Today I wish to stand at this crossroads where tragedy and fun meet, and explore the feelings and experiences therein in their darkest form, by looking at those amusement park incidents which caused the greatest amount of injury, suffering and death.
This list is entirely non-fiction, and the people, places and events described herein are real. So, if you are unable or unwilling to view this list comfortably, consider this your Warning that the following deaths, injuries, accidents and tragedies are - to the best of my knowledge - real and horrific - and although I do not plan on describing them in explicit detail, I do not plan on censoring anything, and I may link to sources that include graphic details, illustrations or photography.
The following list is not in order of worth or value. I attempted to create a list of the very worst tragedy in order from the least tragic to the most... but, I found that to be impossible, since it would require me to measure the value of a human life - and its quantifiable loss or harm. Is death more tragic when it's in higher numbers, or when the victims are younger? Is there more suffering in surviving a devastating and debilitating injury, or in a painful, but quick death.
One day, I may perhaps be able to tell you how much each human life is worth - but that day is not today. So, instead, I have decided to list items which are, in their own way, the very worst of their kind, and placed them in alphabetical order. This will be...
The Top 10 Worst Amusement Park Tragedies
First Fatality on a Roller-coaster, at an Amusement Park
June 22, 1910; Three deaths
Rough Riders, The Bowery - Coney Island, New York, U.S.A.
These days, roller-coasters bank, turn and flip upside-down, with guidelines and safety bars and restrictions. However, this is the result of many years of evolution in ride design. The ancestor of the roller-coaster is the "russian mountain", essentially a tower covered in ice, to create an artificial slope to ride down on a toboggan or rug. When this idea was adopted outside of Russia and its climate, ice was just not a reasonable material to build these slides and towers from, so instead they added wheels to the riding carts. Once it was realized that by adding rails, you could create a more stable, but just as exciting ride, the modern rollercoaster was born. Originally, these were called switchback railways, since they used a switch mechanism to return the cars back to the top, either via gravity or a chain lift. And, to make the ride more fun, they would add bumps and dips, as well as the occasional painted scenery along the ride.
Unfortunately, this very mechanism is what caused the first accident. The Rough Riders coaster, at Coney Island, worked via a third-rail, which drove the motor in the rail cars with enough power to climb the hill, then the switch was turned back off, so that the car would coast, or roll, down the track like most roller-coasters. This could be done automatically, or manually by the attending brakeman. However, on Wednesday, June 22nd, either due to a fault in the mechanism, or a mistake made by the brakeman operating the ride, this mechanism was left on during its initial descent. So, rather than a gentle roll, the car drove at full speed down the incline. Because of this, when the car drove over one of the bumps in the track, it derailed, causing three people riding the car to die from the impact.
There names are not recorded, and it's not known if there were more people riding in the car which survived. However, what is known is that a similar incident five years later, which also resulted in fatalities, caused the operators to shut the ride down due to safety concerns.
First Fatality at an Amusement Park
July 10, 1893; Sixteen deaths
Chicago World’s Fair - Midway Plaisance, Chicago, U.S.A.
During my research, I discovered that both the first ever amusement park, as well as the oldest still-operating amusement park, are much older than I first believed. I also learned that both of these parks happened to be the same place: Bakken. It has a fascinating history behind it, but although it has been in operation since 1583 - over 400 years! - the first fatality was elsewhere.
I also found that, technically, the first prominent death recorded at an amusement park was Maharajah at the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, in 1882. However, not only could I not find the exact date of death, but Maharajah was an Asian elephant at that park's zoo. Since I'm sure many flies, rats, mosquitoes and various circus and zoo animals have also died, unrecorded, throughout amusement park history, I decided to limit my research to human fatalities.
