Prepare to be captivated as we delve deep into the haunting incidents that shattered the illusion of safety at amusement parks and fairs throughout the world. In this episode, we investigate the heart-wrenching tales of thrills that took a deadly turn, leaving families shattered and communities in shock.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:30 Hey, I am back to you this week and we're home from our vacation in North Dakota.
0:37 We are back in the Texas heat and it is debilitating to say the least.
0:43 I think it was 100 and five or maybe 100 and eight yesterday.
0:47 So the Texas heat is miserable at the medical examiner's office.
0:53 We have had a lot of heat related incidents and heat related deaths and we are seeing more and more people who are decomposing in their residences because they don't have air conditioning.
1:13 And of course, that speeds up the process a little bit because of the temperature in the home and it makes it super hard for death investigators to function because a lot of times we are out in the heat and in the sun and I think every time about the police officers who have to wear all that heavy stuff and don't get a break and are outside in the heat all the time.
1:42 And even the firefighters who are, you know, out on the roadways when there's car accidents and fighting fires and all that heavy equipment when it is so blooming hot outside.
1:55 I don't know how y'all do it.
1:56 And my hat's off to y'all, y'all are my heroes.
2:00 I know that last week I was at the fair in North Dakota, and I talked a little bit about some deaths that had occurred at fairs and carnivals.
2:11 And I discovered that there was really more than I realized.
2:16 It turns out that about each year 335 million people go on 1.6 billion rides at over 400 amusement parks.
2:28 And that's just in the US.
2:31 I mean, I know they're everywhere, but this is just US amusement parks.
2:36 More than 85 million people visit water parks in the US annually.
2:41 So fatal injuries are really rare when you look at the number of people who go and the number of facilities that there are.
2:50 But the chances of being severely injured on a permanent amusement ride at a US amusement park are one in 16 million.
3:01 And so we're talking about the chances of you being seriously injured on a ride at six flags or a ride at Disneyland or a ride at Disney World versus the little carnivals and fairs that they put up overnight.
3:20 In the shopping mall, parking lots, one in 16 million.
3:27 I don't know about y'all, but I'd rather win the lottery than be seriously injured on, amusement ride.
3:34 But the chances are similar.
3:37 4200 people a year though are taken to the, and these are just for injuries and a lot of them, very minor scrapes.
3:45 Some people might suffer concussions, even broken limbs, some, even spinal injuries on public water slides and water slides have always kind of scared me.
3:58 I don't know why.
3:59 I guess because you can't necessarily control the speed.
4:04 A lot of it depends on how much the person weighs, how fast they're going to go.
4:09 The weight of the person.
4:11 Small Children seem to kind of get tossed around sometimes on a water slide because they don't weigh anything.
4:17 And so, I don't know, I guess it's because there's not a track and even if there was, it may not make it any better, but you can't really control your speed.
4:27 You can't control how you land.
4:30 You can't control your position when you land.
4:34 And there's just a lot of things that you can't control when it comes to water slides.
4:40 No one is actually monitoring how fast the ride goes or how slow the ride goes.
4:46 And so it's a little bit different.
4:49 We'll talk a little bit about slitter bo and I know that a lot of people have been water slides and water parks very, very popular in Texas this time of year.
5:00 Although I do not want to be outside even in the water because the water is 100 degrees.
5:07 So it's much like being in hot tub and with the sun beating down on you, it just does not sound like a good time to me.
5:14 But there are a lot of water slides across the US, and they're heavily used and there is one in Kansas City, Kansas called Verru and that actually means insane in German.
5:29 And this is a water slide at Schlitter and back in August of 2016, a 10-year-old died on this water slide.
5:40 It's 100 and 68 ft tall and it's certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest water slide in the world.
5:49 This little boy was decapitated when his raft went airborne, and it caused him to strike a metal rod which is used to hold a safety net in place.
6:00 So it needed to be there.
6:02 But two other people on the raft were also injured.
6:06 Caleb Schwab was this little boy's name.
6:10 He was the son of a state lawmaker.
6:13 And at the end of the ride, he was found dead at the bottom of the pool.
6:19 He boarded the ride with two women who were completely unrelated to him.
6:23 These two women suffered minor cuts and scrapes on their faces.
6:29 So this ride is a 17-story water slide.
6:36 Basically that the passengers board a three-person raft.
6:42 They actually drop 17 stories before they're blasted back up a second heel to drop another 50 ft.
6:51 The riders have to be at least 54 inches tall.
6:56 The group combined cannot weigh more than 400 to 550 lbs.
