Name: 20 Amusement Park Rides That Were BANNED After People Died
Uploaded: 2026-02-04T17:19:16.000Z
Duration: 18 min 2 s
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There's nothing in the world like Action Park.

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

And today we're looking at some of the most shocking and catastrophic ride failures in amusement park attractions that led crowd pleasing thrills to permanent shutdown.

Free Fall Icon Park Opening as the tallest freestanding drop tower in the world, the Icon Park Freefall tower featured a 430 foot plunge designed to give riders a breathtaking view before sending them toward the ground.

But in March 2022, that plunge turned into a disaster.

The ride became the center of a national tragedy when teenager Tyree Sampson fell from his seat.

Subsequent investigations discovered that the ride's restraint was manually adjusted to accommodate larger riders.

27 of the ride's 30 seats had harnesses that closed down over the shoulders to a rider's waist, leaving a 3.33-inch space.

But the adjusted seat where Tyrese Sampson was directed had a gap with more than twice that 7.19 inches.

When the drop initiated, Tyre slipped from the restraint and fell to his death.

With a jury ruling in favor of the family, the ride was permanently closed and dismantled.

With the incident prompting widespread changes to restraint standards for drop towers nationwide.

Orlando Freefall is creating a scholarship in Sampson's name.

The Haunted Mined Glenwood Caverns Imagine plunging into a pitch black cavern beneath the Colorado mountains.

This was exactly what the Haunted Mine drop promised.

Marketed as the world's first underground drop tower, it plunged riders down to a depth of 96ft.

Riders wear a seatbelt, but no over the shoulder harness.

The thrills transformed into a deep tragedy in 2021 when young Wangel Estefanos fell from her seat.

Investigators later determined that she was not properly secured and that multiple safety protocols were skipped or misread by the staff.

Report says an alert system warned employees of a seatbelt issue, but

they bypassed the alert and gave the ride all systems go.

While the child was unrestrained, the drop continued its cycle, leading to her fatal fall.

After the accident, the ride was closed indefinitely as investigators examined procedures, emergency training and restraint design.

Following greater public furor and legal action, the Haunted Mined drop was permanently retired.

The findings absolutely confirmed that this is 100% the fault of the park and not the rider.

Fireball the Ohio State Fair tower drops are one thing, but

the KMG fireball offered a variant of the same a towering pendulum style ride.

The additional rotation meant that its riders experienced a greater G force than would an ordinary tower drop.

In 2017, a high profile tragedy struck the Ohio State Fair when a KMG Fireball suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure.

As the ride swung outward with full force and an entire row of seats detached mid air and were flung across the Midway, killing 18 year old Tyler Jarrell and injuring seven others.

The accident occurred due to widespread rust and metal fatigue on the ride's support beam that had gone unnoticed for years.

Ohio permanently removed the ride and enacted new safety legislation that remains in force today.

The Wild Wonder Roller Coaster Wonderland Pier in 1999, Gillian's Wonderland Pier became the scene of a devastating accident that shook shocked the New Jersey Boardwalk.

The Wild Wonder roller coaster failed to make it over a hill.

Things took a turn for the worse when the ride's anti rollback safety locks failed to engage properly.

The car gained speed in reverse and slammed into another train waiting behind it.

Kimberly Bailey and her young daughter Jessica were killed instantly.

The tragedy was a combination of operator error, mechanical malfunction and insufficient safety redundancy.

Gillian's Wonderland Pier permanently removed the ride.

The aftermath of the tragedy helped inspire broader state level reforms for small scale coasters.

Kayak Experience Action Park Action park is infamous for pushing the boundaries of what an amusement park could get away with and its so called kayak experience was one of the clearest examples.

This ride simulated the thrill of whitewater rapids.

There were underwater fans that would help push the water and created rapids like you were kayaking.

In 1982, the attraction became the site of a tragic accident when 27 year old Jeffrey Nathan stepped onto a metal grate near the ride while exiting his kayak and was suddenly electrocuted.

