Well, decapitations are the definition of “click bait.”
I’ve been hearing an Urban Legend since my childhood of the Death Roller Coaster.
In, like, 1890, someone built the coolest roller coaster ever in America, and the Mayor and Town Council took the first ride. When the cars pulled in after the inaugural ride, they were all strangely silent. Because they ALL HAD BROKEN NECKS.
Snopes doesn’t seem to have this on site, and it didn’t appear in any of Brunevand’s books. Who can provide a linkie? Or did I just have a particularly sadistic uncle?
I can’t see how anyone thought that ride was a good idea to begin with. And the net was just a dangerous band-aid, I wouldn’t want my head to get thrust into a net at 65mph with the weight of a boat under me.
I’m from the area and the accident is all over the local news and Facebook. The family was very involved in the community (school, church) and he played on an advanced baseball team. So the death touches many lives and families.
Huh. Well, that explains people on the scene telling other people “There’s nothing we can do.” People might have downplayed what happened out of general reluctance to describe such a thing.
It had to be modified because prior testing with sandbags and mannequins revealed that it wasn’t safe. It still wasn’t; I’m surprised it took this long for that to happen.
There may be another thread about this on the Dope, although I’m headed to a meetup and don’t have time to look for it.
A while back, I saw a NatGeo (or some similar channel) show about giant roller coasters, and the developers said they consult with, among others, NASA flight surgeons, and have had to scrap some designs because the human body couldn’t take the G-forces.
The first looping roller coaster in North America was the Flip Flap Railway in Coney Island, opened in 1895. It was ultimately shut down because the extreme G-forces (up to 12G) had a tendency to cause severe whiplash and other neck injuries. (It’s also why loops in modern coasters are teardrop-shaped instead of perfect circles.) I’ve heard stories that some riders’ necks were indeed broken, but couldn’t find any authoritative cites confirming that, so your uncle’s story is probably urban legend.
I still can’t get past the fact that this ride had a minimum weight limit (so you don’t FLY OFF THE TRACK AND DIE) and yet there were apparently no safety features to prevent disaster if that rule was broken. The dirty little secret about most amusement parks is that all the so-called “safety” workers are high school teenagers paid minimum wage, people who couldn’t care less about doing their jobs properly. That’s why most roller coasters and other thrill rides are close to 100% automated – those switches and levers you see the teenage workers operate don’t actually do anything, they’re just there to make the riders think that somebody’s in charge of their safety.
Alright, Mr. SmartyPants, how many types of neck injuries can you think of that are more severe than detatchment?
Not necessarily. As I stated earlier, IF he was in the front seat & IF he came out of his harness, he would have gone up & been restrained from flying off by the safety netting. They could have been hit in the face by a part of his body as the ‘raft’ continued under him while still in in track.
From the reading I’ve done, it was an internal decapitation meaning the poor kid’s head was severed from his spine but there wasn’t a skin break so it appeared still attached.
