Action Park Accidents and Final Closure

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With so many options, it's nice knowing you have help finding what fits for you so you can get back to solving all of life 's bigger cases. Go to statefarm. com or use the award winning app to connect with a local agent and get a quote. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is Morbid This is morbid Morbidito is gonna be a morbid one for sure. Is it? It is. What are you doing? Amusement Park Disasters Part two , baby . She takes us here again. She takes us here again. I remember last time I went to Disney and I posted everyone was like, Damn, didn't you say you were never getting on a rollercoaster again? Yeah. I was like, No, I trust Disney. Okay Okay . No , no, don't look at me like that . She just had the smuggest look on her big red head . We're doing theme parks today. You're doing theme parks? Not just amusement p arks. Oh goodness. I haven't I haven't been to I mean, it'll be a while I think before I go back to Disney because I was there. Yeah . So for sure . That's so you know my thing, talk to me. I'm realizing more and more that I and this is not everybody's bag obviously , I'm just like a little bitch when it comes to like not wanting to die . So that's I am not one of those people who seeks risk in any way shape or form. And I'm okay admitting that. I know that probably makes me a little boring and that's fine. I don't think it necessarily makes you boring. I think you're exciting in different ways. Well, I try to be, but I'm certainly boring in that way. I think because when I say don't seek out risk, I don't seek out risk in any way. If something is risky , no, it's a no for me. I know, that's where we've always differed. Yeah. We differ violently in that. My God, I was risky business as a younger. I've never been a risky business person. I've always had a really healthy maybe unhealthy at times respect for the for my mortality. Your char in general, though, and it makes so much sense because even just like even just looking at your big three, you are a Capricorn Sun. So you are so rooted to this earth, you don't want to go. Yeah, no. You are a virgo rising. So the older you get even less likely you are to seek that out . And then you're a cancer moon. So you're like you're good where you are. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like you like your home , you like your things, you like your creature comfort. I like my routines. Yeah, I like yeah, that's how it does. And also like you're not, I mean, you're a goat , you're a crab and I forget what represents Virgo. A virgin . There you go Not willing to change Stubborn and unwilling to change. Yeah , that's me . And it's, I think finally I've realized like I'm like, oh, yeah, that's just who I am. 'Cause I've always been like, I know I just, don't like it, and I don't know why blah blah. And then I was finally like, I don't I swear you hit a certain age and you're just like, oh yeah, fuck it. Like I was just like, Oh, yeah, that's just I'm boring and that's okay. I don't think you should say it like that because I don't think you are boring. I'm just not risky. You're not a thrill seeker. No, I think that's really that's what you need to say. What it is. You're not a thrill seeker. I have absolutely when I tell you that not one cell in my body feels like I need any kind of thrill . I can't stress it at all. Well now , that's not true. That's not true at all. No, but like to seek out thrills. I feel like I have you see it, but you seek out a different kind of thrill is the thing. Like I do I personally I really do think you require thrills because you love a haunted house. Yeah. And you love a scary movie. So that in of itself is a thrill. It's just a different kind of thrill . I don't I think you don't need like a life threatening throw. No, I absolutely not. And I think some people like I also think like you're a very like what is the word pragmatic? Like the word I like my head analytical. Like I think you think of the risks and the risks for me is and I don't think necessarily everybody is as analytical as you are as pragmatic when it comes to those things. So it's not that they need like a like they're not like I would love to have a life threatening experience a little freer with how they 're how I feel. Like which is not a bad thing. That's the no I, don't think it is either like I think we're just different. I think this makes me understand the other side of it a little better. Yeah. Once I understand because I understand my point of view a little bit better because for so long I've been like, I don't understand why you want to do these things. And I still don't, like, I can't like put myself in that place to understand it, but I can sit there and look at my point of view and go, well, it's just the complete opposite point of view. So valid. It is valid, yeah. Whatever you want to do with your body, as long as you're not harming somebody else is valid. So like fuck anybody who's gonna give you a hard time. Exactly. But are we talking about like thrill rides right now specifically that are risky business? See, I think a lot of people myself included just are like, oh, that'll be so much fun and people do that all the time. Like what's the likelihood of anything going wrong? Whereas you actually think about like data yell and like probability and like you're getting out your marbles from like fifth grade when we learned about probability. Your thought is oh, what's the likelihood that anything could go wrong? My point of view is there's a likely likelihood that something could go wrong. There is likelihood , period. Right. Like yours is like, what's the likelihood there is though period ? And so it's like those are two, it's so funny like the different . It' wsays of thinking. What are the odds? And you're like, there are odds. And I'm like, well, the odds exists. Yeah. I don't like what they're not in my favor , which is crazy. I also just think well, and I think having kids has a lot to do with this too. Yeah. Like I think I think you've got even and I think that's probably why you're even more comfortable like with the way you are now though because you're like, well I've kids like I'm not gonna fight I'm not gonna do be different with humans . But I do wonder if I'll feel like even when we go to the beach, like if like we go on like a friend's like boat or something like that, like you don't want them tubing or like you don't enjoy that and I'm always like, oh, it's fine. I'll go with them. Yeah. And I know that makes you feel better. Yeah, which which like like I do. So like because I know that that'll be taken as like Elena