Theme Park Accidents

[00:00:00] This episode includes the usual amount of adult language and graphic discussions you've

[00:00:08] come to expect around here.

[00:00:10] But in the event, it becomes an unusual amount, expect another call from me.

[00:00:15] Welcome back to Scared All The Time.

[00:00:16] I'm Chris Calary, and I'm Ed Vakola.

[00:00:19] And I don't know where you live, but where we are in LA, the weather is getting nicer.

[00:00:24] It's hitting that sweet spot where I remember why people really like living here.

[00:00:28] The sun's out, the rain is over, the temperatures are moderate.

[00:00:31] It's all around just really lovely.

[00:00:34] So of course it got me thinking about dying on a roller coaster.

[00:00:38] Let me explain.

[00:00:39] This is the time of year that amusement parks start coming back to life.

[00:00:43] The power gets turned back on after a long winter, the rides, rattle and shake along their

[00:00:47] tracks for the first time in months, and it's only a matter of time before the laughter

[00:00:51] of kids and families fill the air.

[00:00:53] What all goes according to plan, millions of people will have the time of their lives

[00:00:57] at these parks.

[00:00:58] But when things go wrong, some people's lives will run out of time.

[00:01:02] Parts break, restraints come loose, supports buckle and all that happy screaming turns

[00:01:06] quickly into screams of fear.

[00:01:08] The speeding, grinding, clanking metal and high powered hydraulics of amusement park

[00:01:12] rides can do a real number on the human body if given the chance.

[00:01:16] Not to mention how often your fate is in the hands of a 15 year old ride operator.

[00:01:20] So please remove your hats and glasses, push down on the lap restraint and do remember

[00:01:24] to keep your arms and legs inside the podcast at all times.

[00:01:27] We'd hate for you to lose anything.

[00:01:47] So some of you might know this, I think I've said this on the podcast before, but I grew

[00:01:51] up in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of Hershey Park.

[00:01:53] So especially as a young kid, it was a pretty cool place to grow up.

[00:01:57] You can see the chocolate factory at the amusement park from the elementary school and we'd

[00:02:01] get free tickets in our report cards at the end of the year.

[00:02:03] Oh wow.

[00:02:04] Yeah, it was one of the only...

[00:02:05] There weren't really many perks to living in Hershey.

[00:02:08] You'd think that there'd be more like free candy and stuff and it was really...

[00:02:13] There's not much but they did treat the kids.

[00:02:15] We got to go tour the chocolate factory once when it was still standing, the original

[00:02:19] factory and we got to do a day, a day of learning in fifth grade at the one room schoolhouse

[00:02:24] where Milton Hershey had gone to school.

[00:02:27] So that was about it.

[00:02:28] Did they ever sponsor Halloween or anything?

[00:02:31] No, I mean, I don't think officially they had a Halloween parade and they would occasionally

[00:02:36] have little...

[00:02:37] I think they called it Hershey Park in the dark or something.

[00:02:40] They did kind of trick-or-treating a little bit at the park loosely but nothing big and

[00:02:46] cool.

[00:02:47] Another question, Mars is pretty close by, right?

[00:02:50] Like Mars Candies is also in Pennsylvania.

[00:02:53] It is.

[00:02:54] Mars Candy is...

[00:02:55] I think it's like an hour and a half from Hershey or something.

[00:02:57] I mean, did they ever do like an army navy game style thing?

[00:03:01] Was there any kind of like palpable in the air?

[00:03:03] Like you get out of here, you M&M pieces shits?

[00:03:05] No, the version of that we had was actually the Hershey High School versus the Milton Hershey

[00:03:12] School.

[00:03:13] The schools were right next to each other but because Milton Hershey School is a...

[00:03:17] a private school, the worlds never really combined or collided very much except for

[00:03:21] the one time of year that we would have the...

[00:03:25] They had some term for it.

[00:03:26] I forget the chocolate bowl maybe they called it but we always got our asses kicked.

[00:03:32] Our high school football team wasn't very good.

