Incidents at European parks
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This is a summary of notable incidents that have taken place at various European amusement parks, water parks, or theme parks. This list is not intended to be a comprehensive list of every such event, but only those that have a significant impact on the parks or park operations, or are otherwise significantly newsworthy.
The term incidents refers to major accidents, injuries, or deaths that occur at a European park. While these incidents were required to be reported to regulatory authorities due to where they occurred, they usually fall into one of the following categories:
- Caused by negligence on the part of the guest. This can be refusal to follow specific ride safety instructions, or deliberate intent to break park rules.
- The result of a guest's known or unknown health issues.
- Negligence on the part of the park, either by ride operator or maintenance.
- Act of God or a generic accident (eg slipping and falling), that is not a direct result of an action on anybody's part.
[edit] Legoland
- On April 29th, 2007, a 21-year-old unidentified woman was killed by a ride vehicle on The Xtreme Racer, a roller coaster at the Billund, Denmark park. The victim, a park employee, climbed over a security fence to retrieve a guest's wallet.[1]
[edit] Pleasure Beach Blackpool
[edit] Pepsi Max Big One
On August 31, 2000, 23 people were injured, when two ride vehicles collided due to a failure of the ride's braking system. Of those injured, 21 were taken to the hospital.[2]
[edit] Space Invader
On July 21, 2000, 11-year-old Christopher Sheratt died after he fell out of the ride vehicle. Reports say that Sheratt panicked on the dark ride and unfastened his seatbelt.[3]
[edit] Oakwood Theme Park
[edit] Hydro
- On April 16, 2004, a 16-year-old girl was killed after falling approximately 30 m (100 ft) from the top of the Hydro ride.[4]. During a trial brought by the victim's family against Oakwood, a jury returned a narrative verdict stating that the victim died due to not being properly restrained.[5] In February 2008, Oakwood was charged by the Health and Safety Executive for park staff not ensuring that guests were properly and safely restrained.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ "'Shocking' Legoland coaster death", CNN, 2007-04-30. Retrieved on 2007-04-30.
- ^ "23 injured as roller coaster carriages collide", The Independent, 2000-09-01. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
- ^ "Four hurt in fairground fall", BBC News, 2000-07-30. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
- ^ "Girl dies in 100ft rollercoaster fall", BBC Wales News, 2004-04-16. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
- ^ "Family unhappy after ride inquest", BBC Wales News, 2006-05-19. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
- ^ Oakwood charged over ride death. BBC News (2006). Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
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