does. You know, she likes letting her kids do anything. I go with them and it's great. What she what Ash is saying is like I don't love it. Like you're scared of the experience I could watch them doing it and be like, wow, how free and exciting. My nervous system feels like I'm being hunted for sports during the whole thing. I'm always glad I did it because they had fun and whatever, but like I don't enjoy watching people I love do risky things . I know you don't. Like it's I'm strange but I don't I don't necessarily think you are because I think a lot of times when people become moms, they they do change like their views on a lot of things . So I wonder because like two years ago I'd be like, come on Alina like it's fine. Yeah. But like the older that I get and like maybe the closer I get to having kids, I'm like, I wonder if I'll feel that way. Yeah, and I think it might change it a lot. Yeah, it might it might not change it a lot. It might not, you know, yeah, who knows? But even like your fear of flying, I know that got so much worse after kids. Yeah. And I know I've heard of a lot of other people like that happening to them I'm not afraid of flying at all. Yeah. But I wonder like you have like I always you always have something to lose, obviously, but you feel like it's even different . There's an inconceivable amount to lose when you add kids to the equation. It's interesting , you know, so that's how we feel about things. Yeah, I just I thought it was interesting because I always go into this being like fuck this in which like I still say fuck this, but seeing I go into this and I'm like, you like . I just don't want you to talk about a ride I've been on. I don't think I will. Okay , I'm pretty sure. All right, I guess we'll see. Do we have business that we need to say? Like buy tickets to radio city musical? Yeah, buy tickets to radio next Saturday you guys the twenty seventh. Like it's coming up so quickly. There's still so much to figure out and we're like stressed but we're also so excited getting the butterflies. But we have a really good show for you . Oh, and we announced our by the time you listen to this, you will know that the special guest is the one and only Jonathan Maness. JBun . Like we also just have the perfect segment planned with him . It is going to be glorious. It's gonna be hilarious. And I can't wait. I can't wait. So there's only a few tickets left. Yeah, there's not many. So snatch them up and I also posted about the Butcher Legacy Tour. I'm excited to happen in August. That's gonna be fun. But get your tickets to some stops on that because I'll be letting you guys know any updates. There might be some updates to that that , all fun stuff and preorder the Butcher Legacy. And we're gonna try to get her to fly soon. Yeah, I'll try to get to because I know she was really trying. We talked about it this point. I had such a moment because I was seeing you guys be like, come to the south, come to, you know, come to Louisiana, like come to come to . And I was like, I want to and I want to see you and I want to come sign your books and like do all that fun stuff and I will. Yeah. I'm trying to make it more of a priority to like fight through the fear. I think you need to get hypnotized. I really do. I feel I'm going to try it. I'll try anything to get on with anybody. Anybody knows I want to go to Scotland. That's the next big thing I want to do. We have to get to Scotland. Scotland is calling me, so I feel like I want to pet a highland girl. And I do realize that I can do that here . I want to do it in Scotland, please. I just need to land in Scotland because I feel like the second I step on that soil, I'm gonna burst into tears. Yeah. I feel like that's where I'm supposed to be and then maybe never come back. We'll just stay in Scotland. Just Rosie O'Donnellette. So yeah, she went to Ireland and it's just like let's go see ya. But yeah, so I'll figure that out. Everybody ever buddy in the club goin to Scotland . I mean, they have been fucking taken over Boston. I know it's been sick. Let me tell you, any Scottish listeners, we could not be happier to have you could not. Boston is trying to figure out a way. Just kind of say to have Scotland come back every year . Yeah, our governor is literally working on it. Like literally trying to figure out a way to entice you to come back every year because you have healed us in a way that I can't describe. Yeah . So we love you. Let's work on that. We love you guys a lot . So let's split some haggis. Let's get to it, shall we? I'm nervous for this one. This one's crazy. So he said you should be this is wild. Let's start with Walt Disney, shall we? By the time Walt Disney conceived the idea of just, you know, a massive park where parents and children can play together in the world that was modeled by his like after his creation. Yes. Amusement parks or at least something like amusement parks were definitely already part of the landscape around the world s. But what Disney had in mind was something way more elaborate than like Coney Island or Knotts Berry Farm. When it finally opened in july nineteen fifty five, the rides and attractions Disneyland had to offer were definitely a far cry from the hyper modern rides that were in parks today that we know. The early rides included the Disneyland Railroad , which was a scaled down version of a locomotive that carried passengers to various parts of the park, which they still have. Yeah, there you go, junior Autopia , a miniature car race track that operated on a rail, and the Astrojets, a rocket themed spinning ride that lifted passengers into the air to simulate flying and they still have that too in Tomorrowland. Wow. It's not called the same thing, it's called something else. Well, the park also included boat rides, a movie theater, animatronic shows, and the centerpiece of the park, a replica of Sleeping Beauty's c astle. Gorgeous. Now, the construction of the castle alone created a significant amount of dirt and debris obviously . But rather than just like haul it away, the engineers at Disneyland were like, wait a minute, we could use this stuff to build other features in the park . And in the years that followed, the dirt from the excavation of the castle site was gathered together into a massive mountain used to hide one of the pylons of the Disneyland skyway. They initially named the massive pile holiday hill, and then it was Lookout Mountain. And finally, after many different design elements and details were added, it became the Matterhorn. Oh shit named after the mountain in the European Army. I've never been on the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is a big pilot dirt. With the Hut Mountain