[00:03:34] Well, it's because like other teams have you know gain a rate on the sidelines and stuff.

[00:03:39] Hershey Public High School just had like chocolate sauce.

[00:03:43] Chocolate, they said chocolate fountain.

[00:03:44] They had to put their little dixie cups into a chocolate fountain and pretty quickly

[00:03:48] the kids were getting all fucked up.

[00:03:49] Shouldn't be in the sun.

[00:03:50] Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:52] So there's all kinds of Hershey stories I could tell.

[00:03:55] The air in the summertime ed you know it smelled like chocolate.

[00:03:58] So I do know that because of the humidity would take the scent from the roasting cocoa beans

[00:04:02] but I spent a lot of time at the park both as a guest and an employee.

[00:04:06] It was very much a right of passage for kids from Hershey High to get a summer job at

[00:04:10] the park working on rides or selling candy or being a costume character.

[00:04:14] I didn't have any of those jobs.

[00:04:16] I was in a band in high school and in the summer we wanted our free days so that we could

[00:04:21] practice in our basis garage.

[00:04:24] So the whole band got jobs on hose crew which was where you would get up at like 4am and

[00:04:29] then you'd get to the park and you'd use fire hoses to spray down all the different concrete

[00:04:33] paths in the park and get all the trash and leaves into the gutters.

[00:04:37] So we'd be done by noon and then go home and play music all day and then come back the

[00:04:42] next morning.

[00:04:43] It was probably one of the best summers I ever had actually the job was the job was awful

[00:04:48] but it was very fun.

[00:04:50] I know we're coming off a pretty disgusting episode but you have a pretty I think infamously

[00:04:56] disgusting story on hose crew don't you?

[00:04:58] I do yeah so one of the jobs we had in the height of summer was we would have to hose out

[00:05:06] the dumpsters that had all the trash in them and like the giant big park dumpsters because

[00:05:12] they would get filled with shit that just never made it out of the dumpsters so we'd have

[00:05:17] to hose those out.

[00:05:18] And one day we were fucking around and a lot of times there were people would try to

[00:05:23] spray each other with hoses.

[00:05:24] I mean you can imagine what a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds running around with fire

[00:05:28] hoses with no supervision, there was a lot of horse play.

[00:05:33] So we were horse plague and my friend the bassist in our band whose house we practiced

[00:05:38] at he was like pretending to like eat he was like all the company eat the trash like

[00:05:43] blah blah blah.

[00:05:44] And he had his mouth open near the trash and somebody sprayed it and sprayed like a giant

[00:05:50] blast of hot summer trash water into his mouth and he immediately started like wretching

[00:06:01] and then I think he got very sick that summer afterwards like I don't know if it was

[00:06:07] like botulism or something but like he had to go to the doctor because he got very sick

[00:06:12] from I mean there were baby diapers in there and rotting meat and all kinds of horrific

[00:06:20] shit.

[00:06:21] Was the person spraying the hose to actively get him sprayed with garbage water or was

[00:06:25] it like get out of the way I'm doing my job?

[00:06:27] No I don't actually don't think so I think it was just somebody like we were all gathered

[00:06:31] around I think it was actually maybe right after lunch which was at like 10 a.m. or whatever

[00:06:36] and we were all just standing around fucking around and somebody was like trying to work

[00:06:40] okay so yeah it wasn't it wasn't malicious no but man different time today I feel like

[00:06:45] someone would own Hershey Park from that event that'd be like sued that like oh there's

[00:06:50] no one was here supervising these hose boys and they sprayed my son's mouth with botulism

[00:06:57] yeah now you know now he's getting fucking buried behind the park yeah the hose boys ran

[00:07:03] wild again yeah and now I have to order a Hershey casket yeah yeah would you like that

[00:07:11] made out of chocolate almond or rice crispy?

