Just HOW Safe Are Roller Coasters?

Roller coasters are fun and usually safe to ride in but just how safe are they? Several riders have experienced many malfunctions on roller coasters that were close to life threatening or just a nuisance.

Riders were just finishing their mind-blowing ride of the Mr. Freeze at Six Flags Saint Louis when the ride slowed down to a halt. Panicking, one rider screamed, “What’s Happening?!” One caring maintenance manager replied saying, “We have some problems with the ride so,hopefully, we can start the ride back up and you, riders, can safely exit this ride.” After about 5 minutes, what the manager had said had already exited the minds of many riders. Many started to panic. Some couldn’t even grasp the idea of what was happening. Although some    were absolutely still, you could tell what they were thinking under their mask of perfect calmness. That’s when the silence was interrupted by the starting hum of the roller coaster. The roller coaster jerked forward and the coaster pulled in successfully into the station. Success and failure could happen as fast as one of Zeus’s lightning bolts.* Everyone clapped and cheered but on the back of everyone’s mind was the same question, just how safe are roller coasters?

Megan Lindzy, one 13-year old girl, says that she was on a normal, “Flipping, roller coaster, when one part of the roller coaster flew off!” Not remembering the name of the roller coaster, M. Lindzy said that the roller coaster was at a big fair and she claims that, “Even after the incident, the roller coaster continued to race around the track” as if nothing ever happened. This just goes to show how dangerous and careless roller coasters and their caretakers can be.

Jordan Pippin, an 13-year old girl on the Mr. Freeze ride gone haywire, states that, “While on the Mr. Freeze ride at Six Flags I heard a manager say that this didn’t happen  very often. But it happened while I was on?! Never again am I riding the Mr. Freeze with these circumstances again!” Riders need to be aware that when they step onto a ride, anything could happen.

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* Zeus is a character of mythology who could control lots of things. (For more info, look this topic up!)