kid who used to work here."

My favorite quote while at the park happened one day while I was an extra at the Log Jammer.
One teenage kid turns to the other and says "Imagine what would happen if that were real water!" The other kid just said "Yeah!" To this day I have no idea what he meant by that!

I have a few

1. SFGADV is tearing down Viper this year. Thats been around since '96

2. Raptor has cracks in it and is ripping itself apart.

3.Son of Beast is smooth! :>)

As a kid (about 6 or 7 years ago) i scared the crap out of one of my friends w/ rides at darien lake... not "national" legends, but personal ones that sure were funny because my wussy friend believed anything and got so scared from them... here are the two i can remember right now...

1. Mind Eraser -- the "mist" on the ride is really acid, and that is why the people are screaming...

2. My personal favorite, on Nightmare @ Phatom Cave (defunct) there is a black metal bar that you have to "dodge" on the ride by ducking, otherwise your head gets kncoked off... this one he didn't believe at first... but the greatest thing about this one is that 2 min later a guy came out of the exit w/ a neck brace on... ohhh man he FREAKED, hahaha....

Oh, and this is the same kid that we said it's called Dr. Pepper because when you freeze them into ice cubes they taste like pepper... soooo we added some little chunks of mustard, hot sauce, and other random concoctions (sp) to the cubes... -- lol, makes me laugh everytime I think about his facial expression when tasting them...

-- alan j

---

richmmo said:

1) The Laser Loop (shuttle loop)went too fast one day and flew off the end of the track.

---

The Laser Loop story that went around in my neck of the woods back then was that it failed to stop and the train went continuously back and forth for two hours (or some other arbitrary time duration) before they could stop it. Every school trip, you'd hear that one about a gazillion times.

Now that you mention it, I do remember hearing that one about the Laser Loop too.

I just thought of another one- the ops at The Gold Rusher (dark ride) used to tell little kids they had to "pump" the lap bar to make the car go. The kids would start pumping and they'd push the start button. Funniest part is seeing the same kids come out at the end still pumping their lap bar!

I like the PKI ghost, a little girl that haunts the Racer, or was it the dude that fell off the Tower?

-Tina

---

Crashmando said:

3.Son of Beast is smooth! :>)

---

Not even funny...... >:[

--------------------
The Season ends....And Sonny is Still #1. *** Edited 12/3/2003 10:13:53 PM UTC by thepinkdoomofmonkeys***

One day i got ejected from the Thunderbolt at kennywood and died.

seriously, im not lying.

My favorite is hearing from that either Hersheypark, Dorney, or Six Flags bought Knoebels. I must hear that one at least 4 times a year at Knoebels. Heck some of them even come from employees!

I also heard that there are leeches in the moat for the motor boats at Knoebels. All I know is that that water is pretty nasty looking.

No joke - A woman behind me in line for Hulk was telling her friedns how "during testing, the train launched too fast and flew off the track into the lake." She honestly believed that it was true. I just sat there and laughed to myself.

Matt, I think that woman had source confusion with House on Haunted Hill. :)

-Danny

I've heard that freefall at GAdv. has come off the end of the track and landed on the bathroom. That one's always fun.

Millennium Force's green train went so fast it jumped the track and flew into lake Erie.

Mikey told its true. I swear. ;)

---

coasterqueenTRN said:
I like the PKI ghost, a little girl that haunts the Racer, or was it the dude that fell off the Tower?

---

I'm almost certain someone did fall from the Eiffel Tower. From Amusement Ride Accident Reports and News:

---

Friday, May 13, 1983 - A teenager was killed after falling from the Eiffel Tower attraction at Kings Island Amusement Park in Kings Island, Ohio. He was in a restricted area of the attraction when he fell.

---

Interesting, however, that up until I found this I've always thought this incident happened at Kings Dominion.