This left me with the final result, the World Columbian Expo - despite the name, it was held in Chicago (it was named for Christopher Columbus). The Chicago World's Fair famously introduced amusement park rides to the world's fair - a midway which included a ferris wheel, seated travelators, belly-dancers & various sideshows. It may also seem odd to claim it held the first fatality as information is somewhat sparse online, however according to the headline story of the July 11, 1893 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, sixteen people - including twelve firefighters - died the previous day when a "cold storage plant" on the site caught fire just two months into the six-month-long expo. A smokestack caught fire, killing four people stuck inside the plant and starting a blaze which took 19 firetrucks and several hours to douse. Thirteen firemen climbed the building to get closer to the smokestack, however a blaze ignited lower on the building, trapping them. All but one of the thirteen men either fell, or leapt, into the flames in their attempts to escape. Despite the tragic loss, and subsequent court cases, the world's fair continued uninterrupted.
Most Expensive Fatality in a Single Incident, at an Amusement Park
$25,000,000 (USD), Luan Phi Dawson
Sailing Ship Columbia, Disneyland Resort - Anaheim, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
When there is a fatal incident, it tends to involve damage to park rides, facilities or property. Even if a person somehow walks into the path of a ride to, for instance, fetch a hat that dropped onto the tracks, the impact of the ride vehicle hitting them can result in damage to the ride, which may require maintenance, or at the very least cleaning. And that's not a random example. The vast majority of accidents at amusement parks tend to be the result of either undiagnosed medical conditions, or negligence on the part of the guests. In doing research, I have read dozens and dozens of instances of people climbing over safety fences, and stepping into the paths of rollercoasters, monorails and ride vehicles. For every one of these incidences, there is always a financial cost. But, I'm not interested in the cost of the damage, rather the cost of the death itself. And there is one death that cost more than any other.
In the resulting investigation of an incident that occurred on Thursday, December 24 1998 - Christmas Eve - it was determined that rather than the victim's negligence, medical problems or natural disaster, Disneyland itself was the cause of one man's death. At Disneyland Resort in California, there exists a recreation of the Columbia Rediviva sailing ship. On the date of the incident, the ship was coming into the dock a little fast, when a member of staff on the dock tied a rope which was attached to the dock around a metal cleat attached to the ship, which is quite commonplace for docking ships.
However, unbeknownst to this employee, the rope in question was traditionally an inelastic manila hemp rope, which is designed to break easily if too much force is applied. However, during prior maintenance, the park had replaced the hemp rope with a nylon rope so as to reduce costs. Unlike the hemp rope, this nylon rope has greater elasticity, so when the ship drifted further into dock, this rope stretched and grew taught, and so much force was being applied to the cleat that it was ripped off the side of the ship, and flung into a crowd of people waiting by the dock. It struck Luan Phi Dawson directly in the head, resulting in a severe skull fracture, brain trauma, and damage to major blood vessels, all of which left him braindead. The cleat also struck Mr Dawson's wife, Lieu Thuy Vuong, in the face, which caused paralysis and disfigurement. Finally, it struck and injured a staff member, Christine Carpenter when it hit her in the leg, requiring hospitalization.
The Walt Disney Company was taken to court by the victim's family and charged with Negligence; Products Liability; Wrongful Death & Loss of Consortium. Since the accident only occured due to the company's workplace health and safety violations - of which they'd already paid $12,500 to Cal/OSHA - the company settled out of court to the amount of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000).
In essence, the reason why this was the most expensive was because Disneyland had to admit that they killed someone, and as a result the Walt Disney Company changed many of the safety procedures in place within every one of their parks.
Most Fatalities in an Unresolved Incident, at an Amusement Park
Seven deaths
Ghost Train, Luna Park - Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia
Okay, I fully admit that this one is a bit of a stretch. Originally, I was curious as to which amusement park incident had the highest number of deaths to children, and in my research I uncovered this incident. However, I quickly realized that there was an incident with a higher number of underaged fatalities, and it was the same incident with the highest number of total fatalities. But I nonetheless wanted to include this incident on this list, because I thought it was an intriguing case, and I found good reason to when I realized that this was a case that was never solved...
