Number 13 Six Flags Haunted Castle On May 11th, of 1984, one of the worst theme
park disasters in history occurred as a fire broke out at Six Flags Great Adventure’s Haunted Castle.
Built out of semi-trailers, the attraction had a maze-like structure.
The flammable materials used in construction, like foam padding and plywood frames,
as well as its air-conditioning, which fanned the flames, contributed to the fire spreading rapidly.
In spite of repeated recommendations from the park’s own safety consultants,
the structure lacked building permits, sprinklers or smoke detectors. 29 guests were inside the
Haunted Castle at the time and some thought the flames to be part of the horror-themed experience.
It wasn’t long before the visitors realized they found themselves in a death trap. The blaze broke
out of the top of the castle and a dark cloud of smoke rose through the air. The majority of
guests made it out but it wasn’t clear how many lives had been lost until later that evening. The
bodies of 8 teenagers were recovered in one of the trailers. They were so badly burnt that firemen
believed them to be mannequins at first. In the tragedy’s aftermath, new legislation was passed
requiring amusement buildings to be fitted with fire safety, detection and suppression systems.
Number 12 Treetop Twister Improper wiring, worn-out wheels and
operator error are all elements that contributed to the 2001 Treetop Twister ride accident,
at the Lightwater Valley Theme Park, in the UK. The various safety violations had lead to the
collision of two cars. 20-year-old university student Gemma Savage and her boyfriend were in
one of them. The ride stopped automatically after the car in front of them had failed to reach the
top of a U-bend slope. The ride’s electrician used the manual controls without pressing the
emergency stop button, thus releasing the car Savage was in. It accelerated down the bend and
up the other side before crashing into the car in front of them at maximum impact speed. Savage
suffered severe neck and head injuries, to which she succumbed the following day.
Number 11 Thunder River Rapids
The Thunder River Rapid ride was located in a section of the Dreamworld theme park
in Australia’s Gold Coast. It was meant to imitate the effects of whitewater rafting.
A water pump, essential for the ride’s operation malfunctioned on October 25th of 2016. This caused
a difference in water levels which stranded one of the rafts, occupied by six guests. Another ride,
also carrying six passengers, was carried forward by the conveyor belt and crashed into it. Both
rafts pivoted upwards and some of the passengers became trapped close to the conveyor mechanism.
Four sustained fatal injuries. In the incident’s aftermath the park was temporarily closed down and
Thunder River Rapids, which had been one of its most popular attractions, was permanently removed.
Number 10 Carnival Accident at Texas Church In April of 2016, one teenager was killed
and another was injured after they were ejected from a ride in Texas. The attraction,
called “The Sizzler”, was found at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church carnival, in El Paso.
It consisted of seats spinning around a pole as well as on their own axis. 16-year-old Samantha
Aguilar was flung from the ride and struck a metal barrier. One of her friends, aged 15,
was also thrown from the Sizzler but only suffered minor injuries and was expected to recover.
Aguilar’s condition was critical and she later succumbed to her injuries at El Paso's Del Sol
Medical Center. It’s still unclear as to what had caused the carnival ride’s malfunction.
Number 9 White Roller Coaster Accident The White Roller Coaster, at the Lagoon Amusement
Park, in Utah, has been operating since 1921 and is among the oldest rollercoasters in the world.
There’ve been several incidents in the ride’s past but most have been attributed to passenger
misconduct. One of the worst accidents occurred in 1989. A teenage girl stood up as her car was
cresting a hill. She fell forward on the tracks and was struck by two more cars before plummeting
35 feet to her death. Another accident, which occurred decades prior to the teen’s death,
involved 20-year-old Henry Howe. In 1934, he got up as the rollercoaster was cresting
the highest hill on the ride. Howe fell out of the car and struck a number of support trestles
on the way down. He died at the scene. Number 8 Ohio State Fair Fireball
Only days after he’d enlisted in the US Marine Corps, 18-year-old Tyler Jarrell suffered a
devastating accident at the Ohio State Fair. The teenager was on a pendulum ride called
Fireball. The pod that he and others were sat in broke off in mid-air,
sending them hurtling towards the ground. It landed about 50 feet away from the ride. Jarrell
had suffered critical injuries in the impact and was pronounced dead. Six other people were
injured in the crash. A subsequent report would find corrosion as the main cause of the accident.
