Each year, there are a handful of fatal amusement park accidents and many of these incidents involve roller coasters. Still, deadly rollercoaster accidents are relatively rare occurrences. Here are a few of the most recent fatal rollercoaster accidents in the United States:
• In July 2010, the family of 21-year-old Lindsay Zeno filed a wrongful death lawsuit against an amusement park after the young woman fell to her death on the ride. Her parents believed that the park failed to inspect and maintain the ride’s lock mechanism.
• In March 2011, a 47-year-old Houston man fell 30 feet to his death while riding the Hi-Miler rollercoaster at the Houston Livestock Show. The man’s family sued the ride operator for negligence.
• In July 2011, an Army veteran fell out of the Ride of Steel rollercoaster at Darien Lake Theme Park and died of his injuries. The veteran had lost his legs while serving in Iraq, but none of the ride’s operators warned him of the dangers of riding the coaster without his prosthetics.
Statistically, you are more likely to die in a traffic accident than on a rollercoaster: a number of safety regulations are in place to prevent amusement park accidents, while most ride operators and amusement parks take many precautions to keep passengers safe. Roller coasters are designed to be thrilling but also to protect against collisions, derailments, and fall accidents.
How fatal rollercoaster accidents happen
There are a number of different causes of fatal roller coaster accidents. Some deadly incidents involve a rider deliberately breaking the rules of the ride and engaging in dangerous behavior, such as attempting to stand up on a coaster or not listening to safety instructions. Other incidents take place when there is a malfunction on the train or on the tracks. Still other incidents may be due to a failure of the amusement park to properly maintain their rides or train their operators. If a roller coaster accident is due to the negligence of a property owner, ride operator, or amusement park, the victim’s family may file a wrongful death lawsuit and seek compensation.
In some cases, a person may die while riding a rollercoaster because of a previously undetected health issue, such as a weak heart of a weak blood vessel in the brain. In these cases, the physical stress of a rollercoaster ride – which involves jarring changes in velocity, acceleration, and direction – could cause a heart attack, aneurysm, or stroke.
While rollercoaster designers continue to create more and more thrilling rides for amusement park goers, they must keep in mind the dangers of gravitational forces and other physical stresses of high-speed rides – it is a balancing act between developing more and more exhilarating experiences and keeping all passengers safe. Many operators discourage or bar those in poor health from riding, such as the very old, the very young, the obese, the ill, and the intoxicated.
Euthanasia rollercoaster: a deliberately deadly amusement park ride?
According to an article in Scientific American, there is one rollercoaster designer who has the opposite goal of most. Julijonas Urbonas and his team at Design Interactions Research are developing a hypothetical ride that they are calling the Euthanasia Coaster – a rollercoaster that uses physics to “euphorically and elegantly” take the life of its rider – someone who for one reason or another has decided to commit suicide. The designer, who is the managing director at a Lithuanian amusement park as well as a gravitational aesthetics PhD student and engineer, states that someone suffering from a fatal disease or old age would perhaps want to end their life in a painless manner while also experiencing an ultimate thrill. Here’s what the coaster’s designer has to say about his deadly ride: ”Euthanasia Coaster” is …engineered to humanely take the life of a human being. Riding the coaster’s track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death. …[T]he fatal journey is made pleasing, elegant and meaningful. Celebrating the limits of the human body, this ‘kinetic sculpture’ is in fact the ultimate roller coaster.”
Luckily – at least we think – the Euthanasia Coaster is only a concept at this stage and there are no plans to make the purposefully deadly ride a reality.
Houston rollercoaster accident attorneys
You can learn more about the physics, thrills, and potential dangers of ordinary roller coasters in our library article on the topic – and you can learn more about the hazards of amusement parks in our free guide, Dangers in the Park.
To speak with an experienced Houston roller coaster lawyer about an amusement park injury or fatality, call our office today at 877-307-9500.