[00:07:14] I don't I'm not a Hershey but I'm not a sweet sky really but you wouldn't guess it from

[00:07:19] looking I mean this is a body that's savory foods made but that said if I have to eat

[00:07:26] a Hershey bar I do like the almond one yeah they had like the gold writing yeah it's

[00:07:32] just a little nicer about it I don't know chocolate with almonds a little fancy feels a

[00:07:35] little it's a little fancy it's a step below a Pharaoh Rocher which is not a Hershey product

[00:07:40] no of course it isn't because of Ferrer Rocher honestly until just a few years ago I thought

[00:07:45] was peak fancy chalk like that only came out at Christmas in my family's home yeah like

[00:07:50] at Christmas time for a Rocher showed up and they were in the faux crystal you know housing yeah

[00:07:57] and I love them to this day I fucking love them I genuinely do I feel like they killed the

[00:08:01] mystique of the Ferrer Rocher they sell them at like gas stations now with us is going to say like

[00:08:06] now that I'm an adult or for many years an adult with my own money I'm like okay I have six

[00:08:12] dollars I'll buy a bunch of Ferrer Rocher like I thought they were yeah like Faber J. Ag you had

[00:08:17] to trade to get one you know yeah no they're just like six boats yeah I thought you had to get

[00:08:22] them out of a treasure chest somewhere and you can just go anywhere and just have one yeah hey

[00:08:28] cheers to growing up I guess so growing up in the Hershey Park environment I heard so many urban

[00:08:34] legends speaking of people who you think would own the park I heard so many urban legends about

[00:08:40] accidents that happened at the park I don't think any of them were true but the the rumor was always

[00:08:46] you know they're I forget exactly how emergency services were set up at the park but they do kind

[00:08:51] of have their own emergency services is it just a huge trap door they can pull a lever and the people

[00:08:58] slide to a neighboring town like it nothing happened here like that's oh that's Shelbyville's

[00:09:03] problem well the the one story I heard was that there's a ride there called title for us it's just

[00:09:08] a big water plunge ride where like you know the big boat goes up it goes around a curve and then comes

[00:09:13] down and splashes into a giant pool it makes a big wave it's like a splash mountain you're saying

[00:09:18] yeah basically what to say that it's not a free standing boat like it's on a track of some kind

[00:09:23] yeah yeah yeah it's it's on a track okay but the story I heard was that one morning just as the park

[00:09:28] was opening or in some versions I think maybe they were testing it but that the boat was like

[00:09:33] unbalanced and when it came screaming down the hill and slammed in the water at the bottom the whole

[00:09:37] boat flipped and everybody got trapped under the boat well and in some versions there were deaths

[00:09:43] in like hush money payouts to families and in other versions the hush money went to the workers

[00:09:47] who like witnessed the tests that went bad at least they're playing out some money for somebody

[00:09:52] that's not yeah I should say I have zero faith that that story is true a big corporation

[00:09:58] shelling out any money voluntarily yes it's probably not true but I mean the accident I know

[00:10:03] this you allegedly these are all alleged incidents it's very alleged we do have this platform

[00:10:09] now so if anyone I know we have at least one listener in Hershey who got in touch during the first

[00:10:14] season when I was recording an episode in Hershey when we were doing the satanic panic episode but

[00:10:19] if anybody else has ever heard stories about Hershey Park please email and let us know we will keep

[00:10:24] it anonymous after this episode you're not welcome back there probably so I wrote a movie sort of

[00:10:29] based on Hershey lore that if it ever happens I definitely will not be allowed back but my only

[00:10:35] brush with death at an amusement park didn't actually happen at Hershey I was with my mom at some

[00:10:41] sort of like I think it was like a summer fair in Massachusetts and they had a ride I don't know

[00:10:45] what they're called but it was like a cart and it was just a big loop it was like the loop in a

[00:10:49] roller coaster but it was just the loop part uh gross and fucking hate that and the car would

[00:10:54] like go through the loop over and over yeah and for whatever reason our car like stopped halfway

[00:11:00] through the loop and so we weren't like at the height of the hanging completely upside down but

[00:11:05] we were high and angled enough that I was freaking out and trying to hold on I remember my mom had