complete in nineteen fifty six, Walt Disney got a new idea for a new ride . This one would be designed to simulate a toboggan ride through a snowy mountain environment. It was like a combination between a roller coaster and a dark ride. The Matterhorn Bob Sluds quickly became one of the park's most popular rides when it opened in nineteen fifty nine. It was also the world's first tubular rollercoaster they're called Hollywood which allowed passengers to go through tunnels and holes in the mountain's exterior, like interior rather than stay on a singular open air track . Now the first major safety incident at Disneyland occurred in nineteen sixty four on the Matterhorn, long, long ago. It was a little before eleven PM on may fifteenth when fifteen year old Mark Map les boarded the sled with his friends Doug Gibbs and Gary Pain. Mark was in the middle seat, with his friend seated in front of and behind him. The Bob Sled had reached the top level of the track at the top of the mountain. It was just about to begin the steepest descent when Mark was thrown violently from the sled head first and landed beside the lower track. Oh , now when the ride reached the terminal and the accident was reported , park attendants refused to believe the story and assumed the boys were joking. I'm sorry, what? Yeah. It was only when the two girls riding in the car behind them confirmed the story that they rushed to find Mark in the tunnel and called paramedic. When they found him he was unconscious, he was bleeding from several wounds. He was taken to nearby Palm Harbor Hospital, but he never regained consciousness and died from his injuries four days later. Oh, that's awful. He was only fifteen. Yeah. When Mark's friends, Doug and Gary were interviewed, they both claimed they had no idea what caused Mark to be thrown from the sled. Gary said, I was looking up, heard a noise, looked down, and recognized Mark's sweater as he was falling out of the side. Oh my god. Doug Gibbs was kind of like in a similar vein. He said, I felt him bump into me, but there was no way to tell what he was doing. It's a bumpy ride. According to witnesses, it appe ared that Mark , quote, stood up on the ride when it was about one third of the way down the course. Okay . In standing up, Mark's head hit the one of the concrete beams on the ceiling of the tunnel knocking, him out of the sled and causing severe head injuries. Yeah , which were obviously exacerbated when he landed head first on the walkway beside the track. The official response from Disneyland executives stood in direct conflict to the theory that Mark was thrown from the sled. In their statement, Disneyland said Mark unbuckled his seat seatbelt and stood up, then fell out . Okay , that's what the witnesses are saying. Okay. Now on the day of Mark's death, the Orange County coroner, James Beisner opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the boy's death and whether Disneyland execs could be held responsible. The first step in his investigation was a visit to the park and he actually rode the matter horn himself. Wow, that was brave. That would suck. Imagine as a like if I was like the medical examiner and I had to go ride a coaster two, I'd be like, I don't want to do that. No. Don't make me do that. Especially after seeing a poor young man who died from his injuries on that ride. Yeah. Now after completing the ride, Beisner determined, quote, The boy if strapped in, couldn't have fallen out. Okay. In addition to riding the sled himself, Weisner had two employees about Mark's size sit in one of the sleds and attempt to stand or free themselves from the sled without unbuckling the belt. Neither of them was able to do it. Okay . Now according to Mark's friends, nothing seemed out of the ordinary while they waited in line to board the ride. And Mark gave no indication that he was planning to do anything reckless. Yeah . But in the days that followed, the deputy coroner, Eugene Miller reported receiving multiple phone calls, quote, which have indicated the accident resulted from a hazing. When asked about a potential hazing, Doug and Gary did admit that they were part of what they referred to as a quote boys social club . Called Phidius, I think it is. And two weeks earlier, they'd invited Mark to join, but he declined the invitation. Both denied any involvement in a Hazing that or any other night. Okay . Now, after the brief investigation, James Breisner concluded Mark Maple's death was, quote, purely accidental. And a coroner's inquest was ruled out. Okay . In their statement to the public, the coroner's office said, quote , They found that maples and two young companions had been engaged in so called horseplay, such as shoving each other, shout ing at people, crowding ahead of others in the line, and that no proof has been found that it is part of any club initiation. Okay . Their conclusion was that one of the boys unbuckled the safety belt quote, for no ex,planable reason, which ultimately led to Maple's tragic death. That's whole. So it was simply just horseplay. Now, Mark Maple's death was just the first of several incidents in which Park owners were injured or killed as a result of failing to follow the rules of the park . In fact, in the years that followed, there were several bizarre incidents, including park attendees not only violating the park rules, but also violating the law in order to like impress their friends or like achieve some sort of like social status or something . Now on june eighteenth, nineteen sixty six, Disneyland held an all night graduation party for the graduating class of a local high school. Oh wow. The plan was for the park to close to the public at eleven PM but remain open the rest of the night for the graduating seniors. Can you imagine that? I'm like, I feel like they would not do that now. Oh no, I don't think they would . Yeah. And this was nineteen sixty six. Yeah. Knowing that the party would be off limits to anyone outside the class of seniors and the chaperones, but still wanting to join his friends for the party, nineteen year old Thomas Cleveland hatched a plan to sneak into the park and join the group, assuming no one was going to notice that he graduated the year before that. Okay . Now around nine twenty PM, Cleveland scaled the sixteen foot fence at the northern edge of the park. Dedication. Yeah, then climbed one of the pylons in order to get onto the tracks of the monorail , which was the train that carries visitors to and from various parts of the park. Yeah. It's unclear what his plan was beyond that . I guess we can speculate that he was planning to walk the length of the tracks until he reached an area where his friends were gathered, I