Number 7 Action Park
In the theme park world, few names have a closer association with disaster as that of
New Jersey’s Action Park. Its generational cultural impact was undisputed as it had
almost become a rite of passage for people in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut to be injured at
the park. Lawsuits were so ubiquitous that it was often nicknamed “Class Action Park”. It
was known for poorly maintained rides, under-aged and undertrained staff who, much like the guests,
were intoxicated on occasion. At least six people have died due to mishaps on Action Park rides,
before it was ultimately closed down. Three separate deaths resulted from drowning at
the Tidal Wave Pool. In another incident, a car of the Alpine Slide jumped the track,
sending a teenager into a rock and killing him. Another visitor died after he’d suffered massive
electrocution on the Kayak Experience. Number 6 Alton Towers Rollercoaster Crash
The Smiler, found at England’s Alton Towers, reportedly owns the world record for most
inversions on a roller coaster. The ride’s past, however, has been marked by several incidents.
The most serious of them occurred in June of 2015, when a loaded train collided with an empty one.
The test train had been stalled when the engineers released the blocking mechanism, not knowing
another train was on the tracks. They collided at approximately 20 mph. Of the 16 passengers on
the ride at the time, five were severely injured. 20-year-old Vicky Balch and Leah Washington, aged
17, were in the front row when the crash occurred. They survived but each of them required partial
leg amputations in the incident’s aftermath. Number 5 Booster Ride in France
The Booster is a ride, manufactured by Italian company Fabbri, which uses the motion of a fixed
pendulum to swing, invert and spin its riders. In August of 2007, a gondola broke loose from
the ride at a theme park in France. Two people in the gondola, a father and son,
were killed and two others were severely injured. As emergency services were called
to the scene and engineers tried to fix the failure, a few riders were stranded,
about 130 feet in the air, for over two hours. Number 4 Discovery Pendulum Disaster
In 2019, two visitors were killed and dozens were injured at a theme park in Gujarat, India, when a
pendulum ride broke in half. The attraction, named Discovery, had 31 people aboard and had started to
swing them upwards, when its main shaft snapped. The ring of seats at the bottom was sent crashing
to the ground. Clips on social media showed other park guests trying to free the riders that were
still trapped in their seats. An investigation was launched and six people were charged with
culpable homicide. They included the managing director of the company that ran the park,
a manager and two ride operators. Number 3 Wildcat Ride in Tulsa
In April of 1997, Bell’s Amusement Park, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had a 25-cent ride promotion
to celebrate its season opening. The Wildcat was one of the theme park’s star attractions.
A fatal accident, however, would lead to the ride being disassembled and relocated. As one of the
cars was being pulled up to the highest point on the track, a mechanical failure caused it to slide
backwards. It collided with another car, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring six other people.
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us on Instagram and reach out to us there. Number 2 Superman: Tower of Power
While on a ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, called “Superman: Tower of Power”, a girl in her
early teens suffered a horrific accident. The ride pulled passengers to a height of about 177 feet,
or about as high as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and then dropped them at nearly 55 mph. During
the climbing part of the ride, a cable on the ride became disconnected. As the ride came down,
the cable became wrapped around the teenager’s legs. Operators heard the screams but the ride
had passed the point where the emergency stop would’ve worked. One of the 13-year-old’s femurs
was shattered and both her feet were severed from the ankle down. Doctors subsequently managed to
reattach her right foot. Superman: Tower of Power was removed from the park soon after.
Number 1 Luna Park Fire
On the night of June the 9th of 1979, a fire ravaged the Ghost Train at Sydney’s Luna Park.
It broke out inside the ride, at about 10:30 pm. A combination of under-staffing, low water
pressure and inadequate coverage of the hose systems enabled the fire to completely consume
the Ghost Train. It took roughly an hour to bring the blaze under control. About 35 people were on
the train as dark smoke started to come out of the tunnel’s entrance. They were pulled from the cars
as they were coming out of the tunnel. 7 people lost their lives and their bodies were later found
inside the ride. It’s believed that they’d gotten out of the cars and succumbed to smoke inhalation
while trying to find their way out of the tunnel. It’s possible they would’ve survived
had they remained on the train. While electrical failure is often cited as the cause of the fire,
subsequent reports claimed that it was arson by elements of the criminal underworld, who
were trying to get control of the park’s lease. Thanks for watching! Would you rather go on a
high-speed rollercoaster, knowing it’s been improperly maintained,
OR get slammed by a professional wrestler? Let us know in the comments section below!