The dark side of the amusement park industry - Amusement parks are wonderlands that fulfill the dreams of young children and grown-up thrill-seekers alike. These giant, colorful playgrounds are popular destinations for family vacations and children’s birthday celebrations. On the surface, theme parks brim with joy and excitement. Visitors have absolute trust that the engineering of the rides guarantees their safety and that the companies running the parks take every precaution. After all, they wouldn’t be allowed to operate if there were any risks involved, right?

Actually, despite efforts to keep various scandals and accidents quiet, amusement parks all over the world have been held accountable for horrifying negligence, often resulting in the loss of innocent lives.

Click through this gallery to learn about some of the most deadly examples of theme park mismanagement in history.

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Six Flags Great Adventure - 2022 -

On August 25, 2022, things went awry at New Jersey amusement park Six Flags Great Adventure. The wooden roller coaster called El Toro reportedly malfunctioned, with some describing a sudden jolt as if they had hit a pothole. El Toro moves at a speed of 70 miles per hour (110 kilometers per hour) and the bumpy ride caused some guests to bite their tongues, chip teeth, or worse. At least five people were taken to hospital with complaints of neck or back pain after the incident. The ride was shut down for inspection and Six Flags issued written assurances that its rides were safe. However, no official representative from the park was available to answer questions at the time. El Toro is famous as it was voted the best wooden roller coaster in the world in 2011 and 2017. 

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Oceans of Fun - 2022 -

The Oceans of Fun water park in Kansas was the site of a terrible tragedy on July 5. A young girl was found unresponsive in the pool and rushed to hospital. Sadly, she did not recover and her death was announced on July 13. Law enforcement officials confirmed that she was just seven years of age. The pool in question was only 4 ft 5 in (1.2 m) deep, and the park website claims that children under 52 in (1.3 m) in height are required to wear life jackets. They increase this to 60 in (1.5 m) following the tragic accident.

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Gillian's Wonderland Pier - 2022 -

A 62-year-old worker died after a fall at the popular Gillian's Wonderland Pier in New Jersey. In a statement from the amusement park's president Jay Gillian, the worker was on a lift before suffering the "fatal injury" on May 2. "We are saddened to report that an employee of a subcontractor working on a lift at Gillian's Wonderland Pier suffered a fatal injury Monday morning," Gillian wrote. "We are cooperating with all appropriate authorities to thoroughly investigate the cause of this tragic accident," he added. "As we get more information we will provide it."

Gillian is also the mayor of Ocean City and is running for re-election, and a post to his campaign page announced that they would be temporarily suspending campaign activities.

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Dreamworld, Australia - 2016 -

The Dreamworld amusement park is located on Australia’s Gold Coast in Queensland. It receives approximately one million visitors every year, mainly children and families. However, a fun day out turned to tragedy in 2016 when the popular Thunder River Rapids ride malfunctioned.

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Dreamworld, Australia - 2016 -

Two of the rafts crashed into each other, causing one to flip over, crushing the people inside. Two children survived, but four adults were killed almost instantly. A lengthy inquiry concluded that the Dreamworld management team was culpable and hadn’t taken the inexpensive and only mildly inconvenient steps to ensure the ride’s safety.

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Dreamworld, Australia - 2016 -

It was revealed in court that Dreamworld hadn’t done a routine safety assessment of the ride for more than 30 years before the accident occurred. The company was given a US$2.5 million fine. The case inspired the implementation of a new criminal offense for industrial manslaughter in the state of Queensland. However, Dreamworld could not be charged retroactively for the four lives lost.

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Kankaria Amusement Park, India - 2019 -

One of the scariest accidents imaginable occurred in India’s Kankaria Amusement Park in 2019. The lakeside theme park located in Ahmedabad boasted a small selection of roller coasters and attractions. One was a pendulum-style ride that swings visitors from side to side while they’re strapped into their seats in a circular formation, similar to the one pictured above.