guess. Whatever the plan was, it was quickly interrupted when Thomas was spotted by two security guards who shouted, get down, jump, get off of there. Yeah . It must not have occurred to Thomas that the monorail would still be on operation as long as the park was open was open or somebody was in there , because as soon as the guards yelled he seemed to realize the danger he was in. But rather than jump to the ground below, he fell to the fiberglass canopy between the tracks and tried to conceal himself from sight. Just as he did that, the monorail rounded the corner at about twenty five miles per hour and struck him. Oh my god he was killed instantly. Yeah . The driver of the monorail Dallas Baker never saw him on the tracks , but he did say he quote felt a bump after hitting him. Now the coroner's office determined that Thomas Cleveland's death from crush injuries were it was purely accidental and Disneyland was not health respons ible in any way. No . That said, the coroner's report did mention that just after Thomas was struck by a train, guards saw, quote, two other youths who had not scaled the Disneyland fence running from the area. 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With the state farm personal price plan, you have options and can personalize your plan to help create an affordable price, so you can get back to cracking all of life's bigger cases. Talk to a state farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. Head to statefarm. com to get a quote. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state . Now Thomas Cleveland wasn't the only person who suffered serious consequences for trying to sneak into the park undetected In june nineteen seventy three , seven years after Cleveland's tragic death, eighteen year old Bogden Delarot and his ten year old brother Dorian attempted to stay in the park overnight by swimming across the rivers of America and hiding on Tom Sawyer's Island. Oh God, I just think the alligators are crocodiles. Well, and it's located in like that man made river. Now on the evening of june twenty second, Bogdan and Dorian took the ferry across to Tom Sawyer 's Island and hid from park security until after the park closed. Okay. So they were on the island . Once they were certain the park was closed and assumed everyone had left for the night, they entered the water and started swimming across to reach the shore . It appears that they probably misjudged the distance from the shore of the island because it's pretty far. Yeah . Because not long after they entered the water, Dorian became exhausted and told his brother he couldn't swim any further. It's so sad. In order to help him, Boggden told his brother to put his arms around his neck and he would carry him across unfortunately exhausted. It became clear that his brother's weight was too much to carry and he too became tired . Around ten PM that evening, security officers heard Dorian's cries for help and took a boat out to find where it was coming from. It didn't take long for them to find Dorian who'd manag,ed to stay afloat by just like treading water like doggy paddling, essentially, but Boggden was nowhere to be found. When they returned to shore, Park Security called Anaheim Fire and Rescue for help , and the following morning, just before six AM, Bogden's body was discovered, quote, lodged in the rapid section of the river. Oh, he had drowned at some point during the night. Oh, that's so sad. Now, while incidents like these are very rare, obviously, they did continue to happen at the park , and in nineteen eighty four, for example, two drunk visitors stole a maintenance boat and took it for a ride on the rivers of America. Hello. Not long after leaving the dock, the boat hit a rock and one of th ther mownen was overboard. Oh, by the time his friend was able to get back to shore to help him, his friend had drowned. Oh man. Following the drowning death of the man who stole the boat, Disneyland managed to avoid serious accidents and deaths for nearly fifteen years . And when the next death did occur, it was not the result of recklessness, but of negligence on behalf of the park. Oh no . On december twenty fourth, nineteen ninety eight, oh Oh Luan Fi Dawson and his wife, Liu Tui Vuang , we're visiting Disneyland with their young son, and we're excited to go on the Columbia, which was a replica of an eighteenth century tall ship that was described as quote one of the park's tamest rides. As the boat approached the dock, Luan and the other visitors waited in line, while an employee threw the mooring line around one of the ship's cleats, which is the metal bar where the line is tied before the boat had stopped moving. Now with the line tied securely to the dock , the weight of the ship pulling in the other direction , because it was still moving, it had not stopped , was too much strain on the cleat, and the bolts holding it down sheared off . No longer bolted to the ship, the eight pound twelve inch iron cleat went flying in the direction of the crowd with tremendous force. The cleat hit Park employee Christine Carpenter in the leg first, shattering her foot and breaking her ankle. Oh my god then flew into the crowd striking Liu in the face and Luan in the head. Oh yeah . Park employees immediately called emergency services and the injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. All three had suffered serious injuries . Liu had extensive damage to her face that caused dirt, nerve damage and paralys is. Oh my god, the Luounds were way more severe In addition to the blunt force injuries to his skull, the impact caused severe brain injuries and injuries to the blood vessels in his head.. Dr Richard Kim told a reporter a few days later that the injuries were both together made it unlikely he could survive. Yeah . By the time he arrived at UC Irvine Medical Center, Luan was already brain dead. He was placed on life support in order to give family time to come to the hospital and say goodbye, and support was ended eleven hours later. The same day Liu had extensive surgery to repair the cuts to the right side of her face . Which m youind was Christmas Day? Yeah . That just occurred to me because they were waiting on december twenty fourth in line and the next day Christmas , their family has to come say goodbye to him. Yeah . Oh my god, that poor far red family . It's horrific and in the months after that, Liu would have several more surgeries, but it was unlikely she would ever regain full control over the right side of her face again. Wow . And following the death, the coroner's office began an investigation and an investigation was also opened by the Anaheim Police Department. In their official statement, Disney