The Worst Week of Roller Coaster Accidents

The in-depth story of how the darkest week for US amusement parks played out. Families were left devastated; investigations exposed glaring safety issues, and in the end, an entire industry had to change.

The tragedies began on August 20th at Lake Compounce in Connecticut when 16-year-old Matthew Henne was fatally injured by the Tornado ride. Just two days later, 12-year-old Joshua Smurphat died after slipping from the Drop Zone ride at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, California. On August 23rd, Timothy Fan lost his life on the Shockwave coaster at Kings Dominion in Virginia. By August 28th, the Wild Wonder coaster at Gillian's Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, New Jersey, claimed the lives of Kimberly Bailey and her daughter Jessica; it was the tragic end to a week of amusement park disasters.

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[Pippychan]

I still can’t believe individuals under 18 are hired as ride operators. It’s not that I believe human error is exclusive to youth- but if something goes wrong a legal child should not have to have that on their conscience for the rest of their life.

[anja]

Seems like a lot of responsibility for a teenager to operate any potentially, lethal machinery. At 14 you can't even operate a car.

[melasnexperience]

Gotta say, an accident being caused by a replacement part because the proper one was "too noisy" for the neighbors is the most Ocean City thing I can imagine. The residents are very... particular & stuck in their ways.

[maryleoboldt]

Just so incredibly sad! The trauma that the little six year old girl endured losing Both her Mom and her sister is unimaginable.

[mikaross]

The fact that they changed the saw teeth roll back because people complained about the noise is ridiculous. Those types of mechanisms work for a reason. RIP to Kimberly and her daughter. Very sad.

[DaWoWzer]

the Joshua accident is even sadder when you know that some of his brains got on his mother's shoe. I can't fathom the emotions that would make a human feel.

[baileysellers]

Why tf would paramount allow a 14 and 16 year old to MANAGE A RIDE????

[Him_He_Me]

I mean, if you're dumb enough to successfully force yourself out of a restraint designed to keep you safe, you cant blame the park.

[TheThora]

You know, when people blatantly go against recommendations, rules, or guidelines, the responsibility HAS to be placed upon THEM. That’s why there are rules in the first place. Understandably, the family doesn’t want to believe it’s their loved one’s own actions that caused his demise..

[lunarstain]

Literally writing you from Ocean City NJ, and sadly, Wonderland is closing down this year. My mother said the park was never the same after that accident. Many locals have been wondering if the accident contributed to the closure too... the place was almost 100 years old... and my first ever amusement park

[christinaknapp]

I was at Great America just days before the accident with my family when I was 10. My sister, a year younger, made me go on the drop zone with her despite my protests. A couple of days later, my dad read about the accident in the paper and told us about it, to which I replied I would never go on that type of ride ever again.

[lazersword]

I went on an octopus-spider ride when I was a kid. They paired me with some random adult and the shared lap bar was too high to secure me properly. Had to cling to the lap bar for dear life whenever we started spinning. Still spooks me when I think about it.

[sailormoonfan]

This explains why my mom stopped taking my sister and I to amusement parks for a hot second. We’d been going on and off all summer, and suddenly she’s insisting we do other things instead. Now we were both under the age of 10 at the time, so while we were frustrated, we didn’t pay it much mind. She must have heard of these instances and made the smart decision to stay away for the rest of the season.

[Brett]

We weren't that well-off growing up and lived about 15 minutes from Lake Compunce. Season passes through the grocery story were about $40 and you got unlimited soda while there. It was actually a pretty nice amusement park that was well-maintained, decent rides, and was not very crowded. For maybe 2 or 3 summers, my dad, younger brother and I got season passes and would would go almomst every day when my dad got home from work around lunch. Sometimes we would even go twice a day! It was cool to have an amusement park closeby and cheap enough to treat just like going to the public park. My dad couldn't always afford to send us to the best sleepaway camps or buy us everything we wanted but he did what he could afford. Whether that was an HBO subscription for the summer or season passes to Lake Compounce, I'll never forget to appreciate the childhood he gave me. I miss him so much.

[Wolfie]

As someone who was a ride operator for a summer, it’s scary how little many of these ride operators are trained for.

[Filipinjo]

Notice how most of them are caused by user error, not the ride itself

[lindseykulbarsh]

The way my head SNAPPED up when I heard Lake Compounce mentioned, I didn’t even know about that accident!

[Capt-Intrepid]

Historically, New Jersey not only had inadequate safety regulations for amusement park rides, there was corruption in the enforcement of existing laws and lack of adequate investigations after injuries. This was most prevalent with Action Park where this negligence resulted in numerous deaths and serious injuries. There are many YouTube videos about this including the documentary Class Action Park.

[Silacide]

Even tho the second one isn't even a rollercoaster, they really didn't learn anything from it considering basically the same thing happened at the Orlando drop tower...

[darkprotoman]

There will never be a 100% escape proof restraint system for rides. There will always be that one person that will get out of it if they try hard enough. And since restraints need to fit people of many sizes us skinny people can’t always get the restraint tight enough for a snug fit.