[00:11:11] her arm across me and in my memory we were up there like forever and I'm sure it was probably just

[00:11:16] a few minutes I don't know what went wrong I just remember being like oh this is the scariest thing

[00:11:22] that's ever happened to me and I'm gonna die now but now the what year was this this would have

[00:11:25] been your kid yeah I mean early 90s in the late 90s probably mid-delay late 90s is got hold

[00:11:32] are you well I turn your teens no I was I oh yeah would have been I mean I went to high school

[00:11:39] in 2000 so yeah this would have been like early middle school or late elementary school maybe

[00:11:45] yes all mulley only saying is that this was a time period we all carried a lot more physical currency

[00:11:50] yes so I do like the idea that everyone's upside down and just coins are raining down

[00:11:55] that's another fun hose crew story so there was a coaster with a big loop that went over this

[00:12:01] sort of walkway in the park and they hung a big net so that if anything fell off the coaster

[00:12:08] it wouldn't hit people walking on the pathway and when we would show up in the mornings for hose crew

[00:12:12] a lot of times there was change and like hats or money every once in a while there'd be like a

[00:12:18] fanny pack or something up there and we'd spray it down and then go through like a bunch of

[00:12:24] orphan children on the streets or something and like take take the change and then go buy snacks with

[00:12:29] it street archons who bring the money right back to the company they work for yeah

[00:12:34] yeah you put it into the vending machines and exactly and then the same thing with just handfuls

[00:12:38] of money out of the wishing wells to go buy Hershey products out of the Hershey vending machine in

[00:12:44] Hershey bark yeah it's a really great system if you think about it just like that ride your

[00:12:48] family got stuck on it it's a closed loop yeah they're geniuses but what about you Ed did you

[00:12:53] ever have any near death experiences on an amusement park are you afraid of rides I am afraid

[00:13:00] of rides we've established in her previous episodes that I'm pretty motion sick person so the

[00:13:06] motion sickness alone keeps me off of a lot of them including at like a dirty circus not like a

[00:13:13] fun good amusement park right but like a crap comes to your town across from the fire station carnival

[00:13:20] yeah I do remember throwing up on a lot of people in one of those you know it's like back to back seats

[00:13:27] so you're always seeing people in front of you and you have people behind you I remember I just

[00:13:31] came to the end of that and I just threw up all over the people directly in front of me it was

[00:13:35] the most embarrassing thing and I ran away then I went home like I walked as far as I could like a

[00:13:41] pay phone yeah and like called someone I needed to be picked up because of embarrassment yeah now

[00:13:46] that said we've spoken on the show about my family's one vacation to Disney World I got like

[00:13:51] pretty injured there in the park oh really yeah I yeah on the on a ride called the typhoon lagoon okay

[00:13:57] which was basically a giant wave pool that generates I mean fucking big like it's like you'd be

[00:14:04] like on a beach basically yeah yeah and then like a wall of water a replicated typhoon if you will

[00:14:11] yes would come and crash you know you can go out there and ride it you know or yeah kind of

[00:14:16] I'm crashing down on the beach but I was little I'm six or something and I'm like waiting out

[00:14:22] into the water like walking out like just where my legs are and the ground was it's so weird

[00:14:29] because it's like the ground was you know that like sidewalk cement where it's it's not smooth

[00:14:35] it's all like you could skin your knee on that shit it's all like crackly yeah yeah crummy it's a

[00:14:39] fresh sidewalk but it's still like crackly and crummy it's basically that material until you're

[00:14:45] maybe a foot into the water and then it becomes this smooth matte fire member correctly like smooth

[00:14:51] matte ground well I'm only like three feet tall so for me to get a foot in the water I'm already

[00:14:57] like half in the water and I have no bearings the wave comes I immediately and swept away and

[00:15:06] instead of hitting the smooth matte that's like in the three four feet of water right I just get

[00:15:10] dragged across the like crumbly crummy sidewalk concrete and it was just blood in the water my legs

