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The worst roller coaster accidents

Emmett said:
The worst case I can remember was the booster ride at a Paris fair when 2 people were killed when they were thrown from the ride.
Yeah, that was a pretty horrific accident. Most of the Booster accidents have been really bad, puts me off the things.

Although this isn't really an accident, and no-one was injured, but I found it to be rather shocking to watch. I stumbled into it browsing through Youtube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MECcvwtocac&feature=related[/youtube]
 
Reminds me of final destination where the restraints are undone. At least it didn't get stuck upside down in the loop.
Pretty shocking though.
 
When I worked at Chessington, one of the H&S boards sent us the uncensored police images of the Fujin Raijin crash. It was seriously grim as none of the bodies were covered up... I'll ask a team leader I know if he still has the email and if you wanna see the pic (when I get it) I'll PM it to you.
 
The Battersea accident had an unbelievable affect on the UK coaster/park industry.

The industry at that time was on its knees. Cheap package holidays were killing the local parks and seaside resorts. They were operating down massively on numbers, and the only way to keep going was to cut back on maintenance.

This led directly to the Battersea coaster crash. The track was poorly maintained and the rotten wood wasn't spotted as they didn't have people out walking the tracks.

The feedback has horrendous! All of a sudden every park in the UK was put under the microscope. Every park operating a coaster they had any doubts in tore down the wood. In the few years following that accident, the UK lost more coasters than ever before. Parks folded because without a big coaster draw, the few people who would come stopped.

Those WITH coasters (Blackpool, Morecambe, Margate and Southport are four that spring to mind) found guests didn't want to ride - even though these parks had good safety records and high maintenance schedules/budgets.

It almost killed the entire UK park industry over night. Dozens of coasters torn down, parks going from major tourist attractions to nothing, people shying away from parks in their hundreds of thousands.

For a park to install a new coaster, new safety requirements were in place. Old coasters needed to be overhauled and to comply with stricter regulations (nothing like today, but the Grand National had to finally have restraints added for instance).

So the repercussions of the accident were felt right around the UK in a huge way. I suspect in the world too - did PTC have cars with restraints prior to that point?

The saviour was Geoffery Thompson at Blackpool. Instead of shying away, he invested in new "steel" technology, and showed the public you could have safe and reliable new rides, running alongside old and reliable (and safe) old rides. His success with this strategy (caused entirely by a lack of faith in wooden coasters due to the Battersea incident) caught on and created the UK Theme Park boom of the 80's. Out of the ashes and all that. We're still seeing the problems. Rhyl and several other seaside resorts that have shut in the last ten years, have done so mainly because they tore down their wooden signature rides after the accident.

They limped on for a few years, but without that wooden draw to their parks - they all gradually faded away, while the likes of Blackpool shone on.

So, erm, yeah - Battersea probably carried the most weight of any accident so far

Are you on about the one where a piece of track was missing and the car fell into the sea?
 
I have to agree about the MindBender. Imagine having to go through that, just watching it. I mean, bout 40-50 mph into a PILLAR!!!!!! That wouldn't be the greatest feeling would it?
 
coasterboy said:
Are you on about the one where a piece of track was missing and the car fell into the sea?

no, Battersea being in the middle of London and all that ;)

It was in May 1972. The chain/rope of a scenic railway snapped, and the roll backs failed and the car ran backwards right down the lift hill. I have two conflicting descriptions now though.

One says the train derailed and fell 45 feet. The other that it ran backwards into the station and collided with the other car.

Whatever happened, five children were killed and 13 others injured.
 
The story I always hear is the chain snapped and rolled back into the station, hitting the train in the station as it was being loaded.

This caused parks to install anti-rollback devices...this is what I read.
 
anti-rollbacks have been around for much longer than Dave - you should know that.

I think that the rollbacks were just rotten and didn't stop the train at all - which is part of what the major issue was. Maintenance.
 
furie said:
anti-rollbacks have been around for much longer than Dave - you should know that.

I wondered that, but I was only going from what I read in this book about roller coasters from the 80's.
 
furie said:
coasterboy said:
Are you on about the one where a piece of track was missing and the car fell into the sea?

no, Battersea being in the middle of London and all that ;)

It was in May 1972. The chain/rope of a scenic railway snapped, and the roll backs failed and the car ran backwards right down the lift hill. I have two conflicting descriptions now though.

One says the train derailed and fell 45 feet. The other that it ran backwards into the station and collided with the other car.

Whatever happened, five children were killed and 13 others injured.

I'm pretty sure it was a rollback into the station, I can remember hearing about it - me being 10 at the time. I was wary of it every time I went up the lift hill of the Cleethorpes woodie that summer but it didn't stop me riding, just relieved when we'd got off the chain.
 
Kebab said:
Emmett said:
The worst case I can remember was the booster ride at a Paris fair when 2 people were killed when they were thrown from the ride.
Yeah, that was a pretty horrific accident. Most of the Booster accidents have been really bad, puts me off the things.

Although this isn't really an accident, and no-one was injured, but I found it to be rather shocking to watch. I stumbled into it browsing through Youtube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MECcvwtocac&feature=related[/youtube]

Dude thaT HAS TOTALLY GOT TO SUCK!!!! Can you imagine that, about to walk off a rollercoaster but as you're about to walk off, it goes again. That wouldnt be a good experience
 
Battersea fun fair roller coaster crash

The Battersea incident in 1972 was indeed the worst accident in coaster history.
The ride comprised of two cars.

As it reached the top of the drop it malfunctioned and rolled backwards, crashing when it reached the bottom. Five kids in the rear car were killed as their car absorbed the impact of the front car.

The brakeman was powerless to stop it.


Mickjoebill
 
I was watching Final Destination 3 last night and I was wondering, how did the roller coaster crash accident happen? In the premonition, the roller coaster happened because the perverted guy dropped his camera.
 
Actually. Erol, I saw a couple pages back about Fu Rai 2. You still got that forensic photo. Morbid curiosity is getting the better of me...
 
^
Not sure if this is the same pic, but the below graphically demonstrates how horrible this accident was:
 

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Whilst they're not all coaster related, we have had a few serious incidents lately. SroS being one, along with the Afterburner falling apart, and the Booster falling over, both in Spain.
 
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