Amusement Ride Accidents

Creepy. I've worked at three amusement parks and been there for a couple.

I was working at Knott's Halloween Haunt the night this happened: "Sunday, October 20, 1996 - A 56-year-old employee of Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in Buena Park, California was killed when he got caught between two steam-engine train cars." I actually walked those same tracks the night before on my way to first aid (for something minor).

I started my shift at Disneyland a couple of hours after the Christmas Eve 1998 Columbia incident happened. There were helicopters over the park all day long. I'm surprised they caught the carousel incident from that day. It was mostly overshadowed by the boat incident. Rumor around the park on that one was that the boy's parent was instructed by a cast member to put the belt around him, but then the parent removed it to take a picture of the boy on the carousel while it was in motion and he fell off the horse.

Most people who were working at Disneyland at the time have all heard a very similar story about the infamous Roger Rabbit incident. Apparently, the mom picked the kid up to hand to another adult in a different car during the ride and accidentlly dropped him in between the cars. Rumor has it that it's on security tape.

I took most rumors with a truckload of salt. You can never truly believe everything you hear since by the time they reach you they could be completely wrong. But the media stalked the hell out of cast members whenever anything happened. They waited for us at the local McDonalds and other hangouts, trying to get anyone to talk. Anything for a juicy quote, no matter how wrong, I suppose.

anecdotally interesting, but statistically, rollercoasters are safe. That's backed up by the CPSC report on the linked site. The vast majority of injuries are from guests being stupid/showing off/drunk.
Everyone who has ever worked an amusement park ride has a lot of hair-raising stories of crazy stuff, including minor mishaps, personally i've seen a couple dislocated shoulders, a bunch of bumps and bruises, and some very badly faked whiplash "injuries" with threats to sue my arse. Every single one of the actual incidents were caused by reasons noted above. Yes there are freak accidents, poor construction, but you're still more likely to be injured in a car accident than on an amusement ride so long as you don't be a doofus.

That list freaks me out. Every time I get on a ride I get OCD and make sure EVERYTHING around me is secure and on and tucked like it should be.

I know that amusement rides are safe but doesn't that list just get you. Each entry is more interesting than the next for some reason. I guess its just that whole when something goes wrong since its such a freak accident it's always an interesting story to tell.

But... but...

I thought painting heavy machinery with bright colors and cartoon characters made it safe.

I don't care how safe a rollarcoasters are, I'll never ride something at the fair. I can hear how it all creaks and sometimes sways in the wind. No thank you... I like living!

Amusement parks have the responsibility to provide a fun and safe environment for their Guests. Each amusement park has its own set of rules and/or restrictions to help achieve and maintain this safe environment. Amusement parks don't want to have an injured Guest; that is bad publicity and it could seriously damage the park, especially those small companies. In California, each ride is inspected annually by the Division of Occupational Health and Safety (DOSH -kind of like OSHA). This inspection includes training paperwork (ride guides, training documents, Ride Op. Observations, and a few more things), as well as Maintenance documentation, including maintenance reports, down time and compliance with manufacturer specifications. In addition, DOSH also conducts a detailed mechanical inspection of each ride in the park, from nuts and bolts to signs and labels. This is a very expensive inspection for the amusement parks, but does help maintain a safe park and operation. Now, Guests also need to take responsibility for their own safety. One of the most common Guest Service calls for ride operations is regarding an upset parent because his/her child, who does not meets the safety requirements, is not allowed to ride. The most common response from parents when explained the safety reasons is "I am riding with him, I'll take responsibility". Most mishaps are due to Guests not following safety rules or standards, and in most cases where the Employee is the injured person, is due to the same reason. I am a Ride Operations Manager and I work with this every day!
Go to the park; we want you to have the best time ever, so please help us provide this great, fun and safe environment by following the safety rules and restrictions each park. Don't ask us to compromise your safety!

I work in the amusment industry and most parks and traveling shows really do stress safety as well as appearance. But just like anything else there are those few who do not care its all about how much can I make and how little can I spend. Most of these types are out of business relatively quickly unfortunately usually only after an accident of some kind injures an innocent patron. As far the ride accident list do note that a large amount of those accidents occur outside of the US where alot of times there is little or no standard of inspection and regulation as there is here on a state and local level. And also note that most of the accidents in the US occur as a result of human error. Whether this is attributed to the customer, operator, or the persons setting the ride up. Everyone deserves to be able to enjoy themselves when they go to a park or fair. but it takes a combined effort of the park or fair employees as well as the patrons heeding the posted regulations for each ride. It has come to the point that everything has to be BIGGER, FASTER, and TALLER than the previous rides and that in itself creates more danger.