Most Dangerous Amusement Park Attractions

[Hockeydad]

Found this on the front page of my Road Runner News this morning. Understand that these people are considering white water rafting an amusement park attraction or having a photo of a family riding a viking ship under the roller coaster incident. Anyway, while many of the stories they quote are stories that most of us can recall in recent years, they are pretty off in how they are classifying a lot of these attractions. Here's the link:

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/1919/1/?redirectURL=http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-05/the-most-dangerous-amusement-park-rides

[Band-Aid]

...Big Thunder Mountain is considered a train ride, and not a roller coaster?

[Philrad71]

Wait...this didn't come off MSN?

[Skycoastin Steve]

What a sad, sad, sad piece of attempted journalism.

[Intimidator305]

Is it me or did they name almost every single ride in an amusement park? I love the last one... "Roller Coaster", that is sooo specific!

[let1gre]

Driving is still far, far more dangerous.

 

The problem with the media with these sorts of reports of "incidents" and "accidents" is that, after one happens, they ignore the fact that, say, millions of other people have ridden that ride without injury. It's the same with plane crashes too. How about the news reports all of the thousands of planes that land safely and all of the roller coasters that didn't fly off the tracks? Also, at least two of those accidents in the article (potentially more, but others were unclear) were the VERY DIRECT fault of the victim and had NOTHING TO DO with the safety of the ride.

[RollingRunner]

Did I really just read that?

 

It disappoints me when I read something like this, a lousy news report article on how "dangerous" amusement rides are. It's all about fear mongering now, and not about anything good a park has ever done. The article really speaks for itself with the "Train Ride" being a pretty obvious roller coaster and having a picture of El Toro in place of Timber Wolf, (i'm sure google images isn't that hard to use!)

[Sir Clinksalot]

Wow, that is the most idiotic piece of "Journalism" I have ever read.

 

The best one:

 

1. Roller Coaster

Estimated U.S. incidents, 2009: 495

 

Notable incident: A South Carolina teen who entered a restricted area at Six Flags over Georgia lost his life in 2008. Seventeen-year-old Asia Leeshawn Ferguson hopped over two fences to retrieve a hat he lost while on the Batman ride. The ride was careening at 50 mph hour when it struck Ferguson, decapitating him. “He was my oldest son. He was named after me. It’s tragic,” the boy’s father

 

I love how they just gloss over the fact that he entered a restricted area and had to hop 2 fences to do so.

[Team Thriller]

I'm happy to know that there are stupider people on Earth than me.

 

--James

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Meh, people scared off by "journalism" like this just means shorter lines for the rest of us.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

This article was SO specific! "Water Slide" "Roller Coaster" "Rides in the Dark".

 

Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain aren't considered coasters?

[BigDipper 80]

^ Well, it's clear that since Space Mountain is in the dark, there is no possible way for it to be a roller coaster.

 

Or the journalist desperately needed to expand the length of his awful article. I love America.

[Bearcat89]

Deleted post.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Bearcat89

[Carnage]

How did they come up with the "Estimated 2009 incidents"?

 

The wooden coaster & roller coaster "estimates" seem insanely high. 495 "incidents" on roller coasters? That's a pretty good stretch, unless they're counting every time someone gets off a coaster a little sore.

 

Some "Estimates" seem too low as well. Like go-karts with 51 "incidents"? I'm sure there's got to me more accidents then that considering how many go-kart tracks are out there.

[deathbydinn]

That has got to be the worst amusement related article I have ever read.

 

I also think its just stupid that in the article they said it was the persons fault that they got injured when it really was their fault, but then to say that makes the ride unsafe?

Edited August 8, 2010 by deathbydinn

[Pingu1651]

This guy seems like the rest of the GP. There's one terrible incident and suddenly it's the most unsafe ride ever. I get alpine slides and go-karts, but how dumb do you have to be to get injured by a 5 mph antique car?

[Maximo37]

Wow... what a piece of junk that was...

 

My favorite was the "Slide" section, where the 19 year old man rode the 20 ft tall slide after it was CLOSED!!!... The attraction was CLOSED!!!... conisider me insensitive but, I don't really want to hear the injuries which caused his un-timely demise... He should not have been there at all... Hmmm... renders me silent...

[davisal771]

That had to be the most retarded thing I've ever read. Utter CRAP.

[Mastersax68]

The person who lost their goggles in a pool probably shouldn't have gone looking for them in the pools pipe system. That's just common sense. A good percentage of these were caused by actions that are not permitted in amusement parks, and probably wouldn't have happened if they listened by the rules, or their gut instinct.

[mightbeawannabe]

Incident: E stop on a brake run or breakdowns. That sums up the explanation for the article.

 

Also, the timber wolf accident was in 1995 during Hunt-Midwest, not 2005 during Cedar Fair. Bad attempt at an article. I bet Wikipedia has higher standards.

 

^ You are absolutely right. Who gives a crap about a $5 pair of goggles that you lost? Buy a new pair! Don't die for five dollars, people. Logic!

 

/rant

[Angry_Gumball]

Wow that was awful...So rides are dangerous due to someone's stupidity. The rides were operating as they should when that guy hopped the fence and struck by the train, or when the teens piled up on the waterslide causing it to collapse.

 

I'd say there's more of a risk driving to the amusement park/driving home than there is actually getting on a ride.

[Nozzy]

I agree with everyone else about almost all of the cases being guest stupidity....

 

However, my favorite part has to be "Rides in the Dark" Incident-Guests on Space Mountain came to a stop when a wheel separated from the track.

Clearly, if Space Mountain did not happen in the dark this would not have happened

[Six Flags Enthuseast]

Horrible. I have nothing else to say.

[808Freq]

You people think that was bad? You should see those idiots try to cover something a bit more serious.. say.. politics or world affairs.

[fatdaddy]

The most dangerous theme park attraction is the food, It'll kill ya, but it's so tasty. I need funnel cake with ice cream.

 

Really, more accidents happen on those inflatable bouncy things than anything, but usually, as always, it is people being stupid or operators being careless.