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Kankaria Amusement Park, India - 2019 -

On July 14, 2019, spectators were horrified to see the main shaft splinter while the ride was in full swing, sending 31 passengers crashing to the ground stuck in their seats. Two people were killed, and the other 29 were seriously injured.

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Kankaria Amusement Park, India - 2019 -

It was later revealed that a safety audit had been conducted by park management 10 days before the accident. The report concluded that 11 of the 23 rides reviewed had significant mechanical issues. Unsurprisingly, the ride that collapsed less than two weeks later had been flagged on that list.

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Schlitterbahn Waterpark, USA - 2016 -

The Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City is home to one particularly dangerous ride. The Verrückt waterslide was unveiled in 2012 and advertised as the tallest waterslide in the world. Accurately named, the word Verrückt is German for “insane.” It stood at 169 feet (52 m) in height, approximately 17 stories.

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Schlitterbahn Waterpark, USA - 2016 -

On Verrückt, passengers on rafts plummet down a vertical shoot at 70 miles (113 km) per hour. The rushed design of the slide made it extremely risky. A week before the slide opened, a damning report from an engineering firm said that it was “guaranteed that rafts would occasionally go airborne in a manner that could severely injure or kill the occupants.”

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Schlitterbahn Waterpark, USA - 2016 -

Regardless, the park owner, Jeff Henry, forged ahead. He reportedly wanted the opening of the slide to coincide with a TV appearance. He was also hoping to earn a Guinness World Record. As expected, many accidents occurred over the years. A safety net that covered the slide was intended to prevent guests from falling to their deaths, but instead they often bounced into the poles holding the net in place, resulting in concussions and spinal injuries. There’s evidence to suggest that park management tried to cover up these accidents.

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Schlitterbahn Waterpark, USA - 2016 -

In 2016, the worst finally happened. A 10-year-old boy was instantly killed when his raft went airborne and he was decapitated by one of the metal poles surrounding the slide. The park was shut down, the slide was demolished, and Jeff Henry was charged with a number of crimes along with the slide’s senior designer. Too little, too late.

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Action Park, USA - 1978-1996 -

Where to begin? The Action Park water park in Vernon, New Jersey, opened its gates in 1978, and quickly gained the nickname Accident Park. It’s hard to imagine that any other amusement park in history was as poorly designed.

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Action Park, USA - 1978-1996 -

Here are just a few of the exciting attractions guests at Action Park enjoyed, according to History.com: “An enclosed water slide with a complete loop where customers ended up with bloody noses. A wheeled ride with no brakes that shot down a concrete-and-fiberglass track. A freshwater pool with giant waves that required lifeguards to rescue over two dozen people a day.”

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Action Park, USA - 1978-1996 -

The Alpine Slide, which one guest described as “a giant track to rip people’s skin off that was disguised as a kid’s ride,” was responsible for at least 27 head injuries and 14 bone fractures. The Tidal Wave Pool was aggressive and caused many an accident as wave after wave crashed over the heads of even the tallest guests. By the time the park was finally shut down, three people had drowned in that pool.

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Action Park, USA - 1978-1996 -

Action Park was finally shut down in 1996 after six fatalities and countless injuries. The owner, Gene Mulvihill, had an “anything goes” philosophy for his park, meaning he thought guests should control their own experience and decide how fast or high they wanted to go (at their own risk). Reports even say that underage kids would openly drink beer at the park. Despite building a terrible reputation for danger and negligence, it’s easy to see why some reckless thrill-seekers kept going back.

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Six Flags, multiple locations -

Six Flags is the largest theme park operator in the US, with different parks scattered all over the country. Considering the millions of people that visit the various Six Flags location every year, the parks are relatively safe. However, even the safest and best-looked-after parks can still have horrific accidents.

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Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - 2007 -

The Superman: Tower of Power was a popular ride at the Kentucky Six Flags park. Similar attractions are found in theme parks all over the world: a ring of seats slowly rises up an incredibly high central structure before suddenly dropping again at high speed.

