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People keep dying on roller coasters. Should theme park fans be scared? · Best of: Features

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  People keep dying on roller coasters, should theme park fans be scared.
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  Written by Julie Tremaine. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlett. For theme park fans, it's hard to read
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  the news lately and not feel at least a little bit concerned
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  about safety. A series of serious, occasionally fatal issues on roller coasters
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  have been happening across the country in recent months, to the alarm
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  of casual parkgoers and longtime riders alike. Most recently, Hassan Jihad ibn
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  Khariam died on Monday, october twelfth, after being ejected from a moving
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  ride vehicle on Goliath at Six Flags over, Georgia. Several other people
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  were injured in the accident, which prompted the temporary closure of similar
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  rides at Six Flags Parks across North America. When even the parent
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  companies of theme parks are concerned about their ability to give guests
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  safe rides, it begs the question Why are these injuries repeatedly happening?
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  And how safe are these major thrill rides in the first place?
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  The public is rightfully concerned, but we need some more information before
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  we can come to any specific conclusion as to how we move
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  forward. Brian Avery, a roller coaster safety consultant and professor at the
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  University of Florida, told SF Gate via phone If you look historically
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  at accidents that have happened in the amusement park industry, it ebbs
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  and flows. In some years it's extremely quiet. You don’t really see
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  or hear of any incidences happening, and in others it's mainstream news.
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  Oftentimes when it makes the mainstream news, it's because several catastrophic accidents
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  have resulted. We don't have the details that we need to come
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  to any conclusions as to what might be happening, he added. And
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  unfortunately, and this is a scary thought, we have to bear out
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  and see where this goes. Is a trend emerging, and, my God,
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  if it is, how do we stop it? The cause of Carrium's
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  accident is still under investigation, and the ride will likely remain closed
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  until authorities determine what happened and what needs to be done to
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  ensure it never happens again. Goliath is what Six calls a hypercoaster,
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  which generally refers to steel roller coasters over two hundred feet sixty
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  one meters, tall that prioritize airtime and speed over inversions. They often
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  feature large camel back hills designed to maximize weightlessness. Six Flags. Over
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  Georgia describes the two hundred foot tall Goliath as an intense seven
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  seventh sevent and plur thrill ride that challenges even the bravest of
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  the brave. The company's thrill rides get more intense from there. A
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  gigacoaster reaches up to three hundred feet and is known for immense
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  speed and long, sweeping layouts, per six flags. A stratocoaster reaches a
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  rarefied four hundred feet. As a precaution, Six Flags has closed other
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  similar hypercoasters at parks across North America, including California's Goliath at Six
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  Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. The Magic Mountain Goliath was manufactured by
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  a different company than the one in Georgia, but almost all the
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  other currently closed rides were built by Swiss manufacturer Bolliger and Mabillard.
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  SeaWorld in Orlando also temporarily shut down its Mako coaster, also made
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  by that company, per people. I understand the concerns surrounding this incident,
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  and appreciate the patience of our guests, seasoned pass holders, and community
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  members. Six Flags over Georgia President Richard Pretlow said in a statement
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  on the park's website. We remain committed to providing safe, fun, and
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  memorable experiences. A Long History of Thrill Ride Accidents. There's inherent
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  danger in riding a thrill ride, especially roller coasters. Since the first
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  coaster debuted at Coney Island in eighteen eighty four, problems have followed.
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  A major accident at the New York Amusement Park in nineteen fifteen
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  killed three people. At Massachusetts Revere Beach Boardwalk, the Derby Racer ejected
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  passengers from moving ride cars four times between 1911 and 1936, with
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  sometimes fatal results. More recently, tragic accidents have resulted in major changes
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  at amusement parks, like the twenty twenty two death of fourteen year
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  old Tyre Sampson, who fell from the Orlando Freefall ride at Icon
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  park after he was improperly restrained in his seat, per CBS News.