officials released a pretty vague statement, clearly intending to avoid , you know, incriminated language of any kind. They said we're checking the Columbia's mechanical and structural components . That was it. In the coroner's investigation, Deputy Coroner Richard Mc Nally determined that the accident had been caused by the Disney worker's failure to follow a proper procedure with regard to the ship's docking. McNally wrote in the report the normal procedure when the ship is coming in too fast is to not secure the mooring line. Makes sense . Instead, Carpenter should have waited for the captain to overshoot the dock and slowly reverse into position at the dock. Right, that makes sense because she didn't know the captain was planning to overshoot , she threw the mooring line around the cleat too soon and the tension on the rope essentially created a high velocity projectile that was fired into the crowd. Yeah . The police investigation into the accident also revealed somewhat troubling aspects to the park's approach to such incidents. Rather than being taken directly to the scene of the accident , when a detective arrived at the park, he was taken to a conference room where he waited for, quote, a considerable time before being met by a park official. By the time he was taken to the accident site, the entire scene had been cleaned up by park staff , and anything that could be collected was gone. Oh, that's not good. A few days later, the debris from the accident site, which included the broken cleat that hit everybody and two teeth were located in a dumpster and turned over to investigators. Oh, that's fucked up. By the end of the week, the Anaheim Police Department did conclude that there was no attempt to destroy evidence or impede the investigation . Lieutenant John Herridon said determ, Weined that Disneyland didn't clean it up to destroy evidence of criminal conduct. They cleaned it up in my opinion, because it was unsightly. Yeah . Which like that probably was the reason? Yeah Yeah , more like moralite is it is no put it away to like give to investigators. Exactly. You know, to throw it in a dumpster. Two years after the accident, Liu and her family settled with Disney, but the terms are not made public . Though it's not nearly as popular, we're moving away from Disneyland . Don't worry . Though it's not nearly as popular well known as Disneyland, California's Great America Amusement Park has been a heavily attended park since it opened in the mid nineteen seventies. I've never been there. Like Disneyland and many other parks, they've had their fair share of tragic accidents over the years. Developed by the Marriott Corporation and open to the public in the spring of nineteen seventy six, Great America was just trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of amusement parks and compete with the parks like Disneyland in California and Kings Island in Ohi . Although it never really reached that level of popularity, Marriott did successfully open a second park less than two months later, and eventually both were sold to Six Flags. Ah . Now, among the park's most popular rides was Willard's Whizzer , a speed racer model steel roller coaster with a height of seventy feet and a top speed of forty five miles an hour. Okay. Despite being the park's biggest and most popular attraction, the Whizzer had a myriad of problems from the start. Among the biggest issues was the ride's braking system. Oh , which would occasionally fail to engage as quickly or fully as necessary. Wow , and trains would sometimes bump into one another at the terminal. That feels like a big deal. Feels like a big one. Between the opening of the ride in nineteen seventy six and an evaluation in nineteen seventy nine, it was found that the malfunctions had resulted in eleven reported incidents of injury , but the extent of those injuries was not detailed. The first fatality occurred on march twenty ninth, nineteen eighty. under similar circumstances to those known to be problems on the Whizzer . That afternoon, thirteen year old Kyle Foss waited in line with friends, and when the car train pulled up to the terminal, he and the other passengers were given the go ahead to climb on board. Just as Kyle was climbing onto the last car in the train, a second train pulled into the station , although it was only travelling between three and six miles per hour, when the second train struck the first, the velocity and weight of the train was enough to knock Kyle off balance , and he fell between the two trains and was crushed a duck. Oh my god. Of the six passengers already seated in the train, three were ejected from the ride and landed in a pond. Oh my god. Yeah . The thought of being ejected from a rollercoaster is one of the scariest things. That's what keeps me off rollercoasters. I'm happy to tell you like nothing bad happened to me by any means, but the Veloc aster at Universal goes so fucking fast and you go over water and you're like upside down and it's just I thought I was a cool cool girl who could do cool cool roller coasters. I can't fucking handle that one anymore because of the girl of being ejected into a cool cool pond. No , no , no, I can't see that's my problem. I can't the possibility is there. So I'm out. I can't really fucks with water near rise It's a no fault. Which like you would think like the thought of like plummeting to the ground is much worse which like obviously it is but, something about like a ride that goes like through the water or like something like that. Well, it's like a plane people on a plane they say they're more scared to fly with the ocean. Yeah, than land when like in reality, which one would really save for landing? Yeah . It's just something about water. Yeah. I don't know. We're not supposed to really be in it. No, I know that's the same. And like we know it somewhere in our cells. It's true . But so in their response to this tragedy , officials from Great America were surprisingly terse . After confirming the death, the park released an official statement to the press that read simply, quote, in order to avoid possible conflicting information , unnecessary speculation and any further confusion, we will not have any further comment at this time . Oh , whether they wanted it to or not, speculation quickly followed. And many started to blame the r ide's braking system for the accident. