5 Deadly Roller Coaster Disasters. These scary deadly roller coaster incident will make you think twice about your next roller coaster ride. These are scary lugubrious accidents!
5. Batman: The Ride – 2008
You don’t have to be riding a roller coaster to get killed by it. On June 28, 2008, a young man at Six Flags Over Georgia dropped his hat on 'Batman: The Ride'. Instead of, you know, getting another hat, he decided to jump two fences and get it back himself. When the roller coaster car came by it knocked his head clean off...
4. Puff the Little Fire Dragon – 1989
The “Puff the Little Fire Dragon” coaster is one of the slowest and safest at Utah’s Lagoon Amusement Park, but it claimed the life of 6-year-old Ryan Beckstead in 1989. The boy managed to slip out of the ride’s safety restraints and he fell out onto the ground below. It was only a four foot drop, so he wasn't badly hurt. Unfortunately, he then tried to climb back onto the tracks and the same car looped around and knocked him in the head, killing him instantly.
3. Ride of Steel – 2011
James Hackemer had lost his legs in the Gulf War but he didn't let it get him down. He and his family went to the Darien Lake amusement park outside of Buffalo, making sure to ask park employees what rides were safe for him. They gave him the OK to be strapped into the 20-story Ride of Steel coaster, which proved to be a fatal mistake. Going over one of the small hills towards the ride’s end, Hackemer bounced out of his restraints and fell to his death.
2. Fujin Raijin II – 2007
Japan’s worst amusement-park disaster happened in 2007 at Expoland, outside of Osaka. The Fujin Raijin II roller coaster derailed, sending cars flying off the tracks, which killed a college student and injured 19 others. The accident revealed that the coaster’s axles hadn't been replaced in 15 years. Expoland closed soon after, blaming “a lack of customers” You wonder why...
1. Big Dipper – 1972
One of the worst roller-coaster accidents in history happened in England, at the Battersea Park Fun Fair. The Big Dipper was the park’s main attraction, an old-school wooden roller coaster. Unfortunately, wooden coasters wear out quickly if not scrupulously maintained. The rope that hauled the cars to the top of the launch hill snapped, the anti-rollback mechanism failed, and a chain of cars came barreling back into the boarding area, killing five children and horribly injuring 13 others.