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  They ride, which had previously been the world's tallest freefall, was torn
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  down the following year. A roller coaster in general, or just amusement
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  rides as a whole, are very unique, Avery said. The way they're
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  installed how they're designed, the way they're maintained and operated, are all
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  different from park to park. Even in the same part group, sometimes
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  things are going to be done a little differently, he added. They
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  try to achieve consistency, but it just depends on the qualifications of
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  your staff and the training and how they approach things. There's a
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  lot of variables at the end of the day. Every ride that's
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  installed in a theme park or amusement park needs to meet the
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  company's internal safety standards, as well as the state's guidelines, but Park,
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  of the problem is that there are no unified federal regulatory standards
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  for roller coasters. Between nineteen seventy eight and nineteen ninety six, New
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  Jersey's Action Park saw six accidental deaths and countless other injuries. Its
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  reputation for injuries was so notorious that employees referred to it as
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  Traction Park, according to the New York Times, referring to the medical
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  stabilization process often undertaken after serious spinal injury or broken bone. There
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  was virtually no action taken against. Action Seth Porch, Seth who made
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  twenty twenty documentary Class Action Park about the place, told the New
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  York Times at the time. Eventually it shut down, not because of
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  some regulator who said you're through, but because it went bankrupt. As
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  of twenty twenty two, at least thirty five states required amusement parks
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  to follow safety standards created by ASTM International, originally founded as the
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  American Society for Testing and Materials, according to them. Regulatory review. Its
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  amusement rides committee meets twice each year to update a set of
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  voluntary performance specifications, maintenance guides, and other ride safety standards that are
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  published in the annual book of ASTM standards. The regulatory review wrote
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  Many other parks choose to comply with these standards even when not
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  legally required to do so. Still, differences in body sizes make standardized
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  safety testing a challenge. When park are in constant competition with each
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  other to build bigger, faster, more intense rides, the testing required is
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  inherently going to continue to change. There are inherent risks, Avery said.
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  You can't separate them, and there are some dangers in the sense
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  that A we're creating a thrill ride, and B pushing people to
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  flirt with that danger. We don't want them to experience any danger,
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  but during that process, there are circumstances where someone doesn't meet a
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  restriction, or we're not aware of one that should have been in
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  place. According to Avery, even after rides pass rigorous testing from the
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  manufacturer, the park and any applicable oversight board in California, that's the
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  Division of Occupational Safety and Health, there are still long term unknowns.
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  At the time that Goliath was built, obviously it met specific technological
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  requirements, specifications for ensuring that it met whatever the manufacturer had designed,
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  he said. But how do they wear? That's the long term issues
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  on some of these. These are machines. They're moving and the speed
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  is high. The forces are great. In that process, what's it doing
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  to the device? How is it changing over time? And what kind
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  of modifications are being made to service it, if any. An unsettling
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  news cycle of accidents The recent rash of accidents is concerning by
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  any metric. In just over a year, three major American parks have
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  seen significant injuries and deaths on their rides. In September twenty twenty
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  five, thirty two year old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died at Universal Orlando's
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  Epic Universe Park after sustaining blunt impact injuries on its marquee coaster,
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  Stardust Racers. The ride was found not to have malfunctioned and reopened
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  the following month with new safety protocols in place, including stricter rules
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  for who is allowed to ride. After Zavala's death, Ben Crump, the
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  attorney for his family, told the media that other parties had come
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  forward alleging injuries consistent with Zavala's, including problems with restraints, riders being
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  thrown forward and hitting hard structures on the same ride, per Orlando
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  TV news outlet Wesh TV. This September, Six Flags announced that it
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  would permanently close X two at Magic Mountain, after an investigation by
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  CNN revealed that more than one hundred people had claimed injuries from
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  the intense coaster. In June 2022, twenty two year old Christopher Hawley
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  collapsed after riding X two and died the following day from bleeding
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  in his brain. In July 2026, 25 year old Naomi Greer Wilkinson
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  was hospitalized after riding X2, and remains hospitalized, and on a ventilator
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  after several surgeries. In the same month, 39 year old Pamela Guillon
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  was diagnosed with an intracranial hemorrhage after riding and required several surgeries.