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one park employee told a reporter, quote, two systems had to break down for this to occur. The odds against that must be astronomical. Yeah , I would think so. After a two month investigation into the cause of Kyle's death, the park reported that quote, nothing was wrong with the Wizard. Right. And none of its systems had malfunctioned. Not true, though. Despite that , Vice President of the Park, J. Robert Schultz went on to say quote, a false electrical signal made the wizard's safety system think it was holding a train in an automatic braking system at almost the same moment the real train signaled that it was coming into the same braking system. So that's a problem. The specifics of the explanation are like a little difficult to follow. They are. But essentially, when the system realized it had made a mistake , it released the braking system to clear out this fake train that it thought was there , exactly as the real train was coming into the station . The fluke caused the system to be opened right when the real train pulled into the station . Although the braking system did catch the mistake, it only managed to slow the train down before it hit the car where Kyle was climbing into. Right. The entire accident unfold ed in like less than three seconds. Wow. In the aftermath of Kyle's death, the ride underwent several upgrades to its safety systems and seatbelts were added to the cars. I feel like seatbelts should always be out of the cars? Kyle's parents filed suit against Marriott, asking eleven million dollars in damages. The result of that suit is unknown. Okay . With the exception of an accidental drowning at the water park in nineteen eighty nine, Great America managed to avoid any catastrophes for almost two decades. Wow. Until a bizarre accident put them back in the spotlight in nineteen ninety eight Around two thirty PM on september seventh, twenty five year old Hector M endoza, his wife of two months, and his brother in law, rode the top gun roller coaster now called Flight Deck. Okay . During this experience, Hector's baseball cap was blown off his head and landed somewhere on the ground below. After getting off the ride, the three decided to retrieve the hat . So they either climbed or otherwise got past the security fence around the perimeter of the ride, either ignoring or possibly not understanding the sign, ordering visitors to stay out. Okay . The area would have been dangerous regardless of the model of the ride, but as an inverted roller coaster , in where passengers hang from the rail and the seats, the danger was much greater here. It didn't take long for Hector to find his hat, but just as he went to pick it up, the coaster came around the corner , and Hector was struck in the head by the dangling foot of a passeng er. The force of the blow killed Hector and it also broke the passenger's leg. Oh my god , holy shit. The day after the incident, park inspectors tested the ride and determined that Top Gun quote in no way malfunctioned or experienced any other problems . A spokesperson Tim Schenod told reporters This was a case of somebody that had entered an area off limits to park guests. We aren't entirely sure how Mr. Mendoza got into the area, but he went through a clearly marked gate and over a six foot locked fence marked with bright red warning signs . That's according to them. Sure. Now, although the situation seem ed straightforward, Hector's family described things differently. A lawyer speaking on behalf of the family said quote, The gate in the fence was either open or wide enough to go through very easily. There was no climbing or jumping on the fence. . The discrepancy started a public dispute between the family and the great in great America. In response to their claims, Shinad gave another public statement explaining two of our employees were the first to respond to the incident , and the first thing they had to do to get to the victim was unlock the gate . In fact, the investigation by Santa Clara police backed up his version of events . Sergeant Anton Marek said the first maintenance person tried to unlock the gate but didn't have the right key. They had to wait for the second maintenance person to arrive. Okay . What's bizarre? Because I'm sure you're like, Where's the bizarre part about this? I'm wondering it's very sad. A week after the accident, it was reported that the man everyone had identified as Hector Mendoza was not who he seemed to be. The identification had been made based on interviews with the family and the man's documents found in his wallet. However , they turned out to be fraudulent, and the real Hector Mendoza was alive and living in Mexico. What? The man who died at Great America was eventually identified through fingerprints as Suarez Rob . What? Following the identification, his body was released to his family, who returned to bury him . What? Isn't that just what? So like the family fighting and saying like no like the gate was open I don't know what the name of that was a man who who was alive. I suppose so what? Yeah. Isn't that just bizarre? Yeah . But it's like, I don't know where you were going with the And I feel bad for the woman whose leg hit this person as well. Like obviously I feel horrible about the person who died. Get dau arez, but I feel like the person whose foot leg hit his head and he died. Yeah, that's and then her leg broke in the process. So it's like to have to deal with all of that. Yeah, the emotional and physical toll of all of that. Right. The whole thing is just bizarre and sad. You're like, holy shit. That's so good. And so avoidable. You're like, oh, I wish somebody had stopped them. Yeah, I know. That's the thing. Like, oh, it's just a really wild one. Yeah, that's wild for sure. Now, the operators of Great America had been fortunate to experience a very large gap between the deaths of Kyle Foss and of Suarez Robles. The next tragedy, though, occurred less than a year later. And this time it wasn't the result of any kind of like reckless behavior. Okay . On the afternoon of august twenty second, nineteen ninety nine, twelve year old Joshua Smurfitt and his family were winding down their visit to Great America when they decided to ride drop zone . It's a free fall like tower ride where riders are taken to the top of a two hundred twenty four foot tower and then dropped. Those are like some of my favorite rides could not pay. me I love those rides. After settling into the four seat coach, the ride attendant checked the seal safety harness on each rider and confirmed they were all locked in place. Then the car began its ascent to the top of the tower. When the car reached the two hundred seven foot mark it began its first big drop , at which point Joshua slipped out of the seat and fell twenty stories to the ground below. Oh my god as his family watched in horror from the waiting area . According to spokesperson Tim Shinad , the harness was checked and locked before the coach started. We simply don't know