7:04 I don't know why there's a 100- and 50-pound range there, but there is a weight restriction.
7:12 Nonetheless, in each raft, they did do an autopsy on this little boy.
7:19The ride did not reopen after the incident happened.
7:23 Earlier, riders stated that the Velcro on their safety belt had come undone.
7:29 I mean, I guess maybe they didn't feel unsafe, and they just noticed it, but I feel like it's important when we're on these rides to tell people if we feel like something's malfunctioned or something's not right because if all of those people earlier had told somebody this might not have happened, you don't know.
7:56 That's the thing is you don't know.
7:57 And I think that's why it's important just, I mean, as consumers every day in almost every situation to let people know if something doesn't seem right or isn't working correctly because it could cause problems later on.
8:17 And so, yeah, this little boy lost his life on this water slide.
8:20 And it's a shame because, you know, 10 years old at a water park having a great time with his family.
8:27 And then this happened.
8:28 So again, it is rare, but the opening of Schlitter at that facility was actually delayed in 2014 due to complications including water rafts, detaching from the slide and flying into the air again, like there's nothing holding the water rafts to this slide.
8:53 Other than just, you know, the weight of the people that are on it.
8:58 I think, I don't know, maybe the enclosed slides are better.
9:02 I don't know.
9:03 I have been on some, but again, I just, I guess my fear is that the person that goes after me is going to go faster than me and actually run me over and push me down.
9:13I don't know, I don't know what my fear is.
9:15 It's just, it's always been a fear but there's no single federal agency responsible for enforcing the rules and regulations at Slitter Bo and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission only has jurisdiction over the traveling amusement parks and the pop-up carnivals.
9:35 Again, we don't know how often all those rides are being inspected.
9:40 There's no federal oversight and the regulations also vary by state.
9:46 Three guests were actually injured previously at this park.
9:52 Probably more, you know, that we don't know of more people that were hurt, that really thought it wasn't a big deal and didn't actually go to anybody and say, hey, the Velcro strap came undone or I hit my head or injuries bad enough to be reported were a 29-year-old who hurt their back due to a restraint strap being too tight.
10:17 A 22-year-old that suffered a neck injury after riding the storm Blaster coaster in 2011 and then a 43-year-old actually hurt his ankle when he hit it against a wall of the dark knot tube slide in 2012 are the injuries bad.
10:37 No, they may have just required some medical supervision and so that's why they were reported again.
10:44 There's a lot that aren't reported that happened, but the water slide was actually dismantled two years later.
10:54 I don't know if any of y'all have ever been on the log ride at Six Flags.
10:58 I think it is on a track of some sort.
11:01 But I can always remember when the log ride goes up the hill and it's about to come down and you're riding in like a log looking thing.
11:10 And I don't know, it holds five or six people.
11:13 You know, there is no talk of how much the people in the log we, so I don't know if there's a limitation or a minimum, but I always was afraid that the log was going to fly off the track down the hill.
11:29 It didn't keep me from riding it.
11:30 It was fun.
11:32 The ride's still there and to my knowledge, there haven't been any deaths on that ride.
11:36 I'm sure people have been injured.
11:38 There's really no place to hang on.
11:40 There's nothing to hold on to when you're going down.
11:43 I would always kind of twist my hand and hold on to the lip inside of the log.
11:50 That was literally the only thing to hold on to or the person in front of you.
11:53 And of course, if they go flying out then so do you because you got a hold of them.
11:58 There is also a lot of rapids, the river rapids, the thunder river rapids in Queensland, Australia are an example of these, and they actually mimic the thrill of whitewater rafting.
12:13 And a lot of people love whitewater rafting.
12:15 And the rides that you sit in are usually like big tires.
12:20 So they float and then they have the seating, you know, on top of them.
12:24 But in 2016, two rafts collided on this ride, and one actually flipped over causing four people to die and two young Children somehow freed themselves.
12:39 I don't know how old they were, but they were actually able to get away, but still four older people passed away during that incident.
12:49 Totally out of anybody's control.
12:52 These rapids again are not on a track.
12:55 They're floating basically quickly through the water.
12:58 And so there's no way to keep them from bumping each other.
13:03 And I've actually been on this ride again at Six Flags Park in the Dallas area.
13:09 I actually felt completely safe.
13:11 We actually also did bump into another raft, and we just bounced off of them because it was like a rubber tire.
13:19 But things don't always go as planned, the Texas giant in Arlington.
13:25 And again, this is a park that's close to us.