[00:15:20] are all ruined and I remember my mom or death somebody was like oh you got to go to first aid

[00:15:26] and told my brother to take me to first aid and then he left me there one of my brothers left me

[00:15:33] or whoever took me to first aid left me there and then I was really scared because I left and I was

[00:15:39] lost and then I saw another brother like in a lazy river and I was like oh and I didn't know how

[00:15:44] to like get him out right anyway I got all fucked up and then they had to like do an announcement

[00:15:49] over the speaker that like I was a lost kid it was a pretty nightmarish day but that's my closest

[00:15:55] I've come to you know when you're six feels like I might die that day you know like yeah I lost

[00:16:00] my family and I'm bleeding right right that's like second base for heading towards death and like none

[00:16:06] of the characters want to hug you when you're fuck no one to get blood don't want to get blood on

[00:16:10] goofy's legs you know like goarshad you're bleeding to death yeah so I'm like kind of a pariah I'm

[00:16:18] a little kid that no one wants to approach so all right well look I'm glad you survived so

[00:16:23] that you can be here to entertain our listeners oh I have one more oh almost died at a story I

[00:16:29] realizing okay this one's extra quick so that was Disney World in Florida now this story is

[00:16:34] Disneyland in California okay I've been there a bunch times I love Disneyland I'll do Tower of Terror

[00:16:39] but then that's it for the day like now I'm gonna feel a little fucking shitty all day so it's

[00:16:44] like I can't do two big rides just like one big ride and then kind of hey because you get nauseous

[00:16:50] because I get so nauseous okay and the only thing that can help me is soft serve ice cream and

[00:16:54] they only have that on one side of the park so it's a whole thing and you're not a sweet

[00:16:56] sky so yeah it's just soft serve is just comforting and so I was talked into one time by some jerk

[00:17:05] they were like you got to go on space mountain and I'm like I know me I know my body whatever is in

[00:17:12] there I know I know it's a dark roller coaster is a roller coaster literally in the dark space

[00:17:16] mountain like you don't see anything so it's like well you're not gonna see anything so it's

[00:17:20] like to be scared of and you know if you can't see the turns coming I don't fucking know whatever

[00:17:25] their reasoning was yeah probably some girl there that I was like oh go girls watching that set

[00:17:31] it is a pretty rare occurrence the day we went the ride was broken and they were running it with

[00:17:38] all the lights on so like we should put this in the show notes fucking space mountain with the lights

[00:17:44] on it is the most rickety looking there is a thing I think what they say do not put your hands up

[00:17:50] in this ride yeah and when you see it with lights on I swear the other parts of the ride are like

[00:17:57] a foot above your head right like it's so crazy it's the most terrifying thing with the lights on

[00:18:04] so I didn't die but I definitely was like this socks I'm sick I genuinely am scared of this room

[00:18:11] it seems like a running man set yeah I don't space mountain never made any sense to me it doesn't

[00:18:17] make sense in the dark and it doesn't make sense with the lights on I don't understand like I've

[00:18:21] ridden it before and I just don't it's like okay it's a roller coaster in the dark I can't enjoy

[00:18:26] like I feel like I'm locked in like a parcheese can as like a dice roll yeah and it's not like

[00:18:31] you're getting hit with the cool air of a summer night like you're in a building yeah you're

[00:18:36] just getting hit by like I don't know weird exhaust and manufactured air conditioning yeah

[00:18:42] and I guess it's the trapped breaths of screams yeah yeah but yeah that's kind of my history with

[00:18:51] what I consider to be near deaths are just very unpleasant you know roller coaster and theme park

[00:18:57] rides that's most people's closest brush they'll ever have with death in amusement park because only

[00:19:03] four to five people a year die in amusement park accidents now that doesn't include people having

[00:19:09] heart attacks on rides and that sort of stuff but it's just purely accident so you're very unlikely

[00:19:15] to die in a park accident 46,000 people a year die driving on the road so four to five people

[00:19:22] is a pretty insignificant number unless you're one of those four to five people in which case it's

