When amusement parks get dangerous

The recent mishap at Disneyworld that saw four people injured last week is not the first problem Disney has had with their roller coasters. In 2003, one man was killed and several others were injured when cars from the train of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad malfunctioned.

The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission collected information from a number of hospitals in the United States about injuries incurred on amusement park rides. The survey is not extensive and may underestimate the figures, but the report released following the inquiry pointed to a total of 3,400 accidents at established amusement parks in the year 2004.

Here are just a few of the truly bizarre stories that have come up recently regarding mishaps at the amusement park:

In April 2007, a seven year old boy was killed on a carnival ride in Hope, Arkansas. The Spanish-speaking boy and his mother possibly misunderstood the instructions for the ride. Consequently, their chair did not lock before the ride started. The ride, known as the Sizzler, began and both the boy and his mother fell out of the ride.

“[The operator] tried to stop it, but it was spinning so fast the boy was falling out of the chair, and the mother is trying to get him, but he is too heavy,” the boy’s uncle told the Hope Star. “When he was on the floor (ground), he stood up, and the chair hit him.” He died in hospital from brain injuries.

A five year old girl and her 22 month old sister were taken up into the air in their inflatable castle by unusually strong winds in Tuscon, Arizona. Lukily neither girl was hurt. On an even larger scale, a similar event picked up two bouncing houses in an amusement park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sending a total of 12 children skywards. Again, no one was injured.

One of the newest rides in the park is the human trebuchet. Like a catupault, the ride launches individuals 100 feet through the air onto a safety net. Unfortunately, one 19 year old student visiting Sommerset England from Bulgaria didn’t make it to the net.

“As he hit the ground I heard a thud and then a second thud,” said Oliver Nelson, the person set to jump after the student, to The Guardian.

The ride operators were charged with manslaughter but the charges were eventually dropped.

A slide killed a 26 year old volunteer firefighter in New Jersey. The three story slide was wet from a recent rain, causing the man to gain speed quickly. When the man hit a bump in the slide, he became airborne. He cracked his head against the slide, lost consciousness and later died.

In Rakvere, Estonia, in May this year, a ride known as the Tivoli Tuur, similar to the American ride the Enterprise, caught fire while in operation. Flames swallowed the ride and injured thirty-seven people.

The Baltic Times reported, “The blaze took hold at about 11pm, and was well alight by the time three fire crews reached the fun fair. By the time the fire was extinguished at 12.16am, flames had destroyed five plastic gondolas and the ride’s electrical system.”

Luckily, it’s not often that the rides actually malfunction mechanically. The most common cause of accidents in amusement parks is the people who handle the rides and the people who ride on them. Besides, although the accidents seem strange and bizarre they are actually very rare.

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