13:27 And so it is frequented.
13:30 And in July of 2013, a 52-year-old was thrown about 75 ft.
13:37 And that is equivalent of seven stories.
13:40 If you want to try to look at it in that way, it's easier hitting a metal support beam and landing on a metal roof.
13:48 Now, she ultimately died.
13:50 This coaster is 14 stories and reaches a speed of 65 miles an hour and it does have a steep 79-degree drop, 79 degrees.
14:01 I mean, think about it, you know, 100 degrees straight down.
14:04 79 is still a lot.
14:07 So she was seated in the third row of all the carts, and she was thrown out during the steep descent from the first large hill on the ride.
14:19 Now there is a ride called the Tsunami in Motherwell Scotland.
14:25 And these are Gondolas again in June of 2016 5, Gondolas attached from the rails and fell to the ground.
14:36 They did dismantle this ride again.
14:38 A few months later.
14:39 No one was killed to my knowledge, but there were nine passengers injured.
14:45 That's kind of scary too because you really are.
14:48 I mean, even like with the ski lift, I mean, you're relying on everything working correctly, things malfunction.
14:55 I mean, we all know, you know, computers malfunction, equipment, malfunctions many, many times.
15:02 It's not preventable.
15:03 But many times it is just something to remember the drop zone in Santa Clara, California is another ride.
15:12 It is 224 ft tall.
15:15 A 12-year-old actually died after he slipped out of the safety harness and fell from the ride.
15:21 Now, I don't know if this particular incident had anything to do with his height and his weight and what the rules were as far as getting on the ride.
15:33 If anybody overlooked those rules to let him on.
15:37 I know most 12-year-olds are not big kids, but he slipped out of the safety harness, unknown if anyone was with him at the time.
15:47 But as parents, we always of course, protect our kids.
15:51 So if you felt like they were in danger, we always even in a car, you know, drape our arm across them or whatever.
15:58 If we hit the brakes faster than we plan, we know they have their seat belt on, but we still just instinctively reach over and try to protect them.
16:08 King's Crown is another ride, and this is in Omaha, Nebraska and this is terrifying.
16:14 An 11-year-old caught their hair in machinery and pulled the scalp away from her head.
16:24 Now, this happened at the Omaha festival.
16:29 She fell from her seat and her hair again, got caught in the attraction.
16:34 I looked at her pictures online and oh my God, it looks so painful again.
16:40 She was only 11.
16:42 They were afraid that she would actually lose her eyesight because literally the top of her head was ripped off by this ride.
16:50 She ended up having to have several surgeries and 15 blood transfusions.
16:56 And of course, has a lot of scars and had bruising from the incident.
17:03 You can only imagine.
17:05 And the family had started to go fund Me account and raised more than $60,000.
17:12 Now, the little girl said that the rod did not have seat belts.
17:18 So I don't know, I'm not familiar with this ride.
17:23 It says it's a spinning cup style ride.
17:26 So I just feel like most of them do have some sort of safety harness because I've been in those before because I vomited afterwards.
17:34 I think I told y'all about that last week.
17:36 I can't remember if we were strapped in or not.
17:39 I just don't recall.
17:40 But anyway, the little girl basically blamed herself.
17:43 I mean, she slipped off of it and her hair got caught.
17:46 I mean, that sounds horrifying.
17:47 Could you imagine being scalped by a ride?
17:49 I just can't.
17:51 In New Jersey Wild Wonder, which is a ride in Ocean City is a coaster that's drawn up the tracks and then basically just like a regular roller coaster.
18:04 But in August of 1999 the drag chain that pulls the coaster up the tracks like up a hill, released the cars prematurely and sent them all flying backwards.
18:19 A mom and her eight-year-old daughter were sent into the air.
18:23 That incident did kill both of them two years prior to that in April of 97 a 14-year-old boy died and six other people were injured when a car collided with another car.
18:38 The amusement park was packed with people at that time.
18:43 So this was witnessed by a lot of people which again would be horrifying.
18:49 I would think that the park would probably completely shut down after that because it's traumatizing to see something like that happen.
18:58 My daughter asked me one time how I do my job because I would have to see that every day and I don't see the incidents happen because we were in Nashville, we saw a woman struck by a double decker bus that was full of people.
19:16 And of course, the bus drivers are instructed once they hit someone not to move because they can cause additional injuries trying to roll off of them.
19:26 And so she was basically under the tire and we saw the whole thing happen.
19:32 It was right in front of us.
