Top 20 Stories That Make You NEVER Want to Go to an Amusement Park

Revere, Massachusetts, USA
Once upon a time, Massachusetts’ Revere Beach hosted the Derby Racer, a wooden coaster that featured two trains racing side-by-side on separate tracks. While you don’t often see them now, this was a very popular design in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, this particular ride was poorly constructed and had a terrible safety record throughout its 25 years. Numerous people died or were injured, including a young man who was seriously hurt the same year that the coaster opened. It should have been a warning. After numerous further incidents, the Massachusetts Supreme Court opened a case against the Derby Racer’s operator, and it was ultimately demolished in 1936.

Staffordshire, England
Alton Towers is home to The Smiler, which has the most inversions of any roller coaster in the world with fourteen. But tragedy struck the ride on June 2, 2015. An empty train was sent on a test run but subsequently stalled on the track. The engineers running the coaster were unaware that a test train had been sent out, and they overrode the coaster’s safety mechanism to run a train full of people. The two collided at high speeds, seriously injuring five riders - including two that required leg amputations. The collision was likened to crashing a car at 90 miles per hour, and Merlin Attractions was later fined £5 million by the Stafford Crown Court.

Orlando, Florida, USA
It’s amazing how such a trivial injury can have fatal consequences. 59-year-old Keith Clarke was visiting Discovery Cove in Orlando, Florida, an aquatic-themed amusement park that allows visitors to interact with various animals. Clarke was inside a simulated coral reef and cut his toe on a rock. He initially thought nothing of it, but three days later he collapsed in the airport. He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with septic shock and organ failure. Both of Clarke’s legs were eventually amputated, but it was too late and he died of a blood infection two months after the incident. It’s believed that Clarke’s hemophilia exacerbated the injury and allowed the bacteria in the pool to more easily enter his bloodstream.

Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia
This is one of those stories that absolutely infuriates you - the kind where absolutely nothing goes right. At 10:15 pm on June 9, 1979, a fire began in the Ghost Train ride at Luna Park Sydney. It wasn’t long before the fire completely enveloped the entire ride, killing seven people. The fire was allowed to spread due to a multitude of mistakes, including inadequate staffing, the lack of a sprinkler system inside the ride, and low water pressure in the hose. An inquest was launched, but poor investigative work resulted in a lack of charges. And finally, the exact cause of the fire remains unknown, leaving the entire story a frustrating mess of failed jobs.

Louisville, Kentucky, USA
This amusement park once hosted Superman: Tower of Power, a drop tower ride that lifts people high into the air before quickly dropping them back down to Earth. On this day, Kaitlyn Lassiter was on the ride when a cable snapped and wrapped itself around her feet. Unfortunately, it severed both limbs when the carriage quickly dropped to the ground. They were able to save her right foot, but she required a leg amputation below the knee on the left side. The ride was subsequently dismantled and the Lassiter family sued Six Flags, receiving treatment for the rest of Kaitlyn’s life in addition to an undisclosed amount.

Barcelona, Spain
The Tibidabo Amusement Park is one of the oldest operating parks in the entire world. However, on July 10, 2010, a swinging ride called El Pèndulo suffered a catastrophic failure when the mechanical arm malfunctioned and broke off, falling into a nearby log ride. The accident claimed one life and injured three others. El Pèndulo was in operation for just four years before the incident occurred, and Barcelona City Council, the owners of the park, ultimately admitted that there were mechanical issues with the ride. A subsequent independent study from the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering and an investigation claimed that El Pèndulo was poorly constructed and designed.

Concord, California, USA
It was June 2, 1997, and a group of seniors were celebrating their upcoming graduation from Napa High School. Shortly before returning to the bus, a large number of students swarmed the Banzai Pipeline, a water slide that was apparently only designed to accommodate about ten riders at a time. They wished to go down together and piled onto the slide, outnumbering the sole lifeguard on duty and failing to heed their pleas and warnings. Unfortunately, the combined weight of the people caused the slide to collapse and they all fell to the ground. 32 were reportedly injured, and one individual died of a crushed chest.

Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Also known as Omaha’s Polite Resort, Krug Park was an independent attraction owned by beer magnate Frederick Krug. And in 1930, it was home to what was then the deadliest roller coaster accident in American history. Around 6 PM on July 24, a bolt on the Big Dipper came loose, sending four cars full of people crashing to the ground. Seventeen were hurt and four died. The accident was so bad that the Omaha City Council promptly banned roller coasters in the city - a move which spelled doom for Krug Park. It stayed open for another ten years, but things weren’t the same without the coasters and the park closed for good in 1940.

New York City, New York, USA
One of the most popular roller coasters in America, the Coney Island Cyclone first opened in 1927 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Its status in American history is firmly established, but it also has a history of disturbing violence. One major incident occurred on May 26, 1985, when a man stood up while riding the coaster and died after hitting his head on a crossbeam. Just three years later, a maintenance worker who was riding the coaster fell out of the cart and hit a beam thirty feet below, also resulting in death. And in 2007, a 53-year-old man broke his neck while on the coaster and passed four days later.

Shenzhen, China
The Chinese amusement park Ecoventure Valley hosts a ride called Space Journey, which simulates the experience of blasting off in a rocket. Riders sit under a dome spanning nearly 80 feet in diameter and rattle around in carts while experiencing rapid acceleration. But in the summer of 2010, the ride suffered a mechanical issue which caused the spinning contraption to go off balance. This in turn caused the carts to reportedly fall around fifty feet and repeatedly slam into the ground at high speeds. Six passengers were killed in the incident and a further ten were injured.

