• What roller coaster was originally designed with a gap jump in the track?
What happened when people tried riding a human catapult?
Today we look at 10 of the most horrifying rides ever to appear on Earth.
10 – Cannonball Loop, Action Park • Water slides are already a good place
to get some extra bumps and bruises.
• But this is an ENCLOSED water slide, with a 15-foot loop.
• The slide was designed with a hatch in the bottom for people who got stuck, which
might actually have been the BEST case scenario.
Apparently, a number of the crash test dummies they sent down the tube came out the other
side decapitated or in multiple pieces.
• For some reason, they still opened the ride for a time, but it was closed a month
later.
And now they’re trying to rebuild a new looping water slide.
9 – Human Trebuchet, Middlemoor Water Park • Hey, this sounds safe.
Here’s a ride in which you can pay 70 dollars to be thrown through the air by a medieval-style
catapult.
• No restraints, no protection.
Just you, a catapult, and a safety net to hit.
• Well, in 2002, a 19-year old college student took his turn on the ride, and missed the
net completely.
It went about as well for him as you’d expect.
8 – Gravity Max, Lihpao Land (Taiwan) • Oddly enough, this one hasn’t killed
or maimed anyone yet, despite its whole concept being that the tracks detach from each other.
• Most roller coasters will slowly drag you up to the top of a hill, then push you
down the other side.
• The Gravity Max locks the train onto a set of track, DETACHES THAT TRACK, tilts it
90 degrees to connect to the NEXT piece of track, then lets you go.
• Of all the rides we’re talking about, this one just looks terrifying.
Safety-wise, it seems to check out for now.
7 – Son of Beast, King’s Island • The Beast is one of King’s Island’s
signature attractions, which made Son of Beast that much more disappointing.
• When Son of Beast opened in 2000, it was the biggest and fastest wooden coaster in
the world, and the only one with an inversion.
The loop was removed after the first year, and the cars replaced with lighter ones, after
complaints that the ride was too rough.
• But in 2006, a damaged part of the track caused one of the cars to stop suddenly, causing
several injuries and a ride closure.
• In 2009, the ride was closed again after a woman claimed the ride caused her to burst
a blood vessel.
It was never re-opened after that, and was dismantled in 2012.
6 – Lightning, Revere Beach • The Lightning was the first of three roller
coasters at Revere Beach dubbed the “Giant Cyclone Safety Coasters.”
• Naturally, they were all deathtraps.
The Lightning was arguably the most notorious.
It suffered its first fatality on only its second day of operation.
They closed the ride, collected the body of the woman that had fallen out, and re-opened
the ride 20 minutes later.
• The Lightning was an aggressively bumpy ride, and caused a constant string of serious
injuries.
It got so bad, “Take her on the Lightning” became a popular slang phrase for abortion
in Massachusetts in the 1920s.
5 –Grave Pool, Action Park • Action Park – yes, the same people who
thought they could make a loop-the-loop water slide – was best known for its Tidal Wave
Pool.
But after it DROWNED THREE PEOPLE, they started calling it the “Grave Pool.”
• The average water park lifeguard makes no more than two or three rescues in an entire
season.
The poor saps stationed at the Grave Pool would make around 30 rescues in a busy weekend.
• Action Park eventually calmed the wave intensity down, but they also stationed about
a dozen lifeguards there, just in case.
4 – SCAD Dives • These don’t have a location.
They can be found at any number of amusement parks, and they’re equally crazy anywhere
you go.
• There’s nothing special about a SCAD dive.
It’s a 150-foot freefall.
You just fall into a net… hopefully.
• Like in the case of the human catapult, not everybody necessarily hits the net.
And when you’re freefalling with no restraints or controls, it’s very important that you
hit the net.
3 – Cannon Coaster, Coney Island • The Cannon Coaster opened in 1906 at Coney
Island, and hey, you have to give them some credit for trying to go big.
• The original concept of this thing is that it was supposed to JUMP A GAP IN THE
TRACK.
• They kept trying it with sandbags, and they kept having the same Roller Coaster Tycoon
results.
• Eventually, they just decided to fill the gap before letting humans ride it, but
it still ended up being popular, as the legends held that it caused several deaths during
the initial test phase.
2 – Kayak Experience, Action Park • Anyway, this is the third water-based
ride on this list from Action Park that either killed somebody, or was closed down before
it had the chance.
How Action Park has survived for this long without burning itself to the ground is a
mystery.
• Their whitewater rafting simulation killed a man in 1982 when he stepped on an exposed
electrical wire while trying to fix his kayak.
• See, Action Park decided the best way to simulate whitewater rapids for kayaking
was to use giant electrical fans to stir up the water.
So that’s why there was an exposed electrical wire near the POOL OF WATER, in case you were
wondering.
1 – Alpine Slide, Action Park • More fun from Action Park!
• The Alpine Slide was just a concrete and fiberglass tube that riders zipped down in
modified snow sleds.
It was high enough and long enough to require a ski lift to reach the top.
• There were a bunch of problems with this.
First off, the brakes didn’t really work, and if they did, there was an ever-present
threat of being hit from behind.
• Of course, going too fast meant there was a good chance you’d lose control and
skid down the fiberglass and concrete track in your swimsuit.
• The Alpine Slide also killed someone, when in 1980 a park employee’s sled jumped
the track and he smashed his head on a rock.
It also accounted for a dozen bone fractures and two dozen head injuries just between 1984
and 1985 alone.