19:33 And of course, instinctively I threw my purse at my husband and took off running and there was absolutely nothing I could do but give her emotional support somewhat.
19:43 I don't see that part of it all the time.
19:47 I come after they die.
19:50 And so I mean, not that I haven't seen it in the hospital and then, you know, it's, I thought about it I was like, oh my gosh, all the EMS paramedics, EMT’s what they see every day is horrifying.
20:04 They don't see the accidents occur but they're there right after and they see the fear in people's faces and that is the hardest part.
20:14 When I saw this lady laying there.
20:16 I was just like, oh my God.
20:19 I mean, the fear in her face and the fact that I could do nothing.
20:22 I mean, EMS wasn't there yet.
20:24 The bus driver couldn't move.
20:26 He was on top of her.
20:27 The bus was full of people who were probably moving, which didn't make it any better stopping around on the bus when the tires are on top of her.
20:34 But anyway, I just thought of that and threw it out there because to see something like this happen would be horrifying.
20:43 There was a ride called the Sand Blaster in Daytona Beach, Florida, which is a very popular place to go and there were six people injured on a coaster when it went off the tracks and left people dangling in the air.
21:00 They did find was a result of operator error and excessive speed.
21:05 Again, it's hard to know if the people that are running the rides really know what they're doing or have really been trained.
21:14 If some of these rides who are put together overnight in the parking lots are actually put together correctly.
21:21 But again, there's not a lot of regulations.
21:25 The roller coaster in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is another ride where a three-year-old was thrown from a car in August of 2016.
21:35 So he was sitting next to his older brother, but after being ejected, he fell 10 ft and landed near a fence.
21:43 Now, he spent two months in the hospital with a head injury.
21:47 He actually switched seats to sit next to his brother.
21:50 So had he not switched seats before the ride,
21:53 Someone else would have been sitting there.
21:56 I know that y'all have probably heard of the Superman Tower of Power.
22:00 This one in particular in Louisville, Kentucky, there was a freak accident.
22:05 This is unbelievable.
22:08 In 2007, a 13-year-old suffered a freak accident resulting in her feet actually being cut off.
22:16 Y'all, could you imagine your feet being cut off?
22:19 So a cord wrapped around her feet and severed them from her legs at the ankles.
22:26 And so later she was forced to have one of her legs amputated below the knee.
22:34 Now, this ride pulls passengers 100 and 77 ft and then drops them at 54 miles an hour.
22:42 This ride was called Elevator and this theme park eventually closed.
22:50 Now, the last one that I want to talk about is the treetop twister and this is in England again, two carriages collided.
23:00 This resulted in the death of a 20-year-old who died of head neck injuries.
23:05 The ride had only been open for three weeks.
23:08 Three others were injured.
23:10 But the sad thing about this and I don't think this park is there anymore, but the ride that particular day and even days prior had kept breaking down, some of the seat belts were broken, there were mechanical issues, the ride was stopping and starting, people were stuck on it just all kinds of problems.
23:33 Again, when we see things like that happen or when our Velcro strap comes undone or when our safety harness comes off or anything like that, it is so important to let someone know that you had a problem because everyone after you is going to have the same problem and it could cause death.
23:53 We need to just make sure and do our part to report those types of things to the parks so that they can prevent further issues.
24:04 These are such sad incidents and again, I never really thought about it.
24:09 We don't have amusement parks in our area or in our jurisdiction.
24:15 We may have some of the little pop-up fair rides come to again, a mall parking lot or something like that, but we do not have an amusement park here with permanent rides.
24:27 So we don't see a lot of this in my county in Texas, but there are counties who have a lot of tourists and there's a lot of rides and a lot of attractions and those types of things.
24:43 And so I know that they deal with it probably on a weekly, maybe monthly basis.
24:50 I'm not sure, at least injuries, at least injuries and thank God most of them minor again, one in 16 million chances of you being severely injured on a water slide, the chances are still slam.
25:03 But if everybody just does their part in trying to remain safe and follow the rules, then we could definitely decrease these accidents.
25:15 If there is a fair in your area.
25:18 I hope that you are able to attend and actually enjoy it and it's not as hot as it is in Texas because I don't think I would want to go anywhere near an outdoor park right now and actually walk around when it's 110 degrees outside.
25:34 But I look forward to talking to y'all again next week and filling you in on how our week has been at the medical examiner's office again.
25:44 Super hot.
25:45 It’s supposed to be 100 and eight.
25:46 I think today I am getting ready to go to work and I will talk to y'all next week.
25:52 Have a good day.
25:53 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
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26:02 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.