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Thrill rides turned deadly! Join us as we explore the most devastating amusement park disasters that led to permanent closures. From the ICON Park FreeFall tragedy to the Haunted Castle fire that claimed eight lives, these attractions went from entertainment to infamy overnight. Which of these shocking incidents will make you think twice about your next theme park visit?
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00:00There's nothing in the world like Action Park!
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the most shocking and catastrophic
00:07ride failures in amusement park attractions that led crowd-pleasing thrills to permanent shutdown.
00:13It was a combination of malfactors.
00:19Freefall, Icon Park, opening as the tallest freestanding drop tower in the world.
00:24The Icon Park Freefall Tower featured a 430-foot plunge designed to give riders a breathtaking
00:29view before sending them toward the ground.
00:32But in March 2022, that plunge turned into a disaster.
00:36The ride became the center of a national tragedy when teenager Tyree Sampson fell from a seat.
00:41Subsequent investigations discovered that the ride's restraint was manually adjusted to
00:45accommodate larger riders.
00:4727 of the ride's 30 seats had harnesses that closed down over the shoulders to a rider's
00:53waist, leaving a 3.33-inch space.
00:57But the adjusted seat where Tyree Sampson was directed had a gap more than twice that, 7.19 inches.
01:05When the drop initiated, Tyree slipped from the restraint and fell to his death.
01:09With a jury ruling in favor of the family, the ride was permanently closed and dismantled,
01:13with the incident prompting widespread changes to restraint standards for drop towers nationwide.
01:19Orlando Freefall is creating a scholarship in Sampson's name.
01:22The Haunted Mine Drop, Glenwood Caverns
01:25Imagine plunging into a pitch-black cavern beneath the Colorado mountains.
01:29This was exactly what the Haunted Mine Drop promised.
01:32Marketed as the world's first underground drop tower, it plunged riders down to a depth of 96 feet.
01:37Riders wear a seat belt, but no over-the-shoulder harness.
01:41The thrills transformed into a deep tragedy in 2021 when young Wangel Estefanos fell from her seat.
01:47Investigators later determined that she was not properly secured and that multiple safety protocols were skipped or misread by the staff.
01:55Report says an alert system warned employees of a seat belt issue, but they bypassed the alert and gave the ride all systems go.
02:03While the child was unrestrained, the drop continued its cycle, leading to her fatal fall.
02:07After the accident, the ride was closed indefinitely as investigators examined procedures, emergency training, and restraint design.
02:15Following greater public furor and legal action, the Haunted Mine Drop was permanently retired.
02:20The findings absolutely confirm that this is 100% the fault of the park and not the rider.
02:27Fireball, the Ohio State Fair.
02:29Tower drops are one thing, but the KMG Fireball offered a variant of the same, a towering pendulum-style ride.
02:36The additional rotation meant that its riders experienced a greater G-force than would an ordinary tower drop.
02:41In 2017, a high-profile tragedy struck the Ohio State Fair when a KMG Fireball suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure.
02:49I want to know what went wrong.
02:51As the ride swung outward with full force, an entire row of seats detached mid-air and were flung across the midway,
02:58killing 18-year-old Tyler Jarrell and injuring seven others.
03:01The accident occurred due to widespread rust and metal fatigue on the ride's support beam that had gone unnoticed for years.
03:08Ohio permanently removed the ride and enacted new safety legislation that remains in force today.
03:14The Wild Wonder Roller Coaster, Wonderland Pier.
03:17In 1999, Gillian's Wonderland Pier became the scene of a devastating accident that shocked the New Jersey boardwalk.
03:24During a morning run, the Wild Wonder Roller Coaster failed to make it over a hill.
03:28Instead, it unexpectedly rolled backward.
03:31Things took a turn for the worse when the ride's anti-rollback safety locks failed to engage properly.
03:36The car gained speed in reverse and slammed into another train waiting behind it.
03:40Kimberly Bailey and her young daughter Jessica were killed instantly.
03:44The tragedy was a combination of operator error, mechanical malfunction, and insufficient safety redundancy.
03:50Gillian's Wonderland Pier permanently removed the ride.
03:53The aftermath of the tragedy helped inspire broader state-level reforms for small-scale coasters.