Arlington, Texas, USA
Have you ever sat down on a ride and had the distinct feeling that the safety bar across your lap wasn’t as secure or snug as it should be? Usually the ride takes off, and your fear is quickly replaced with exhilaration. Sadly, for Rosa Ayala-Gaona Esparza that fear was totally justified. There was apparently some discussion as to whether her safety restraint was securely locked before takeoff that day at Six Flags Over Texas, but ultimately, the machine operator okayed it. During the ride, she was flung from the cart and fell 75 feet to her death from the rollercoaster known as “Texas Giant.” Worse, even, her body was partially severed during the fall.

Anaheim, California, USA
For many families, there’s no place more magical and wholesome than a Disney park. But as the tragic death of a boy following a gator attack at Disney World proves, even the “happiest place on earth” can’t always guarantee your safety. Meanwhile, in 1974, a Disneyland California cast member, Deborah Gail Stone, died while performing her duties as hostess of America Sings, a musical animatronic attraction. On the 9th day of the attraction’s operation, Stone was caught and crushed between a rotating wall and a fixed one. Sadly by the time emergency crews got to her, the high school grad student had succumbed to her severe injuries.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
The Mindbender, part of the Galaxyland Amusement Park in Canada’s West Edmonton Mall, holds the prestigious title as the world’s largest indoor triple-loop roller coaster. But as Icarus knows all too well… those who climb too high, are bound to fall. Not only did the Mindbender’s reputation take a serious hit when this fatal accident occurred in 1986, but the unfortunate incident also happened during a live concert, ensuring a large audience was there to witness the event. Missing bolts from the left-side wheels allowed a car to derail and crash, tragically killing three people. The accident prompted a thorough investigation and instigated numerous new safety and operation protocols, and the ride remained operational until 2023.

Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA
The “Mission: Space” attraction at Disney World’s Epcot park quickly earned itself a reputation when it opened in 2003. While many love the extreme thrills offered by the ride, it’s proved too much for others. Between 2005 and 2006, just under 200 riders required medical assistance. Symptoms included nausea, vomiting, dizziness and in more extreme cases, difficulties breathing, arrhythmic heart palpitations and chest pain. In 2005 and 2006 respectively, a boy and woman died after going on the ride. While Disney was ruled not to be at fault in both cases, they did alter the ride after the 2006 incident, offering a tamer version alongside the original.

Mason, Ohio, USA
Theme parks are designed to be exciting. But electrifying? Not so much. On one truly unlucky day in June 1991, this park claimed the lives of 3 people in two separate incidents. In a case that sends chills up and down our spines, two men were electrocuted to death by a faulty underwater pump. How? They’d gone into a pond to retrieve a third man who had fallen in. Of the three, only the third man survived. That same day, a woman fell from a ride to her death. Considering there’s a cemetery on the property, and in light of these deaths, many believe the park to be haunted.

Suita, Japan
A leftover from the 1970 Osaka World Fair, it was once considered one of Japan’s most popular theme parks. Now, all anyone seems to remember about Expoland… is the incident. In 2007, the Fujin Raijin II roller coaster derailed, claiming a life, and injuring another 19 people in the process. A formal investigation revealed that the roller coaster had been improperly maintained. The park closed temporarily then re-opened briefly, only to shut down for good in 2009. The owners simply couldn’t regain the public trust they had lost.

Battersea, London, England
Battersea Park is a 200-acre area of green space in London, England, that’s been reinvented numerous times over the years. Nowadays, it’s a public space with sports complexes, a boating area, walking paths and more, but from 1951-1974, it was also home to the Battersea Fun Fair, an amusement park with various attractions. The crowning gem of the Fun Fair was The Big Dipper, a thrilling wooden rollercoaster, but the ‘70s were hard on the ride. First, it experienced a serious fire in 1970. Then in 1972, the Big Dipper suffered a critical train detachment that took 5 lives. Ultimately, the fun fair closed two years later.

Woolavington, Somerset, England
For the most part, Middlemoor Waterpark is a humble establishment. They have a man-made lake where you can partake in watersports and a go-kart track, among a few other odds and ends. The ill-fated catapult, however, was not technically a Middlemoor offering, but rather a “visiting attraction” or extreme sport installation being hosted at the Waterpark. Having operated with minimal injuries for a couple of years, the inevitable happened in 2002 when Oxford university student Kostydin Yankov missed the net and died. The trebuchet owners were charged with – and acquitted of – manslaughter.

Vernon, New Jersey, USA
The story of Action Park in New Jersey could fill the squeamish with enough doubt to avoid amusement parks for the rest of their lives. 6 people are known to have died at the park, in a variety of ways. Rides fatally malfunctioned, faulty wiring delivered lethal electrocutions and subpar lifeguarding resulted in multiple drownings. Local doctors allegedly called it “Class Action Park”, due to the high number of injured patients they received courtesy of the establishment. Plus, the original park had a reputation for employing under-age and poorly trained staff and having lax to downright negligent safety standards.

Jackson, New Jersey, USA
Haunted Castles are always a bad idea… because when something scary happens… you never know whether it’s all part of the fun or a life-threatening malfunction. Well, in 1984, when smoke started building up in this spooky attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey, people made the right call and fled for their lives. Sadly, 8 did not make it out in time, becoming trapped in the blazing structure. Their burns were so severe that they could only be identified with the help of dental records and jewelry. Adding insult to fatal injury... due to legal technicalities, Six Flags escaped any and all legal responsibility.

Are you still a fan of amusement parks? Let us know in the comments below!