World’s worst fairground tragedies from rollercoaster decapitation to 430ft plunge and Alton Towers amputations
WHILE most people visit a theme park expecting a fun day out, some unlucky souls get more than they bargain for.
Some of the world’s worst rollercoaster tragedies have seen people lose their limbs and even their lives.
Humunga Kowabunga, Disney World
One woman hurtled down a waterslide at 40mph and was left with a “wedgie so bad she was gushing blood” in 2019.
Emma McGuinness is now suing Disney World Florida for over £40,000 following the grisly incident, a lawsuit alleges.
The grisly accident occurred when Emma hit the water at the bottom of the Humunga Kowabunga slide, which stood 214ft above a pool.
Verruckt, Schlitterbahn park, USA
Schlitterbahn’s Verruckt waterslide was permanently closed after a tragic accident in which a young boy was killed.
Caleb Schwab, 10, was decapitated after his raft slammed violently, breaking his neck and hurting two others.
The 168ft-high ride in Kansas City was billed as the tallest of its kind in the world but has since been shut.
World’s tallest ride, ICON park, Florida
Tyre Sampson, 14, died after falling from the world’s tallest drop ride in a 430ft plunge last year.
He fell to his death at ICON Park in Orlando, Florida.
Footage uploaded online showed the operator talking with riders before they took off into the air.
As the ride starts, the worker yells: “Hey did you take your seat belt on the left side. Seat belt.”
Smiler, Alton Towers
And they’re not the only people to sue for similar accidents.
Two women who each lost a leg in the Alton Towers Smiler rollercoaster crash and sued the owners for millions of pounds.
Leah Washington, 20, and Vicky Balch, 23, claimed “catastrophic personal injury”, after they became injured when their carriage ploughed into another stationary one in 2015.
An investigation found an engineer had wrongly restarted the Smiler ride while a stationary carriage was on the track in front of it.
Judge Michael Chambers QC described the accident as a “catastrophic failure”.
Tsunami, M&D’s, Scotland
Ten people were on board the Tsunami ride at M&Ds theme park in Motherwell when it came off in front of horrified onlookers.
Five carriages on the inverted rollercoaster detached from their rails at a bend and fell to the ground.
All 10 victims successfully sued theme park bosses for physical and mental injuries.
Volcano, diRoma Acqua Park, Brazil
And 8-year-old boy died after plunging nearly 50ft from a broken waterslide after sections of it were taken out for renovations this year.
Davi Lucas de Miranda fell from an under-repair pipe on the ride in Brazil and both the park manager and an engineer were charged with manslaughter over his death in 2022.
Not realising the slide had sections missing, Davi went down the shoot and plunged 50ft before hitting the ride’s wood and metal structure and then rolling into a shallow pool.
The ride was originally cordoned off by fencing to prevent parkgoers from entering the slide while it was under maintenance.
However, investigations said the fencing was allegedly removed on the manager’s instructions after further barriers were installed around the area of the slide.
Fully 6 slides, Dreamworld’s WhiteWater World
And an eight-year-old girl lost a pint of blood in a horrifying water slide accident after staff allegedly failed to tell her a key safety rule.
The youngster’s mum then decided to sue for more than £500,000 after the shocking incident at Dreamworld’s WhiteWater World in Australia.
The young girl and her siblings went on the Fully 6 slides at the Gold Coast park in November 2020.
As the youngster went down, her legs became uncrossed due to the “forceful impact” of the water, according to the claim seen by 7News.
It is claimed she suffered significant internal injuries as a result – leaving her bleeding for two weeks and needing surgery.
Her mum said they could not immediately find a lifeguard to help as the girl got off the slide – and the youngster lost an estimated 500ml of blood.
Jetline roller coaster, Grona Lund, Stockholm
A woman was killed and multiple kids were injured after another horror roller coaster crash in Stockholm.
The 35-year-old died as nine people, including children, were rushed to hospital following the accident at the Grona Lund amusement park.
The tragic accident happened when the park’s Jetline roller coaster partly derailed during a ride.
A total of 14 people were on the roller coaster carriage.
Spinning ride, India
And a spinning theme park ride even plummeted to the ground, leaving 11 people seriously injured.
Dramatic footage shows the colourful swing crashing to the ground at high speed in front of horrified onlookers.
The ride can be seen operating normally – rotating with people high in the air – before plunging at high speed to the ground as people can be heard screaming.
Magic Mountain’s Colossus, Six Flags
A roller coaster at one of America’s iconic Six Flags parks caught fire in 2014, destroying the popular 100ft ride.
The Magic Mountain’s Colossus ride went up in a blaze that took firefighters half an hour to put out.
It was reportedly sparked by welders working on the ride, which was under construction at the time.
The Big Dipper, Battersea Park Fun Fair
The worst rollercoaster tragedy in history happened in London in 1972.
Five people were killed and 13 injured when a train being hoisted up the track on the Big Dipper ride at Battersea Park Fun Fair broke loose.
With 31 people on board, the three-car wooden train suddenly detached from the steel drive train holding it on the wooden track.
The carriages rolled backwards and the last carriage derailed and flew off the track and into a wooden hoarding, according to witnesses.