03:58Kayak Experience.
03:59Action Park.
04:00Action Park is infamous for pushing the boundaries of what an amusement park could get away with,
04:05and its so-called kayak experience was one of the clearest examples.
04:09This ride simulated the thrill of whitewater rapids.
04:12There were underwater fans that would help push the water and created rapids like you were kayaking.
04:18In 1982, the attraction became the site of a tragic accident when 27-year-old Jeffrey Nathan
04:24stepped onto a metal grate near the ride while exiting his kayak and was suddenly electrocuted.
04:28Faulty wiring connected to the underwater fan system allowed an electrical current to travel through the wet surface.
04:34Nathan suffered cardiac arrest and later died, while two of his relatives were also injured during the incident.
04:40Although a state investigation ultimately cleared the park of legal fault, the ride was permanently shut down out of caution.
04:46The magic and the horror of Action Park is that you can go there expecting a great time, expecting fantastic memories,
04:57and you can leave with those exact things, or you can leave in a body bag, and you didn't know which it was going to be.
05:08Texas Giant. Six Flags Over Texas welcomes both families and thrill-seekers by the droves.
05:15At 152 feet, it's billed as the tallest steel hybrid roller coaster in the world.
05:21On July 19, 2013, that invitation ended in tragedy.
05:26Rosie Esparza, a 52-year-old woman visiting the park, died while riding the Texas Giant roller coaster.
05:31Esparza voiced concerns about her restraint after being seated, but a ride operator assured her that she was properly secured.
05:37She asked them to kick her more than once, and the guy was like, oh, as long as you heard a click, you're okay.
05:43Shortly after the coaster was dispatched, the train rounded a high-speed turn, and Esparza's restraint came undone.
05:49She fell 75 feet onto a metal roof below, and later died of her injuries.
05:54The Texas Giant was promptly closed for a few months, during which new coaster restraint designs, safety checks, and operator protocols were implemented,
06:02and following which, the ride was rebranded and opened anew.
06:06The Big Dipper was a wooden coaster that had thrilled regulars at Omaha's Krug Park.
06:12But on July 24, 1930, a single faulty bolt started a chain reaction that turned the ride into one of the deadliest coaster accidents in American history.
06:21The day was peak summer season for the park, and crowds had flocked to the attractions.
06:26While a car barreled down the track, the bolt holding a brake shoe slipped out of place and jammed the rear wheels of the car.
06:33This led to a deadly domino effect, causing the lead car to derail.
06:37It would then smash through a fragile guardrail before proceeding to drag three more cars with it.
06:41Passengers were crushed beneath the pileup, leaving four dead and 17 critically injured.
06:47The city immediately banned all roller coasters, and Krug Park shut down permanently soon after.
06:53Space Journey Ride
06:54Space Journey had groundbreaking written all over its launch.
06:58Here was a high-intensity attraction at the OCT East Amusement Park in Shenzhen, China, that combined rapid acceleration and violent spinning.
07:06But on June 29, 2010, it became one of China's most infamous amusement park tragedies.
07:12All the cabins but the one we were sitting in were destroyed.
07:17Some people fell onto the rail, and some fell onto the ground.
07:20A sudden power failure followed by an explosion inside the ride chamber led one of the 11 cabins to tear loose from its support structure.
07:27The cabin plunged roughly 50 feet to the floor, ejecting passengers.
07:31Six people were killed, and ten others were severely injured.
07:35There were some safety devices, but they were jammed after the car failure.
07:38And after that, the people could not get out. Some of the thinner people could crawl out.
07:43The disaster was even more alarming, as the ride had officially passed inspection just days earlier.
07:48This connection led to deep scrutiny of testing standards and maintenance protocols across the industry.
07:54The Mindbender
07:54Galaxy Land
07:55The Mindbender at West Edmonton Mall was once its crown jewel of indoor roller coasters.
08:01The ride was the largest of its kind, and the main attraction in the mall's sprawling Galaxy Land Park.
08:06But, on June 14th, 1986, the ride became the site of a fatal ride failure.
08:12They were traveling at more than 100 kilometers per hour.
08:15Moments into a run, a wheel assembly failed.
08:18The fourth car of the train derailed before entering the final loop.