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  In the announcement, Six Flag's Magic Mountain President Brian Ording wrote that
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  while X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided
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  to close they ride because we believe it's the right thing to
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  do. When a problem happens, it's not necessarily a manufacturing issue. Many
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  other factors are at play, Avery said, including your maintenance, your inspection,
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  your operational factors, what was being implemented by your attendants on the
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  ground to ensure that each of your riders were compliant. Was there
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  a maintenance failure? A manufacturer defect? Is there an operational concern? That
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  goes to a whole other series of inspections and investigations, trying to
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  come to a conclusion as to why. Maintenance training is generally overseen
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  by each individual park’s but is often informed by ASTM standards. The
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  level at which an attendant is trained is dependent internally on the
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  organization and their processes, Avery said. I've seen some parks provide a
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  sheet of paper and say, Here you go, and they give you
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  five minute instructions, and you're off to the races. Your larger parks
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  aren't that way. Big name amusement and theme parks generally do significantly
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  more training. The larger parks, their training programs are incredible, Avery added.
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  I used to train at one of The larger parks way back
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  when, and I was teaching in a classroom thirty, forty hours a
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  week. By far, Southern California's most injurious ride is X2, but Magic
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  Mountain has had other roller coaster problems in the past. In 2001,
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  28-year-old Pearl Santos died after suffering a brain aneurysm on that park's
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  Goliath coaster. In twenty fourteen, a forty foot tree fell across the
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  track of Ninja, derailing a ride car and stranding passengers for three
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  hours. Four people were injured, according to the LA Times. Moreover, accidents
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  have happened on rides at most other area theme parks. At Knotts
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  Berry Farm, Lori Mason Laris died in two thousand one after being
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  ejected from the Perilous Plunge, a flume ride that Knotts claimed had
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  the steepest and highest drop of any water ride in the world,
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  according to the LA Times, with a one hundred fifteen foot drop
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  at fifty miles per hour. The ride closed in twenty twelve. In
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  2009, a twelve-year-old boy was seriously injured when a steel cord snapped
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  on the park's Zecelerator ride, requiring multiple surgeries to correct severe damage
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  to his leg. The most recent accidental death at Disneyland was in
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  two thousand three, when twenty two year old Marcelo Torres died while
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  riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, after the locomotive detached from the rest
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  of the train's ride cars and derailed, per the LA Times. Ten
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  other people were hurt in the accident, which was attributed to faulty
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  maintenance. The ride reopened after six months of repairs and inspections, and
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  state mandated retraining of maintenance staff. Disneyland's biggest and most intense thrill
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  ride, the Incredicoaster at Disney California Adventure, has never had a major
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  injury from an accident, though it did have a slow speed collision
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  between two ride cars in two thousand five that injured fifteen people,
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  none seriously. This summer, a rash of incidents of people standing up
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  on Tiana's Bayou Adventure Flume ride prompted the implementation of enhanced safety
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  protocols. During the worst of the incidents, a teenage boy fell down
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  the fifty foot drop unprotected after he stood up in his ride
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  car ahead of the finale, but didn't sustain significant injuries. Universal Studios
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  Hollywood's only recent major incident was in 2024, when a tram car
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  on the park's studio tour overturned, injuring fifteen. At theme parks, especially
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  the biggest names in the industry like Disney and Universal, it's easy
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  to assume that everything is always going to be safe. And generally,
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  that's correct. But I think people get a false sense of security
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  sometimes when they go to these facilities, and there's some thought they
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  need to put in about their own safety, Avery said. More patrons
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  need to read the warning signs and the informational signs on the
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  rides to see what ride restrictions exist. Still, the odds are in
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  a guest's favor for a safe, and let's not forget fun experience.
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  Avery said that he understands rider concern, but points to the numbers
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  for overall safety. There are always hundreds of millions, if not billions,
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  of rides on an annualized basis, and statistically speaking, you have a
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  very low likelihood of suffering an accident as a result, he said.
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  But you don't want to be that statistic.