what happened. That's not settling. That said, he did acknowledge that Joshua was among the last of the riders that afternoon as the ride was being taken out of commission for what they referred to as an unrelated maintenance problem with one of the other cars . OK. He said there is absolutely no way it could have contributed to the accident. OK . During a month's long investigation into the incident, it was determined that the ride had not malfunctioned during the ascent or descent , and they determined there was no problem with the safety harness itself. But then how did he fall out of the fucking ride? Unfortunately for all the things the investigation ruled out, experts were unable to identify how Joshua had managed to fall out of that safety bar. Still, the investigation did raise serious concerns about potential violations that could have contributed to his death. Among other things, the nine hundred page incident report describes poor training procedures and other potential problems at the park. One of those problems was that the ride attendant working the drop zone that day was fourteen years old. Oh my god, what? Yes. And the other attendant who checked the safety harness was sixteen. No . Like, I'm sorry I'm not putting my years old in fourteen year old . I know obviously like people riding have no idea. How are you supposed to know? You're not gonna be like, Excuse me, how other girls are you? Like holy shit . That is that would send me. I'd be like, and we're not riding that route. So like if I if I safety harness was not found to me malfunctioning, but was it secured properly? We don't know. Is the question ? Oh my god wow. Yeah. Oh, he's twelve years, twelve years old. And his family watched that. Yeah. 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Go to quince. com slash morbid for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty five day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q INCE. com slash morb id for free shipping and three hundred and sixty five day returns, Quince dot com slash morbid In response to her son's death, Joshua's mother, Tammy, said she had no plans to sue the park , nor did she believe that they were solely responsible . She later said, All I can say is treasure every moment with your child because you never know when you might lose him. Joshua's father did not rule out a civil suit. He said I'd like to see this report before I speak about it . But a lawyer on behalf of Terry, the father, said, But I'll say this, if the child were strapped in properly, the accident wouldn't have taken place. It's a matter of gravity. Right. Ultimately, they did choose not to sue Great America. Big people . Now, the relatively limited number of accidents and deaths at parks like Disneyland and Great America is due in large part to like really high safety standards of course . But in the history of amusement parks and theme parks , there's one name that is so notorious for low standards that the risk of injury associated with part with the park actually became part of its allure during its twenty years in operation. I've never heard of this . Tell me , this is insane. What was it called? Oh, I'm gonna tell you. Okay . In nineteen seventy six, New Jersey businessman Eugene Mulville was looking for a way to make money during the off season when his Vernon Township New Jersey ski resort, Vernon Valley, was closed. Inspired by the success of parks like Disney and Full Six Flags, he found a new company called Great American Recreation . And in may nineteen seventy eight, he opened action park in Vernon. I get so many TikToks about action . Yes . Now Mulvahill's son, Andy, Mulvahill,e said before he opened action park he had no experience of any kind running an amusement park. He said, in contrast to Disney's carefully conceived fantasy lands, my father pieced together a series of ambitious and often ill advised attractions on the side of a ski mountain in rural New Jersey that he had come to own virtually by accident That's his sight. That's a hefty statement. Yeah. At first, the park amounted to a little more than a few go kart tracks and miniature racing rides, but he quickly expanded to include water rides, boat rides, and musical shows like those at larger parks, but on like a smaller budget . And almost no time at all, Action Park grew from a few hundred visitors in its first season to millions in the year or two that followed. Andy said we went from selling off brand soda and taking out local newspaper ads to getting a Pepsi sponsorship and seeing our localgo on MDond's tray liners. Wow. The key to action park's notoriety was in Mulville's own theories about American society in the late twentieth century . Andy said, My father seized upon the idea that we were all tired of being coddled , of society dictating our behaviors and lecturing us on our vices . In order to reject that supposed coddling, Eugene embraced risk as part of his brand , which is a nightmare to me. He'd like, what? He wasn't embracing his risk. He was embracing other people's risks. Is that even allowed when you own an amusement park? Well, rather than strap riders into the boat on a w ave pool, visitors would simply have to cling to the raft , lest they be thrown from the boat. Likewise, riders on an alpine slide style ride weren't confined to a track, they could control the speed of their car and its brakes. Wow. Of course, with a guiding principle based on increased risk, rather than safety and family fun, it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt. Yep . Andy said, it was not long before our visitors reworked our advertising to better reflect their experience. That new informal slogan, Action Park, where you're the center of the accident Oh my god . The first serious accident came in nineteen eighty, just two years into the park's operation. In July, nineteen year old George Larson was riding the alpine sled ride at the park when about halfway down the slide, he was thrown from the car he was riding in , rolled down an embankment to landing twenty five feet away and smashing his head on a rock in the ground. Oh my god. When emergency crews arrived a short time later, Larson was unconscious and soon he lapsed into a coma. He died a few days later on july sixteenth. That's an awful thing. George Larson's family and friends contend that the lack safety protocols at the park were entirely responsible for George's death. But Mulvaill He in Action Park spokespeople, saw it a different way. Spokesperson Wesley Smith told reporters This is an action park where people are doing physical things to themselves. Their situation is not totally in our control . But Smith went a step further in denying any