Faulty wiring connected to the underwater fan system allowed an electrical current to travel through the wet surface.

Nathan suffered cardiac arrest and later died while two of his relatives were also injured during the incident.

Although a state investigation ultimately cleared the park of legal fault, the ride was permanently shut down out of caution.

The magic and the horror of Action park is that you can go there expecting a great time, expecting fantastic memories and you can leave with those exact things or you can leave in a body bag and you didn't know which it was going to be.

Texas Giant Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Over Texas welcomes both families and thrill seekers by the droves.

At 152ft, it's billed as the tallest steel hybrid roller coaster in the world.

On July 19, 2013, that invitation ended in tragedy.

Rosie Esparza, a 52 year old woman visiting the park, died while riding the Texas Giant roller coaster.

Esparza voiced concerns about her restraint after being seated, but

a ride operator assured her that she was properly secured.

She asked them to click her more than once and the guy was like, oh, as long as you heard a click, you're ok.

Shortly after the coaster was dispatched, the train rounded a high speed turn and Esparza's restraint came undone.

She fell 75ft onto a metal roof below and later died of her injuries.

The Texas giant was promptly closed for a few months, during which new coaster restraint designs, safety checks and operator protocols were implemented, and

following which the ride was rebranded and opened anew.

The Big Dipper Krug park the Big Dipper was a wooden coaster that had thrilled regulars at Omaha's Krug park.

But on July 24, 1930, a single A single faulty bolt started a chain reaction that turned the ride into one of the deadliest coaster accidents in American history.

The day was peak summer season for the park and crowds had flocked to the attractions.

The bolt holding a brake shoe slipped out of place and jammed the rear wheels of the car.

This led to a deadly domino effect causing the lead car to derail.

It would then smash through a fragile guardrail before proceeding to drag three more cars with it.

Passengers were crushed beneath the pileup, leaving four dead and 17 critically injured.

The city immediately banned all roller coasters and Krug park shut down permanently soon after.

Space Journey Ride Oct East Space Journey had groundbreaking written all over its launch.

Here was a high intensity attraction at the Oct east amusement park in Shenzhen, China that combined rapid acceleration and violent spinning.

But on June 29, 2010, it became one of China's most infamous amusement park tragedies.

All the cabins but the one we were sitting in were destroyed.

Some people fell onto the rail and some fell onto the ground.

A sudden power failure followed by an explosion inside the ride chamber led one of the 11 cabins to tear loose from its support structure.

The cabin plunged roughly 50ft to the floor, ejecting passengers.

Six people were killed and 10 others were severely injured.

they were jammed after the car failure and after that, the people could not get out.

Some of the thinner people could crawl out.

The disaster was even more alarming as the ride had officially passed inspection just days earlier.

This connection led to deep scrutiny of testing standards and maintenance protocols across the industry.

The Mindbender Galaxyland the Mindbender at West Edmonton Mall was once its crown jewel of indoor roller coasters.

The ride was the largest of its kind and the main attraction in the mall's sprawling Galaxyland Park.

But on June 14, 1986, the ride became the site of a fatal ride failure.

They were traveling at more than 100 kilometers per hour.

Moments into a run, a wheel assembly failed.

The fourth car of the train derailed before entering the final loop.

The lap bar restraints unlocked and released, ejecting its four passengers, three of whom died.

It was later determined that four cap screws holding the wheel assembly had failed.

This was likely the result of design flaws and unsatisfactory maintenance.

The next thing I knew, the lap bar had come up and we were starting to fishtail.

Afterward, the ride underwent major redesigns and continued until its permanent decommissioning in 2023.

Tower of Power Kentucky Kingdom Drop Tower rides are all about that brief control terror, and

in 2007, that control was lost at Kentucky Kingdom.

The park's Tower of Power offered a dramatic 177foot plunge meant to simulate free fall.

On one routine ride cycle, a suspension cable snapped, whipping violently through the passenger area and striking teenager Caitlin Lasseter.