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The worst roller coaster accidents

That Mindbender accident is the one that scares me - well, they all do, to be honest. I think I'm getting old, because I'm worrying too much when I'm riding. Hopefully I can get past this, but this thread and this list of the 10 Most Horrible Amusement Park Accidents: doesn't help. At all.
 
mindbender_crash.jpg


Is that the back car?
 
Nope, it's the front car.

The wheel axle sheered, then the front train shunted off the track to the right coming out of the loop and hit the loop support. At any other point you would have probably had another Expedition Geforce type of incident, but unfortunately this happened in the worst place (though to be honest, that was probably the highest stress part of the ride so the most likely for the fault to break finally).
 
According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindbender_(Galaxyland) it's the back car,

Wiki said:
On the evening of June 14, 1986, after the yellow train (train #1) completed the second inverted loop, it encountered one of three areas of uplift before the third and final loop. Missing bolts on the left inside wheel assembly of the last car of the four car train caused the bogey assembly to disengage the track with a full load of riders. This caused the final car to fishtail wildly, disengaging the lap bars as it collided with support structures, thereby throwing off passengers and losing speed. The train entered the third and final inverted loop, but did not have the speed to complete the loop. The train stalled at the top, then slid backwards, crashing into a concrete pillar. Three people were killed during the accident and a fourth man was almost killed.
Click to expand...
 
I stand corrected, I always thought it went front first into the pillar.

That's the problem with a vague memory :lol:
 
At first glance that picture makes it look like the front of the train, but it was the head rests of on the following car that made me ask.

Thats just horrific, even if they hadn't have been thrown from the train, they would have been crushed when it rolled back!
 
Bump!

It appears that the blue and possibly trains did have rearward facing back cars.

Yellow did not appear to have these same cars.
 
I recently found this video, and don't remember seeing it before.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHoQ5e-yIEk&feature=related[/youtube]

It's a worker getting run over by a Big Apple coaster of all things.

The comments suggest it was in California, and that the guy survived (but lost a leg). Eek.
 
^Ya think?

It's an interesting video actually. I don't think we tend to realise that even the smallest, slowest coasters can actually cause a lot of damage if precautions aren't taken. The size and speed of, say, a Batman clone should tell people not to go near it while it's in operation, but staff likely get more complacent with the smaller, "safer" coasters especially around the station when the train is at its slowest.
 
This isn't the worst, but it sticks in my head for being my first "big" coaster which I rode countless times as a kid in the 70s-80s:-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/boy-killed-on-water-ride-at-fairground-1367475.html

Basically it was an old circular Water Chute (from the 1930s I think), similar to Blackpool's Vikingar.

porthcawlslip.jpg


water05.jpg


On Good Friday in 1994 one of the lighting hoops fell over the drop, and as the car came down the people in the front row ducked, the ones in the back didn't and a kid was decapitated. It was dismantled not long after.

Still makes me shudder...
 
On June 21, 2007, a 13-year-old girl was severely injured on Superman: Tower of Power. Shortly after the start of the ride, a cable snapped which fell and entangled the girl. Though she was able to remove the cable from her neck before the ride reached the top, it was still looped past her feet during the "drop" and shattered her left femur while severing both feet on the way down.[3] The operator heard the cable snap and acknowledged unusual screaming as the car climbed, but failed to hit the emergency stop button before the ride reached the top (after the drop, the ride cannot be halted).[4] Doctors were able to reattach her right foot. The ride was closed for two weeks and later reopened; however, it was removed from the park not long after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman:_Tower_of_Power

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krug_Park_ ... r_accident
(in short this is why there's no roller coasters in Omaha, Nebraska.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Sydne ... Train_fire

On Saturday, August 1, 1998, a 12-year-old boy fell off the log chute. As his log-themed boat neared the top of the chute, the boy began to panic and stood up to reach a railing. The ride was stopped, but the boat began to fall. Losing his grip, he fell off the chute, falling onto the landscaping rocks. O.D. Hopkins Associates, Inc., the manufacturer of the ride, inspected it and found that the ride was in proper working order. The boy died from the injuries received after falling off the chute. It was the park's (then Camp Snoopy) first major accident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Chute

Baywatch Water Show

Geauga Lake
On August 17, 1996, 22 people were injured during a Baywatch-themed water ski stunt show at SeaWorld of Ohio. The boat driver lost control after the boat allegedly experienced mechanical failure. The boat crashed five rows deep into the show's stadium resulting in 17 people being taken to area hospitals and five more treated on the scene.[15] During the accident investigation, the owner of the boat, World Entertainment Services, Inc., of Winter Park, Florida, was charged with three marine regulation violations unrelated to the accident.[16]

What I learned from looking into roller coaster incidents is that Six Flags Great Adventure has had incidents that caused quite a few safety innovations in the industry. The air gates in the station were implemented because of an incident on Lightnin' Loops in the 1980's where a woman ran across the platform and tried to board the train which was already dismissed. The seat belts that were installed on all wooden coasters were because of an incident on Rolling Thunder where a employee ignored safety precautions and got ejected from the train, this happened in I think 2002.
 
I'm surprised this one wasn't brought up....when the launch cable snapped on Xcelerator and it sliced through the front car of the train and lacerated a kids leg who was riding with his father...
 

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I'm not sure if this is the right topic to bring this up in, and if it has been brought up on the forums somewhere, I'm sorry. When I was at Kings Dominion yesterday, when I was leaving the park, there was a fire truck, ambulance, suspervisors, and other trucks rushing over to Dominator. I couldn't tell what was happening though.
 
^^ So thats two fairly bad accidents on Xcelerator, both involving the launch cable!

I think the other one involved the cable shreddring itself too pieces and flying about all over the place, hitting the front row riders in the face. I think there's a video somewhere...

Edit: It was actually the same accident:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLg6eh4E-nk[/youtube]
 
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