How safe are rollercoasters?

Boy fighting

Boy fighting for his life after falling
from ride at Yorkshire amusement park

In Depth

Witnesses say the child fell up to 30ft from the Twister ride
at Lightwater Valley theme park, near Ripon in North
Yorkshire.

The boy was taken to Leeds General Infirmary with head injuries
following the incident on Thursday. North Yorkshire Police
initially described his condition as “non-life threatening” but now
say it has deteriorated to “critical”.

North Yorkshire Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
have launched an investigation, reports the BBC.

The theme park tweeted that it was “devastated” by the incident
and would “support and be guided by” the safety watchdog.

The cause of the accident is not yet known. However, the Daily Mail notes that this is the second major
incident on the ride.

In June 2001, Durham University student Gemma Savage,
20, died when two cars collided on the attraction, then
called Treetop Twister.

So how safe are rollercoasters and other amusement park
rides?

The data

The International Association
of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) say the chances of being
injured on an amusement park ride is around one in 24 million.
A Ride Incident Survey Report published by the organisation in
2016 found that the injury rate per million rides taken was down by
20% from 2003.

According to a 2013 study by the US Center for Injury Research
and Policy, head and neck injuries were the most common of those
suffered at amusement parks, at 28%, followed by arms (24%), face
(18%) and legs (17%).

Deaths on amusement park rides are exceedingly rare. The IAAPA
says that the chances of suffering a fatal injury on a ride at
fixed-site amusement parks is one in 750 million.

However, this is just an estimate. Between 1987 and 2000, 51
people were killed on amusement park rides in the US, according to
the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Of those
deaths, 16 occurred on rollercoasters, and 11 on whirling
rides. 

In a move that has further fuelled safety concerns, the CPSC
stopped tracking data on deaths on amusement park rides in
2005. 

Theme park consultant and inspector Ken Martin believes
that consistent “inspection and data collection standards would
decrease the number of incidents”.

“We’ve got to do a better job,” Martin told NBC News. “We’re protecting our kids and
grandkids, and we can’t do it with a patchwork of regulations. We
have to be singing from the same song, the same verse, the same
beat.”

Commentators also point out that the IAAPA only collects safety
data on fixed-site amusement parks and not those which move from
one location to the other – many of which are alleged to have more
relaxed safety regulations.

Are they safe?

The amusement industry is
“caught in a bizarre marketing and image dilemma”, according
to TripSavvy.

Parks are “positioning their
marquee rollercoasters as extreme adventures that invoke terror and
dread”, while also trying to “reassure park-goers that despite
the wild names, hairy heights, insane speeds, and topsy-turvy
acrobatics, thrill rides are actually quite safe and innocuous”,
and that “the danger is all just an illusion”, says the travel
site.

As a result, any accident at a park tends to generate a lot of
publicity and attention.

This was certainly the case in 2015, when 16 people were injured in a collision with an
empty carriage on the Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers. One
rider’s knees were shattered, another suffered a punctured lung,
and two teenagers had to undergo leg amputations.

A report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said that
park operators Merlin Entertainments had “failed to put in place
systems that allowed their engineers to work safely on the ride
while it was running”, and described the crash as a “catastrophic
failure”.

Merlin Entertainments was eventually fined £5m over the
incident.

Nevertheless, despite the publicity surrounding such accidents,
the injury rates for children’s buggies, golf carts and folding
lawn chairs are all higher than those of amusement park rides,
reports The Guardian.

TripSavvy concludes: “Theme parks and amusement parks in
general, and rollercoasters and thrill rides in particular, are
remarkably safe.”