On the night of Saturday, June 9, 1979, a fire started within the enclosed Ghost Train ride at Luna Park. Due to poor fire safety, appalling fire-fighting measures and limited staff, the fire completely engulfed the ride, killing every passenger aboard - one adult, and six children - and if you visit Luna Park in Sydney, there is a plaque with the names of all seven victims: John Godson, 29; Damien Godson, 6; Craig Godson, 4; Richard Carroll, 13; Michael Johnson, 13; Jonathan Billings, 13 & Seamus Rahilly, 13.
In case you were wondering, yes, the Godsons were a father and his two children - their mother hadn't been interested in the ghost train, so had left to get them ice-cream. The four thirteen-year-old boys were all schoolfriends from Waverley College and had ridden the train with a fifth friend, Jason Holman, but Holman had been pulled out of the ride by an attendant, and so survived.
This ride, very clearly, had inadequate fire safety, despite warnings from the North Sydney Council, and a design consultant advising them to install a sprinkler system on the ride. So, we know why the fire was deadly, but the question remained - what, or who, started the fire in the first place?
In the aftermath of this tragedy, the park was shut down pending a federal investigation and coronial inquiry. However, despite these investigations, the only clear determination was that the fire was not the result of faulty wiring - but no cause was established. As a result, there have been several theories. Conspiracy theorists believe the fire is linked to cult worship of the god Moloch, due to a photo of a man wearing a horned cow mask near one of the victims on the day of the fire. Some people also suspected sabotage for the purposes of either insurance fraud or murder, although no evidence was presented. Some even claimed it was terrorism. In later years, there have been claims that the fire had connections to organized crime, particularly the figure of Abe Saffron, due to claims by his niece after Saffron's death, and his connection to other cases of arson in the area in the following years.
But no matter the cause, this was a pointless loss of life. Not only was the park negligent in their duty of care requiring fire safety, but the police investigation after the fact failed entirely to uncover the cause.
Most Fatalities in a Single Incident, at an Amusement Park
Twenty-Eight deaths
Glass Roof, Transvaal Water Park - Yasenevo, Moscow, Russia
As I said in the previous entry, the incident that killed the most people also killed the most children... eight underaged people were killed in this incident which cost the lives of twenty-eight innocent parkgoers - and injured 198 others. So, what caused so many people to get hurt and killed? Glass.
In June 2002, Moscow opened the doomed waterpark, which had been designed by architect Nodar Kancheli - it had an African theme, several heated pools, a sauna and several slides. However, because Russia is so cold, in order for people to swim in these pools without freezing, they fully enclosed the structure, but decided to make the roof out of glass, so that the sunlight could still get in. This proved to be a fatal mistake.
At 7:15 p.m. on February 14, 2004, the glass roof collapsed, sending shards of glass raining down throughout much of the structure. The whole incident was exacerbated by the fact that the facility was a waterpark, and therefore most of the attendees were barefoot and wearing little more than swimming costumes - one witness even described the scene as "everything [covered] in blood".
Unfortunately, this was no freak accident. Not only did an investigation uncover several design flaws, but another building designed by the architect Kancheli, the Basmanny Marketplace, also suffered a roof collapse (killing 66 people).
It was uncovered during the investigation that the design of the building did not meet safety standards, and that there were several "miscalculations" in the architecture of the park which had lead to the collapse. Despite this, the architect involved received amnesty in connection with the 100th anniversary of the State Duma - and so was never punished, despite his involvement in at least 89 deaths.
Most Injuries in a Single Incident, at an Amusement Park
Five-hundred and thirteen injuries
Color Play Asia, Formosa Fun Coast - Bali District, New Taipei, Taiwan
That is neither a typo nor a miscalculation. Five-hundred and thirteen people were harmed in a single incident at an amusement park in Taiwan - and fifteen of those victims died as a result of their injuries, leaving five-hundred and eight (508) people severely injured, but alive. According to sources, as a result of this horrific tragedy, two people (family members of the deceased) also later committed suicide, as a direct result of the incident. So, what caused so much pain and misery?