08:21The lap bar restraints unlocked and released, ejecting its four passengers, three of whom died.
08:26It was later determined that four cap screws holding the wheel assembly had failed.
08:30This was likely the result of design flaws and unsatisfactory maintenance.
08:34The next thing I knew, the lap bar had come up, and we were starting to fishtail.
08:39Afterward, the ride underwent major redesigns, and continued until its permanent decommissioning in 2023.
08:46Superman, Tower of Power, Kentucky Kingdom
08:49Drop Tower rides are all about that brief controlled terror.
08:53And in 2007, that control was lost at Kentucky Kingdom.
08:56The park's Superman Tower of Power offered a dramatic 177-foot plunge meant to simulate freefall.
09:02On one routine ride cycle, a suspension cable snapped, whipping violently through the passenger area and striking teenager Caitlin Lasseter.
09:10The cable became entangled around Lasseter's feet during the drop, resulting in catastrophic injuries for the teenager.
09:16I remember feeling like I was on fire and smelling burning flesh.
09:21The ride was closed indefinitely with other drop tower rides following suit for inspection.
09:25The accident stands as one of the most haunting examples of how a single worn component can turn a controlled thrill into a life-altering emergency in seconds.
09:34She says she is in constant pain, and her dreams are harder to realize now and do not seem achievable.
09:41Fujin Raijin 2, Expo Land
09:43Once one of Japan's premier amusement parks, Osaka's Expo Land entertained visitors for decades until a tragic accident in 2007.
09:52Part of Fujin Raijin 2, a standing coaster derailed, and a 19-year-old college student lost her life.
09:59As well as the death, dozens more were injured, and many required hospital treatment.
10:04The cause for the crash? The ride had been neglected by the park for 15 years, and the axles eventually couldn't handle the load anymore since they had never been replaced.
10:14Expo Land was never able to recover from the accident since nobody wanted to go anymore.
10:19And less than two years later, in 2009, the entire park had shut for good.
10:24Verruckt
10:25Schlitterbahn, Kansas City
10:26This water slide was once the main attraction at Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, even receiving awards and briefly being the world's tallest water slide.
10:40But that all changed after a horrific accident in 2016.
10:44A weight discrepancy on the raft led to Caleb Schwab losing his life after the raft went airborne.
10:50He's not moving, that's my boy.
10:52Schwab was also the son of Scott Schwab, a Republican politician in Kansas.
10:58The ride's designers had criminal charges brought against them for second-degree murder, though the case was thrown out of court.
11:04Nobody rode Verruckt again after the accident, and it has since been destroyed.
11:09Perilous Plunge, Knott's Berry Farm
11:12In 2001, the Perilous Plunge flume ride at Knott's Berry Farm in California caused a fatal accident just one year after it had opened in 2000.
11:21A woman somehow slipped from her restraints and fell to her death, in an accident that tarred the ride's reputation for years afterwards.
11:29The ride didn't immediately close, though it continued to be plagued with various technical issues for the next 11 years, until it was finally shut down and dismantled in 2012.
11:39The park's attempts to make the ride safer just caused other problems in different areas.
11:44Luckily, though, after the 2001 incident, nobody else lost their life.
11:48Mind Scrambler, Playland
11:51The Mind Scrambler in Playland, New York, claimed two lives during its tenure in the park, with the latter being that of a Playland employee who was working and had attended the park her whole life.
12:03Gabriella Guerin was thrown off the ride when it was started by another employee who didn't follow the proper safety guidelines.
12:10Guerin was trying to help riders with their restraints at the time.
12:13Just three years earlier, someone else died in the same way, and those safety guidelines were put in place to stop anything like it from happening again.
12:21It's not entirely clear why the rules weren't strictly followed, but the two deaths led to the Scrambler being shut for good.
12:27Derby Racer, Revere Beach
12:29Wooden roller coasters technically aren't more dangerous than modern steel ones, that is, as long as they're properly looked after.
12:37Many of them aren't, and this has led to lots of nasty accidents over the years, including two horrific wooden roller coaster crashes at Revere Beach in Boston.
12:46Possibly the most famous dangerous coaster was Derby Racer, which caused no less than five deaths in separate incidents over the years where people were thrown from the trains.