[00:19:26] pretty all right be god bless yeah all right be god bless uh just so no one's disappointed we won't

[00:19:32] there's two parks you may be expecting to hear about we're not talking about Disney on this episode

[00:19:37] partially because I think they actually deserve their own episode because there's a lot of death at

[00:19:42] Disney parks okay it's good title death at Disney we also might need to save that one for when

[00:19:48] we have more lawyers I don't know and we also won't be talking about action park new jersey which has

[00:19:55] a whole we've all seen the documentary yeah yeah there's a whole documentary about it they call

[00:19:59] the class action park there's some crazy stories if we do a follow up rides episode I'm sure

[00:20:05] we'll touch on it then but I just felt like those two were two too big don't worry though there are

[00:20:11] plenty of other places and plenty of other rides that have been proven to be deadly throughout

[00:20:16] the history of amusement parks so if you were already afraid to get on rides just wait until

[00:20:21] we get to the end of this episode you'll never go on a ride again just kidding hopefully you will I

[00:20:27] don't want to ruin amusement parks for anybody but the history of amusement park disasters is actually

[00:20:33] fairly short because amusement parks haven't really been around that long there aren't roller coaster

[00:20:38] deaths recorded in like the 1400s or anything people were still busy dying from easily curable

[00:20:44] diseases and old age at like 35 back then they did have amusement parks sort of as far back as

[00:20:51] the 1500s this is when the world's oldest amusement park back in or the hill opened north of

[00:20:58] Copenhagen in Denmark when it opened though it wasn't called an amusement park it was called a

[00:21:03] pleasure garden it was a place for the upper class to stroll about and maybe get blow jobs behind

[00:21:09] a bush or something sure I don't know if they explicitly excluded the lower class but I don't

[00:21:14] think they really thought of the lower classes human back then so by definition it was just going

[00:21:20] to be for rich people sure make sense I also jotted a joke down here that even if they did allow

[00:21:27] lower class people only the elite had the time and money to visit the pleasure garden everyone

[00:21:32] else was relegated to the pain garden called life oh wow so another early garden was the

[00:21:38] Vohal gardens founded in London in 1661 by the late 1700s the site started charging admission

[00:21:44] and drew pretty enormous crowds to come see their sites wait hold on so before this are

[00:21:49] charging emissions it was just like rich people know someone with a very fun place to hang out I

[00:21:55] guess yeah I don't know exactly what the thought process behind charging emission was other than maybe

[00:22:00] more people started coming in so they felt they could charge money and and make some money no I

[00:22:04] hundred percent I understood that that's how it always works but I just meant like it's weird

[00:22:08] that amusement parks started as have you been to Greg's it's wild over there like donkeys and he's

[00:22:14] got like this weird hay ride thing and it was like what do you mean like at his house it was like

[00:22:18] yeah he's got it's pretty sprawling property and the way he uses it he doesn't farm he just puts wacky

[00:22:24] shit on it yeah and we all got to go over there this weekend this summer is going to be fucking lit

[00:22:29] at Greg's yeah and then at a certain point it was I don't know if the donkeys become expensive

[00:22:33] or whatever and it's like well these kids peeping over the wall the time official though

[00:22:38] couple shillings to ride this donkey and I guess that's the birth of a muslim but it has to start

[00:22:44] with some lunatic who's made a neverland ranch kind of well there was there were a couple different

[00:22:49] things that sort of blended so the idea of people going out and spending time somewhere on the

[00:22:54] weekend or something started with these pleasure gardens it's now there weren't any rides here just

[00:22:58] like there weren't any rides at Bachin but I do think it's interesting that foe hall was sort of

[00:23:04] split into areas like a modern park with paths noted for what you would see if you walked along

[00:23:10] them so some paths featured tight rope walkers others had hot air ballooness sense concerts and fireworks

[00:23:17] I don't know those things in the sky sound like you could kind of see them from anywhere but I

[00:23:20] guess the idea was you it was sort of sectioned off so if you wanted to see one thing or the other