A company called "Colour Play Co" decided to organize a concert at the popular amusement park in New Taipei, the Formosa Fun Coast, a waterpark in Taiwan, to occur on June 27, 2015. They rented the space, set up a large stage with speakers and a dancefloor, and even drained one of the pools so that visitors could have more room to dance.
But the main selling point of Colour Play is that, during the concert, attendees are covered with bright colourful powders - inspired by gulal, a coloured powder traditionally made from flowers and herbs which comes from India and is claimed to have medicinal qualities. It is used during the Hindu festival of Holi, to celebrate love and life at the beginning of spring. These days, the coloured powder tends to be a brightly coloured corn starch. But unlike the Holi festival, wherein the powders are thrown by hand, or simply applied carefully to the cheeks, Colour Play decided to blast several kilograms powder over the crowd using air cannons, and compressed gas canisters to keep it up in the air. As well, like the incident in the previous entry, as this took place at a waterpark during a hot day, most of the people involved were wearing very little protective clothing. Lastly, the presence of electrical equipment such as speakers, wires and microphones all over the stage caused a severe fire risk.
It's unknown whether the fire was started by a spark from the stage, or perhaps a cigarette or cigarette lighter as some patrons were reportedly smoking during the concert. But, either way, a flame caught the aerated dust, and caused a dust explosion.
The science behind it is simple: if you spread out a flammable dust in the air just right, it will act the same way as a flammable gas, the fire spreading from particle to particle - or in this case, granule to granule - so quickly that it envelopes the whole cloud in an explosion. The initial explosion caused much of the powder that had collected on the ground to catch fire - and according to witnesses, there was more than one fireball, which was likely caused by dust being billowed up from the initial explosion. More than 200 of the victims sustained severe injuries, with burns to more than 40% of their body, and as I already stated, fifteen died from the burns they sustained. But, the part about this that makes it truly tragic is that every single one of the packets of coloured powder, which Colour Asia purchased from a local company, have a warning stating that the powder is flammable.
Most Traumatic Incident Without Injury
Thirty minutes of torture
It's A Small World, Disneyland Resort - Anaheim, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
This was a tough one to judge. There was another incident at the Lightwater Valley amusement park, in North Yorkshire England, wherein a popular rollercoaster called The Ultimate struck a deer, decapitating the animal, and showering the passengers with blood. However, as disgusting as that sounds, the title of most traumatic incident should be granted to "It's a Small World", since not only did the incident recreate the characteristics of more than one form of torture used by the C.I.A., but the Walt Disney Company also lost the $8,000 court case wherein the victim of this incident charged the amusement park with causing his pain and suffering, as well as prejudicial treatment.
The incident occured on Friday, November 27, 2009, when Jose Martinez, a paraplegic man in his mid-40s was helped aboard the "It's a Small World" ride. Unfortunately the ride broke down, but whereas all of the other passengers were evacuated, Martinez was left trapped in his boat in the "Goodbye Room" until the ride was repaired half an hour later. Not only were his pleas for help left unheard, but the "It's a Small World" music played continuously for the entire duration - and playing repetitive and loud music is, as I said above, actually a form of torture. On top of this, Mr Martinez had to go to the bathroom. Generally, a need to urinate is not life-threatening, but for people with spinal injuries, it can be - Mr Martinez suffers from autonomic dysreflexia, which is a condition wherein blood pressure becomes dangerously high in response to certain conditions such as bowel distention, or urinary retention. So, not only did he suffer from a headache due to this condition, but after he was finally released from the ride, Martinez required 3 hours of medical care at the nearby first-aid station simply to stabilize his condition. Add to this, the fact that Martinez also suffers from anxiety, and you can understand why he won his court case.
