Worst incident you have experienced at a park

[GwaziBSRider1]

In response to all of the terrible things about Kennywood, it's unfortunate that this is all typical now. Under the family ownership and management, the place was phenomenal with customer service. After they sold out, their corporate has let the place go down hill, and it's just getting worse.

 

^ For the Skycoaster incident, this doesn't surprise me. It's a shame because I always thought they had the best one.

 

On another visit, the park was packed and Racer was only running 2 trains (which is basically 1 train operation since it is a racing coaster.

 

This has always been the case, as the park only owns three trains for the entire ride. I don't think they've done "two-train" operations.

 

As for the weather policy, I wasn't aware it had changed so dramatically. Kennywood used to have a very liberal policy in regard to rain. I guess Palace/Parques Reunidos doesn't want a repeat of the 2002 incident with the Whip roof. It used to be that nearly everything was open in rain.

 

It's such a shame that the new ownership has turned Kennywood into a place to avoid instead of a place to visit. It's my home park, and I didn't even bother to go this year because of how crappy the place has become.

[rcrider4]

Not exactly a theme park, but I went to the FL State Fair this year on Student Day, and I will never do that again. The kids started doing something called "wilding" which is where they stampede around the fair and start major fights (it has a lot of gang activity in it). They were yelling, fist fighting, throwing cinder blocks at people (no, I'm not kidding there), stealing prizes from the games hosts. They shut down the fair early and the place was crawling with police ejecting and arresting people, but they were massively overwhelmed. Getting out of there was one of the scariest situations I have ever been in. Of course we were in the back of the fair when this started so we had to go through the entire place to get to our exit.

Here is a local news story about it that shows some clips of the beginnings of it when they were just stampeding.

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[SingleRiderCam]

My worst park incident was probably at Six Flags Magic Mountain near the Summer of 2013 when I had my worst visit to the park to date.

 

I'll start off with 3rd ride of the day, Tatsu. Before I went up the stairs into the station, the ride broke down and the breakdown went on for over an hour in the blazing sun as we were sent up towards the one-station operation. After the ride was fixed, I rode it and had my single worst and most uncomfortable experience on the ride. I'm never going to wait for a breakdown for a ride at Magic Mountain again. Even if it's for YOLOcoaster or Twisted Colossus, still not going to wait for it.

 

Near the end of the day, my father lost his car keys and he didn't know where they went. We searched in the stations of X2, Batman, Goliath, and Scream but nothing was found in either station. We waited at Lost and Found for 2 hours as the employees looked around for loose articles from the rides. Luckily, one of the first rides they searched at was X2 where the employees found my father's car keys that fell out of his pocket.

 

I still come back to the park for regular yearly visits and West Coast Bash, but I'll try my best for all of that to not happen to me ever again.

[djcoastermark]

^^ yes I was there that day at the fla st fair. We got there at opening and we had a great, but a little chilly day. however as it turned towards evening things started to change. We noticed the kids started getting rowdy and were starting to run just around sunset. That's when I looked at my partner and said maybe it would be a good time to leave. Not that we wanted to as we were really having fun on the rides.

[BugEyed]

A few years ago I sharted while in line for Predator at Darien Lake. That really kind of ruined the rest of the day. Furthermore it also made for a very unpleasant 2.5 hour drive home.

[parkjunkie]

i almost forgot about this incident back in June 2012 at Mt. Olympus.

 

Even though its rough, Ive always liked Hades, so I was pretty excited. The line was about 10 minutes long, but as we made it into the station, i noticed the operator having getting upset because people were stuck in the restraints. After getting everyone off, they next train was sent out, only to come back with the same problem, this time the front row of the front car, they were unable to get the people out, so they had to call maintainance. About 20 minutes later, 2 maintainance workers showed up and still were unable to get the 2 riders out, but after about 5 more minutes of effort, were able to free them. Now you think they would test the lap bars or at least ATTEMPT to find out what was wrong.... nope, loaded it with people and sent it out...... this is where things go from bad to practically tragic. The train gets sent out and as it came into the trims before the station, I realized the trims did not work and the train blasted into the station from the high up trims, jolted all the riders extremely hard, and stopped with the first 2 cars out past the station. The maintainance crew still there from the lap bar issue, chuckled and immediately sent the train out,..... not asking if everyone was OK or wanted to get off. Any large named parks would have e-stopped and evacuated the ride. Numerous people left the line while a few others started yelling at the maintainance crew. I stayed to see what would happen. As the train came back from its run, the trims again failed, not as bad this time with the front car hanging out of the station. Again, no one was asked if they were OK, and no one was given the chance to EVACUATE from the ride even though this time, a few riders were requesting to get off. As they sent the train out AGAIN, people on the train were yelling to get off. The third time back, the train was slowed normally by the trims and came back into the station without incident. They again had problems with the lap bars and a few of the 3 time riders gave the staff a piece of their mind, one guy went irate and they just completely ignored them. I was 4 trains away from riding, so curiosity kept me on the dock to see what would happen. You'd never believe it, they loaded the train and sent it out like nothing had ever happened. The next 3 trains made the course without problem, so I decided to ride anyway..... MISTAKE! The ride was sent out and as we made it into the trims, almost the entire train went through the trims before they engaged probably for the last 2 cars and came to a harsh hault partially out of the station. They were about to send us out of the station, when myself and 2 other men yelled a few choice words to the staff, one of them trying to pry themselves out, but I think it was when someone yelled "I'm suing" was when they decided not to send the train out. None of us were asked if we were OK and we unloaded... the front car unloaded manually onto the walkway. I then when straight to the maintainance workers, had a few "QUESTIONS" for them, got there names and went to talk to management. As I walked down the stairs, they sent the train out empty, only for it to return and be loaded with the few guests that had not got out of line. I was blown off by management only to be told that rollercoasters are like any other machine, they encounter problems, but if there seems to be no major issue, they would keep running them. After telling them I have been working in the amusement park industry for almost a decade and who I worked for, they seemed to get more straight faced but at the same time was told they have never had any injuries or major incidents with this ride, so they in essence was as safe as any Cedar Fair or Six Flags park..... HAHA, yah right.

 

Anyway, it seems Mt. Olympus is more concerned with buying up everything in the Dells and staffing it with WELL below-par international workers that are barely tarined with sub-par safety guide lines, than to be concerned with safety protocol or the wellfare of their guests. Shame on you Mt. Olympus, the time will come when you will wish you would have spent the extra time and money to properly run your rides before a tragedy strikes.

 

Unfortunately, tragedy did strike this year for one man, and I think many of us here knew it was just a matter of time.