[00:23:24] you'd go walk it a different direction sure and then the idea of amusement parks as a fixed location

[00:23:31] featuring rides didn't really get started until the first world's fair in London in 1851

[00:23:37] and later the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 Chicago's fair was the site of the world's first midway

[00:23:43] where guests could play games by food and generally spend money to make sure that the fair was

[00:23:48] profitable it's actually the whole reason they put the midway in was they were like well we want to

[00:23:53] make sure that we make money so let's make sure we have a place where people will spend money sure

[00:23:58] and around this time Sabin Rock in West Haven Connecticut which is the community my family currently

[00:24:05] lives in used to have its own ferry that would take you just to this place which like was an

[00:24:11] amusement park the town was an amusement park and it I think was the 1870s when that popped off so

[00:24:18] yeah this would have been right at that time of it sounds like people from the world's fair

[00:24:23] into the early 1900s were like you know what it seems like people want to have fun let's give the

[00:24:28] people something to do well yeah the 1870s was a big period of growth for like people started to

[00:24:33] turn popular picnic areas like it kind of sounds like maybe that's what happened at seven rock was

[00:24:38] like it was a place for people to hang out and then they started putting rides in but there weren't

[00:24:44] roller coasters when these gardens were getting started roller coasters were evolving and they're

[00:24:50] so common now that it's almost funny to think there was a time when even the idea of a roller coaster

[00:24:55] would have sounded completely insane yeah and not fun at all you know like up until pretty recently

[00:25:02] being like we're gonna put you on a car and shoot you down a hill and you're gonna feel like

[00:25:05] you're gonna die but you're not gonna die people would have been like excuse me so the origins of a

[00:25:11] roller coaster can be traced to the gardens of Russia's elite around St. Petersburg where they

[00:25:16] would build mountains of ice that they called Russian mountains and they were built for the

[00:25:21] purpose of sledding down and Ed you'll really appreciate this well you know how much I love to

[00:25:26] bargaining of course I'm sure I will I love to divide a lot of languages still reference

[00:25:30] Russian mountains when referring to roller coasters so in Spanish roller coasters are La Montanya

[00:25:36] rusa in Italian they're montane rusa and in French they're La Montane rousse I don't know if I

[00:25:43] use the right accents but so you didn't do you want to guess what the Russian term for roller coaster

[00:25:48] is just mountains no the Russian term for roller coaster is americansca gorge which

[00:25:55] translates literally to american mountains so what why score one for the good guys baby we won

[00:26:02] the cold war maybe that was one of the terms of they got a rename their roller coasters no they

[00:26:08] were doing it it's way longer than rocky for I don't know why they would be naming it because of

[00:26:12] the cold well they were I think like they called these ice hills Russian mountains so I wonder if

[00:26:18] like when the roller coasters got popular all over the world if they were like well we have Russian

[00:26:23] mountains already so these are american mountains sure oh so they're literally they're calling

[00:26:27] the roller coasters american mountains yes it's not a mountain at all it's wood and steel that's more

[00:26:33] of an american thing that's more of an american yeah so it's thought that Russian soldiers occupying

[00:26:39] Paris after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo may have introduced the French to the past time

[00:26:44] of sliding down their Russian mountain hills because by the mid-1800s the French started trying

[00:26:51] to emulate Russian mountains by attaching carts to rails and sending people down hills on them

[00:26:56] huh it was like a bench on a rail and you would sit sideways like like if you're imagine you're

[00:27:02] sitting on a bench and all of a sudden the bench just tilts and goes down a hill that was the

[00:27:06] original like French roller coaster and so you're like falling to the left or right yeah yeah you're

[00:27:11] not looking straight ahead got it and then dude Pennsylvania gets in on the action in the 1850s a

[00:27:17] mining company in summit hill Pennsylvania built what was called the mouch chunk gravity railroad

[00:27:24] which was an 8.7 mile downhill track used to deliver a call to mouch chunk Pennsylvania now known