Because of what he endured, Martinez was trapped in the dark, listening to obnoxious music while he had a headache, and left with the choice to either piss himself or risk having a seizure - and he was left to endure this all because he had a disability.
Most Unrelated Fatalities at a Single Location, at an Amusement Park
Six deaths
Car Park, Disneyland Resort - Anaheim, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
This one I found the most intriguing of all. To be honest, I was hoping to discover "the most dangerous ride" at a theme park. After all, if there is a single big accident on a ride, even if that ride kills a dozen people, but then no other accidents occur, it's not as dangerous as a small ride which has several dozen accidents. For example, Action Park was a waterpark infamous for having dozens and dozens of injuries, and six fatalities, throughout the park's operation - and it is considered the Most Dangerous Amusement Park in the world. I didn't include it on this list simply because there were so many separate instances of people being injured or hospitalized that sources vary as to the exact number - and the number of injuries I could find weren't higher than the incident I listed above.
However, I wanted to know if there was a single ride, venue or area of a park that had caused the most deaths in unrelated incidents. I found it... but, it wasn't one of the rides.
As it turns out, before you even enter the gates of Disneyland Resort in California, you're walking through the valley of death - the carpark. There have been exactly six unrelated deaths to have occured in the car parks at Disneyland Resort.
On September 14, 1985, a 7-year-old girl was crushed to death under the wheels of a charter bus, while she was crossing the parking lot with her uncle.
On March 7, 1987, Salesi Tai, 15, was shot four time in the back in the Disneyland parking lot during a brawl between rival gang members, and died at the scene.
On May 2, 2008, John Newman Jr., 48, jumped from a 14th storey balcony of the South Tower of the Disneyland Hotel, to his death in a parking lot.
On October 17, 2010, Ghassan Trabulsi, 61, committed suicide by jumping from the top floor of the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure.
On April 2, 2012, Christopher Tran, 23, was found dead at the base of the Mickey & Friends parking structure, in what is very likely to also be a suicide.
On November 26, 2016, Brandon Quigley, 40, jumped from the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure. He died an hour later at the UC Irvine Medical Center.
It's shocking and fascinating that there have been so many suicides at Disneyland, but in a sense it also shows how statistics can be misleading. I was curious as to why so many deaths could have happened in the car parks, and I learned that Disneyland resort has several parking lots. So, by area alone, the car park has more foot traffic (and regular traffic) than anywhere else in the park, except perhaps the front gate. But more than that, there's less security in the car park, because they're outside the park. So, in a sense, it shows how much safer it can be inside the park itself... assuming, of course, you don't get involved in any of the other instances in this list.
Most Unrelated Injuries at a Single Location, at an Amusement Park
One-hundred and ninety-four injuries
Mission: Space, Disneyland Resort - Anaheim, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
As I mentioned in the previous entry, I was doing research to try to discover which amusement park ride was the most dangerous, and this ride was a major contender, since not only have there been almost 200 injuries aboard the ride, but there have also been two deaths associated with the ride. However, I decided it wasn't the most dangerous for three reasons. Firstly, the two people that died had pre-existing medical conditions - and that's one of the highest causes of death in amusement parks, alongside negligence of the guests themselves (note: seriously, the number of deaths caused by people climbing over safety fences is appalling). Secondly, the park itself recognized how many people were being affected by the ride, and so they introduced a second, less-intense version of the ride for people who are at risk of being affected by the ride.
But thirdly, and most importantly, the ride itself is essentially a large centrifuge, which spins riders around, creating 2.5G of sustained force for about five minutes, to simulate the force of the rocket. Of the people injured by the ride, 26 suffered difficulty breathing, 25 people passed out, and 16 reported chest pains or irregular heartbeats, but the most common complaints were dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Most of the people who had more severe symptoms were aged 55 or over, which isn't surprising; and it's even less surprising that some people felt sick after spinning around for about five minutes. So, I don't think this ride is actually all that dangerous. The less intense version of the ride doesn't spin around at all, and that may sound boring, but it still includes the simulated cabin, which includes buttons and switches which the rider plays with, and can use to complete the simulated space mission by pressing the correct button at the right time.