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Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - 2007 -

Things went wrong in 2007 when a cord snapped on the ride. The heavy metal cord whipped around at high speed, severing the feet of a 13-year-old girl. The park gave her family US$4 million in compensation for the horrific accident.

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Six Flags Great Adventure - 1984 -

On May 11, 1984, an attraction at the Six Flags Great Adventure park in New Jersey caught fire. The so-called Haunted Castle was more like a collection of trailers that were painted to look like a spooky old mansion.

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Six Flags Great Adventure - 1984 -

The construction had no sprinkler system or emergency exits. Guests who were inside the purposefully dark and disorientating building at the time didn’t know how to get out. One survivor even said she initially thought the fire was part of the act.

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Six Flags Great Adventure - 1984 -

The Haunted Castle was engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. Eight teenagers died in the fire after failing to find their way out in time. Six Flags was initially indicted for aggravated manslaughter, but later was acquitted.

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Six Flags Great America - 1998 -

Six Flags may not be the amusement park for you if you don’t like being upside down for hours at a time. Passengers have been stuck in such situations on more than one occasion. One notable incident occurred on the Demon roller coaster in Six Flags Great America, near Chicago, in 1998.

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Six Flags Great America - 1998 -

One of the wheels came off the track, which initiated a safety mechanism to stop the ride from derailing. This meant that the ride suddenly halted while the passengers were hanging upside down. It took three hours to rescue them.

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Six Flags Magic Mountain - 2014 -

A similar incident occurred at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California in 2014. The Ninja roller coaster was in operation when a large branch from a nearby tree suddenly fell and landed on the tracks. This caused the ride to partially derail with 22 passengers stuck in their seats. Again, it took around three hours to rescue them from their precarious position.

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Wet 'n Wild, USA - 1994 -

The Wet 'n Wild water park in Orlando was the flagship park of the franchise. It was founded by the creator of SeaWorld and opened in 1977. The most notorious slide, named the Black Hole, was a tightly looped black tunnel that was pitch dark inside. Guests passed through the slide on a two-person float.

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Wet 'n Wild, USA - 1994 -

One man was severely injured on the slide in 1994 after being struck by something in the dark. When he exited the slide his legs were paralyzed and he had to have a metal plate inserted into his neck to recover. He sued the park for US$1.73 million and won.

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Wet 'n Wild, USA - 1994 -

Wet ‘n Wild pled ignorance in court, claiming they weren’t aware of any danger. However, several employees of the park testified that the rafts constantly got stuck but that their policy was to send down the next raft before confirming the previous guest had safely exited the slide. This meant that guests frequently crashed into each other in the dark and were injured. Wet n’ Wild Orlando closed in 2016.

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The Derby Racer, USA - 1911 -

The Derby Racer was one of the first roller coasters to be built in the US. It was opened at Revere Beach in Boston in 1911. It was a wooden roller coaster with tracks forming a figure eight, ridden by passengers in small cars. Health and safety regulations weren’t what they are today, but even still, it’s incredible that that ride was allowed to operate for 25 years.

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The Derby Racer, USA - 1911 -

The same year it opened, a young man was thrown from the roller coaster, sustaining serious injuries that he later died from. The attraction was closed for two weeks before reopening. Several more customers were killed in a similar manner over the years. Non-deadly injuries included a woman who fractured her skull and a man who broke almost every bone in his body.

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The Derby Racer, USA - 1911 -

An incident in which a man was thrown from the roller coaster in 1929 led to a Supreme Court case. Legislation for roller coaster safety was developed as a result. The ride was forced to shut down in 1936 when it was deemed too dangerous to continue operating.

Sources: (Reader's Digest) (BBC) (History) (Dallas Observer) (Grunge) (Newsweek)

See also: The biggest engineering mistakes of all time

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