responsibility, saying the ride didn't injure Larson. It was a rock twenty five feet away that hurt him. That same thing could have happened to someone falling off a bicycle. How did they get insurance for this ? She smiled . Now, despite Smith's assertion that George Larson knew the risks of the ride and had, in fact, ignored several safety warnings . Others at the park were far less convinced it was operator error. Yeah . In an investigation into the accident by the Office of Workplace and Compliance at the State Department of Labor, investigators spoke to several park employees who had previously voiced concerns about public safety at the park. In on that slide specifically , one of the summer attendants said we knew something would happen. It could have been any of us. Oh my god. According to the report, there was no controls over the cart's speed on the concrete track , and any number of factors including whether the concrete was wet could affect how the car performed , none of which was taken into consideration by the park. The park was cited for seven violations of safety standards, including having no access road for emergency vehicles to arrive. You oughta be fucking kidding me. But ultimately, George's death was ruled in an accident. Wow . Now in the weeks and months that followed Larson's death, reports of injuries began to pile up Andy Mulville remembered Eugene's son, said they careened down towering waterslides that spit them into shower pools at such velocity that sometimes overshot and landed them in the dirt, laughing or bleeding, sometimes both. They often lost their grip on swinging ropes and plunged into the freezing mountain . They emerged from like stinking of spilled diesel fuel from the overworked motor motorboats. This is a nightmare. Repeat visitors stuffed their pockets with band aids and sported scabs and scars along their arms and legs . And yet none of those injuries seem to keep people from attending the park. This feels like an episode of Jackass. Yeah like truly . On the contrary , the rumors of heightened risk seem to beed one of the reasons people were so enthusiastic to come in the first place . Then in the summer of nineteen eighty two, two years after George Larson's death, it happened again. In late July, fifteen year old George Lopez drowned in one of the wave pools. That same week, two men filed civil suits against the park, alleging serious injuries suffered on a water slide two years earlier. Then in August, twenty seven year old Nathan Langenthal collapsed while riding the Whitewater kayak experience . Langenthal was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead when he arrived. In a statement to the press, action park spokesperson Diane Bocham said there are reports of a possible electric shock , but no evidence of electrical malfunction has been found at the ride yet. Hello ? Despite the park's repeated denials that Langenthal's jet death was due to their negligence . The Orange County New Jersey coroner determined that Nathan's cause of death was, quote, heart failure by electrocution . What the fuck? Still, Action Park refused to acknowledge reality, saying they tested all eleven fans that produced the waves and everything was in perfect working order. Something has to be wrong. Yeah. Operations manager Adam Ringler told a reporter, at this point, there's absolutely no malfunct ion. We would say it's not electrocution at this point . But there's nothing wrong with the red. But the coroner literally said that's the cause of death. Argue with the coroner. Like, you're an operations manager . Kooky, kooky amusement park with no safety standards, and you're telling the coroner, you are wrong. It's like in Woodowsbank a doctor that's always just like, Where did you go to medical schools? I love that guy. Are you sure it's not an animal wound? Does it look like it could be an animal wound? No, not to me. I love this. So funny. Watch Windows Bay, everybody. Oh, you gotta, I watched it all in one day. So good. So yeah, in the state's investigation of the ride, however, investigators discovered a short circuit in one of the fans. Action parks had no problems. Yeah, of course not. Although they could not definitively say that was what caused the death, they acknowledged it was likely what caused the elect rocution. I would think. In response to the coroner's report, Eugene Malvale said, there was nothing wrong with the ride and he had no marks on him. He probably had some kind of stroke or something . Again, guys, where did you go to medical school? Literal coroner whose job is to determine cause of death by actually looking inside of his body said the cause of death was heart failure by electrocution. Eugene said, Nah, it's a stroke. Do you understand how different heart failure and a stroke are? Yes. Those are two different parts of the body, babe. They sure are. Now, despite the near constant injuries to park goers, the popularity of Action Park continued to grow . Day after day in the park's wave pool swimmers were pummeled by waves that were stronger than they should have been for an amusement park. Wow. Andy Malvaille said when the waves hit, their force caught our guests unprepared. Powered by the insulation sucking fans , the wave struck with the same violent menace originally meant to create a mini a series of mini shipwrecks . What? Yeah the fuck in fact if there was any attraction more not orious for causing injuries at the park, it was the water slides in the wave pool. In august nineteen eighty four, twenty year old Donald DePas drowned when he was quote overcome by the water after rocketing from a twenty foot high water slide into the pool. Holy shit. In response to the death, our guy Adam Wringler there said told reporters it was quote, a simple drowning , and the lifeguards were adequately trained. . However, several park goers were less convinced, including one man who told a reporter the lifeguards on duty, quote, definitely need a little more help. That's one thing that you don't want your lifeguard to need is help is more help. Yeah. A few years later in the summer of nineteen eighty seven, another death occurred when eighteen ninety for so long. Well, this was when eighteen year old Gregory Grand Champs drowned in the wave pool . As always, the park went on the defensive . Marketing director Vernon Merritt said there was no indication that the wave had anything to do with it. But he drowned? There's actually like a pretty big indication of that. Oh yeah when you're drowning in a wave pool yeah, he also called the bait the death a quote basic drowning yeah although they were not held liable for the death, during their investigation, the prosecutor's office