However, it can't be denied that it has the highest number of separate incidences resulting in injury, which is why it is included in this list.
Youngest Fatality at an Amusement Park
One year, eight months old
Parking lot tram, Walt Disney World - Lake Buena Vista, Florida, U.S.A.
The date was June 12, 1982. Cassandra Lusinski was in the parking lot, riding one of the parking lot trams with her parents. These trams take attendees from the parking lot to the entrance of the park. However, as the tram turned, the young girl fell out. According to newspaper reports, it is unknown whether the girl died from the fall, or was run over by the tram. However, she was declared dead at the scene.
Cassandra Lusinski was only 1¾ years old, just 20 months.
Y'know, I decided against turning this blog post into a list. I did that because I didn't think I could value another human being's life, and I still stand by that. But, even I have to admit that, during the initial stages of writing this post, this was number one on the list for a long time. Not only was she a young girl who died in a freak accident, but she never even got to step foot in Walt Disney World. She died in the carpark - much like all of those in one of the previous entries.
As well, this incident is a crazy outlier in the data I've looked over. In all of my research, most of the people involved in these incidents were much older, but even for the younger kids, well, at least they got to go to an amusement park...
There was only one incident with anyone younger, and I know I've already given a warning, but genuinely even I find this one pretty disturbing, so I'm warning you now, if you don't want to hear about parental negligence, and severe child abuse, then skip over the remaining section of this entry, to the final paragraph below:
On August 11, 1990, the operator of the Eagle One Monorail at Busch Gardens saw a baby on the tracks and immediately cut the power. The baby, a four-month old girl named Sarne Hayward, suffered extensive injuries to her head, but medical responders managed to stabilize her condition. The girl was taken to Riverside Regional Medical Center, and managed to recover from her injuries. Although the girl's 19-year old mother Valerie Denise Hayward claimed that it was an accident, due to the height of the fence beside the tracks, it was determined that the mother had thrown her baby onto the tracks. Later sources claim that the mother had thrown the child during an argument with the child's father, Maurice Hayes Brown, in response to domestic abuse allegations.
Together, the parents were facing over 40 years of combined jail time for their actions, although none of the newspapers say that the couple were convicted, I'm fairly certain that they did.
In conclusion, after doing all of this research, I've come to understand that amusement parks are actually quite safe, all things considered. Whilst there have been a number of deaths at amusement parks, there also happens to exist a great number of amusement parks. And whilst Disneyland Resort in California appears multiple times on this list, it appears that this is because Disneyland is very popular and has been around for quite a long time. As well, there were literally hundreds of amusement parks in the research that I've done, and most have never had a single death within their property.
That being said, it's nonetheless true that the deaths at these parks tend to be more tragic. Either because the deaths were entirely unexpected, or because the injuries resulting from them were more severe, due to a lack of safety precautions. What we're left with is the fact that death is always a miserable thing, but through poor fortune or circumstance, that misery can spread further, darker and deeper when it happens at a place built for joy.
I'm the Absurd Word Nerd, and I hope you managed to get some amusement from this list. Until Next Time, I'm going to go for a ride...
That being said, it's nonetheless true that the deaths at these parks tend to be more tragic. Either because the deaths were entirely unexpected, or because the injuries resulting from them were more severe, due to a lack of safety precautions. What we're left with is the fact that death is always a miserable thing, but through poor fortune or circumstance, that misery can spread further, darker and deeper when it happens at a place built for joy.
I'm the Absurd Word Nerd, and I hope you managed to get some amusement from this list. Until Next Time, I'm going to go for a ride...
