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Ride/Park Accidents

Mi-Nigle said:
Joyride collapse at Surajkund Mela kills police inspector and injures dozen others

“A joyride at the Surajkund Mela in Faridabad, India, collapsed on Saturday evening, injuring 13 people and killing a police inspector. The accident occurred when a “tsunami” swing snapped mid-air and fell to the ground.”

Link to video (Reddit)
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I’m not going to link as its grim but my instagram algorithm fed me more footage of this incident. It seemed a lot more people (likely relatives of the passengers) were crushed trying to rescue people as the other arm gave way and the ride dropped onto them 😢
 
Back in the 1990s, I remember hearing that there were two (separate) ride accidents at Drayton Manor – but I have been unable to find any evidence of either one actually happening.

I have posted details below, and so if anybody knows whether either of these are true then I would be grateful to hear about it.

(In the pre-internet era, it was almost impossible to verify the accuracy of stories such as these*)

1) Shortly after the Splash Canyon river rapids ride opened in 1993, somebody allegedly stood up and fell out of the vehicle and into the water, and then became trapped behind the one of the rotating components that transport the vehicles up the ramp and back to the station – which, in turn – either crushed their ribs and/or prevented them from being able to breathe, causing them to unfortunately pass away.

For decades, I was convinced that this story was true – until I heard about another fatal accident on the ride in 2017 (which, this time, definitely did happen), and I remember being surprised that nobody had mentioned the ‘other’ fatality from the 1990s (although some minor incidents between 2011 and 2013 were mentioned).

Is it possible that the accident I described did in fact happen on a river rapids ride, but it took place at a different theme park? Or was the entire story fabricated? Or was it simply not reported widely enough?

2) An Asian woman on the small railway ride choked to death after the end of her long headscarf dropped onto the track and became trapped underneath the wheels, thus pulling it tightly around her neck.

Thinking about it now, I am not certain whether this story is true – simply because headscarves are typically made of light material (presumably to prevent people from overheating in hot weather), and so would the scarf simply have torn apart before it had a chance to cause a serious injury? Or am I wrong in my analysis?

(*Another non-theme park story I heard around the same time was that Polo Mints caused male impotence, and thus only the coloured variety were considered ‘safe’ to eat; I heard it often enough that I never bought any, just in case, but – according to Google – it was probably just an urban myth)

[EDIT: I've just realised that there was an entire thread dedicated to the 2017 incident: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/drayton-manor-park-splash-canyon-incident.4404/ ]
 
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The second accident did I happen, one of the Bryans mentioned it at an RCCGB event shortly after the 2017 rapids death. Unfortunately Google is terrible these days and no matter what I search for won’t show me anything except reports on the 2017 accident.
 
DanJB said:
The second accident did I happen, one of the Bryans mentioned it at an RCCGB event shortly after the 2017 rapids death. Unfortunately Google is terrible these days and no matter what I search for won’t show me anything except reports on the 2017 accident.
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I have looked through the British Newspaper Archive*, and I have managed to find a few references to the train fatality at Drayton Manor (confirming that it did in fact happen), and I have also found details of some other incidents at the park of which I was previously unaware; if anybody is interested, then I have pasted details and links below, but please note that the links are unfortunately behind a paywall.

I can't find any details of the alleged 1990s Splash Canyon fatality, but if I see anything about it (or any other noteworthy anecdotes) then I will add them to to this post, instead of creating a new post in the thread each time.

(*Credit to Chris Spargo from YouTube for bringing my attention to this website)

1) In 1988, 28 year-old Balabir Kaur choked to death after her sari became trapped in the axle of the mini train ride, and the ride had stopped**. It was described in another article as the first fatality in the 40 years that the park had been open.

(**If the ride had continued to move then maybe she would have survived as the sari would have torn apart?)

Link 1: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005569/19880621/060/0004

Link 2: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000484/19880624/008/0008

2) In 1989, two trains on the Python rollercoaster at Drayton Manor collided, apparently because strong winds caused one of the trains to valley (the newspaper describes it as becoming “stuck” rather than “valley”); 12 people were on board (I’m not sure whether it was only on one train, or both), but there were no reports in the article of any injuries; Pinfari came over from Italy in order to inspect the ride, and it was subsequently reopened after it was deemed safe.

Link: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/print/bl/0000525/19890830/060/0007

3) There were two incidents in 1995 (two weeks apart); the first was when the Snake Train fell onto its side (causing injuries which required surgery***), and the second was when a child ran into the control room and started the Ladybird Ride prematurely, causing another child to be dragged along (although there were fortunately no major injuries).

There had also been a similar incident on the Snake Train in 1989 (link below).

(***I wonder if this is partly why the Snake Train was replaced with The Haunting in 1996? The park denied it in one of the links below, but – even before this incident – our family always felt that the Snake Train was an unsafe ride)

Link 1: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005569/19950710/054/0005

Link 2: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000379/19950720/136/0022

Link 3: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005569/19950718/011/0001

Link 4: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005569/19950801/514/0004

Link 5: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0003126/19890612/191/0017

4) In 1976, four wallabies were electrocuted to death after a power cable fell into their enclosure; an employee was also electrocuted, but avoided serious injury as he was wearing rubber boots.

In a separate incident in 1981, a boy stole a meerkat from the zoo, which was later sold by adults to Twycross Zoo (why didn’t they just return it to Drayton Manor?).

(Interestingly, the newspapers had to explain to their readers what wallabies and meerkats were, as they were apparently not common knowledge at the time; wallabies were described as kangaroo-like, and meerkats described as vicious ferrets)

Link 1: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003369/19760625/194/0019

Link 2: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0003369/19810116/015/0015

5) This isn’t major story, but an unnamed rollercoaster (the Buffalo?) stopped above the water in 1990 due to a drive belt failure, and the passengers had to be rescued by a ferry after waiting for 10 minutes.

Later in the year, a worked fell into a pit on the Safari ride and broke his leg.

In 1995, another worker suffered a minor injury on the Klondike Ride.

Link 1: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0003383/19900420/002/0002

Link 2: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000484/19900817/013/0013

Link 3: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0003126/19950508/002/0001

***

P.S. I also remember hearing around the same time that somebody died of a heart attack after riding Nemesis in 1994; unlike the stories above, this story is easily verifiable through Google, though, and the date of the incident (Thursday 14th July 1994) is significant to me personally, because it was literally days before I went to Alton Towers / Nemesis for the first time. I actually remember being told about it in the car on the way there, and - at the risk of sounding completely heartless - it actually made the ride seem even more intense / exciting
 
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Skyscraper said:
Checks RCDB

Goodness, you're right!
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There seems to be some kind of link between AT and Barry Island, as a number of old AT rides ended up there, I think (such as Gravitron).

I'm not sure why, but it might be that John Wardley had some kind of connection there (I haven't got his books to hand in order to check).

I always saw Oakwood as an unofficial affiliate of Merlin as well, as some of the Oakwood rides had parallels to other parks (e.g. Hydro / Tidal Wave, Speed / Saw, and John Wardley's Megafobia / the-never-built-woodie-at-AT).
 
Secret Weapon said:
There seems to be some kind of link between AT and Barry Island, as a number of old AT rides ended up there, I think (such as Gravitron).

I'm not sure why, but it might be that John Wardley had some kind of connection there (I haven't got his books to hand in order to check).
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He certainly did, he kind of started out at Barry Island.
 
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