12:56It was ultimately demolished in 1936.
13:00Revere Beach also hosted Lightning, which was only in operation for six years and didn't even make it two days before killing a park-goer.
13:08It was shut in 1933.
13:10Thunder River Rapids Ride
13:12Dream World
13:13As one of the most common theme park rides in the world, River Rapids are widely regarded as safe and good fun for people of all ages.
13:22However, their reputation was tarnished in 2016 after a gruesome accident at Dream World in Australia.
13:28One of the rides have sustained some sort of malfunction, causing two people to be ejected from a ride.
13:38Carrying a total of six, the raft crashed into another and flipped over.
13:42Four died in all.
13:44The tragedy shook the entire country and many of the park's guests, with Dream World closing for a few weeks.
13:50Shockingly, the attraction was found to have myriad mechanical failures and design flaws that had already caused numerous dangerous breakdowns,
13:59landing the park a hefty fine, and the eventual permanent closure of the ride itself.
14:04Sydney Ghost Train
14:06Luna Park in Sydney, Australia became the home of Australia's deadliest theme park attraction in 1979,
14:14when the park's ghost train burned to the ground late one evening.
14:18The fire left people trapped inside the ride, and seven people lost their lives.
14:22As the ride was totally destroyed, there was no risk of it reopening.
14:26But the disaster horrified Australia, and to this day, survivors and witnesses are campaigning for a full investigation into the fire.
14:35It's still not known how the fire started, though some have speculated arson,
14:39and many have claimed that the cops did not do their due diligence at the time, and might have even been corrupt.
14:46Former senior cops say crime boss Abe Zaffron was responsible.
14:50Those assertions need to be tested with proper evidence.
14:55The tidal wave pool, also known as the grave pool.
14:58Action Park
14:59There's nothing in the world like Action Park!
15:04The most infamous theme park in American history is, of course, Action Park,
15:09which operated in New Jersey for most of the 1980s.
15:11It was famous for its non-existent health and safety rules, and the high danger of its attractions.
15:17Though the cannonball loop is Action Park's most notorious ride, it wasn't operational long enough to cause any deaths.
15:24The tidal wave pool, on the other hand, caused at least two,
15:27but was also so dangerous that 12 lifeguards needed to be there at all times to rescue people non-stop.
15:35Shockingly, the wave pool is still functional, as part of Action Park's replacement, Mountain Creek.
15:41But it's been so heavily modified to make it safer, it is not the same.
15:46People thought that drowning at the Action Park wave pool was part of the ride.
15:50Big Dipper, Battersea Park
15:52Not to be confused with the similarly titled Coaster Crash in Omaha,
15:56this is the worst theme park accident to ever occur in the UK.
16:00Five individuals lost their lives in a grisly crash on this roller ride back in 1972.
16:05Well, we went round the corner, and the first carriage had just reached the top,
16:12and then I think the cable broke.
16:13The Big Dipper was a wooden roller coaster, and had already suffered a fire in 1970,
16:19though the ride survived and nobody was harmed.
16:22While the roller coaster train was making its way up the first incline,
16:25the chain malfunctioned, and the train went backward where it derailed.
16:29As well as the five deaths, there were dozens of injuries,
16:33not to mention the trauma of the survivors and families of the victims.
16:36It was a combination of malfactions, which shouldn't have happened.
16:44The tragedy, which may be the worst roller coaster accident in history,
16:48led to the ride being immediately shut down and quickly dismantled.
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17:08Haunted Castle, Six Flags Great Adventure
17:11Eight teens lost their lives one evening in May 1984
17:15after becoming trapped in Six Flags Haunted Castle when a fire broke out.
17:20An additional seven people were injured in the blaze,
17:22in what remains the deadliest theme park accident on record.
17:26The fire had many contributing factors,
17:28perhaps the most significant being that it did not have a sprinkler system.
17:33This meant that the fire spiraled out of control and completely destroyed the structure.
17:38Six Flags was taken to court for manslaughter,
17:40but was found not guilty on the basis that the fire was arson
17:44and not a result of negligence from the park or employees,
17:48despite the fact that the attraction was not up to code.
17:51Which of these accidents shocked you the most and made you rethink your ride choices?
17:55Let us know in the comments.
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