[00:27:31] as gym thork Pennsylvania thank god they changed that because that's a it's just the ugliest two words

[00:27:38] and I don't know what that's a name or a place mouch yeah mouch chunk gym thork Pennsylvania is also

[00:27:45] hilariously kind of weird name for a place but much better than mouch chunk yeah I think gym

[00:27:51] thork was probably the first guy that was like we can't keep this is right and they're like yeah

[00:27:56] what shall we call it what's your name gym thork it's like get in good enough by 1872 this gravity

[00:28:03] road as it became known with selling rides to thrill seekers which is the most Pennsylvania thing ever

[00:28:10] it went from the worst name to kind of the most awesome name gravity road rules well gravity

[00:28:15] road is the name for the ride yeah so I'm saying that's an awesome name for like a gravity-based

[00:28:21] fun adventure like going downhill yeah that's just a really fun clever name yeah so people would go

[00:28:26] and I guess it's I don't know who was the first person to be like you know what if we instead

[00:28:31] have put in coal in these carts what if we just charged people money and put people in the cars but

[00:28:38] it was huge it became very very popular to the point that it's one of the things that got other

[00:28:43] entrepreneurs thinking about building roller coasters elsewhere in the country because these

[00:28:49] people were making so much money so throughout the beginning of the 20th century like you were saying

[00:28:54] 1870s 1880s up through the 1900s roller coasters and amusement parks became really big business

[00:29:01] one particularly insane roller coaster from this period is the cannon coaster or leap the gap

[00:29:09] that opened on Coney Island for just a few years from 1902 to 1907 this was a wooded roller coaster

[00:29:16] that was designed to mimic being shot out of a giant cannon so you go up you go up the first hill

[00:29:23] and then you'd pass through like the bore of a cannon shaped tunnel before getting shot out from

[00:29:29] the muzzle of the cannon which was kind of cool and crazy enough but the real attraction here

[00:29:35] was that the ride was originally designed to have a segment of track missing that the cars were

[00:29:41] designed to leap over and land back on the track on the other side it wasn't simulated there was

[00:29:48] no trickery involved it was literally just the physics of trying to get this cart to jump and jump

[00:29:54] and jump and as you might imagine testing of this feature didn't lead the creators of the ride

[00:30:00] to have much faith that anyone would ever survive the leap these guys actually they built the gap

[00:30:06] and they did test it with sandbags which resulted in in quote occasional successes but way too

[00:30:14] many crashes to convince anyone it was safe to put people on and they would soon remove the gap

[00:30:20] they were like listen I think the problem here is is that the sandbags are replicating yes

[00:30:25] like I bet you with a real person this ship would work on paper this works with people

[00:30:29] you got to get out there Jim yeah Jim Thorpe he got to get out there yeah and then he died a horrible

[00:30:34] death and they were like what should we do in his honor let's name that other thing after him

[00:30:39] but this testing period actually made the ride very popular for a few years because

[00:30:45] you know in the early 1900s it spawned a lot of myths and lore about how many people died during

[00:30:51] testing so even though the actual ride was pretty boring it became popular with young kids who were

[00:30:58] like thrill seekers the marketing leaned into that idea with the wordy and memorable tagline

[00:31:07] will she throw her arms around your neck and yell well I guess yes wait wait so they're talking

[00:31:14] about like your date yes like listen you can't bring the Riz just put her on this fucking night

[00:31:20] American trap shit and like nine out of 10 ladies will you know at a moment of fearing for their

[00:31:25] lives clutch onto you yeah exactly and if you survive together you now have something to talk

[00:31:31] about and then like now the date can really kick off where it's like hey remember a minute ago

[00:31:34] when we almost died should we have kids yeah to be fair though how stinky were people in the early

[00:31:41] 1900s it koney island i mean probably as stinky as modern day comic conventions I go do

[00:31:49] I mean I feel like it probably took a lot to get someone to get close to you in 1907 on koney

[00:31:54] island well you don't want to get too close to anyone they might be dead by 30 so you keep a little

[00:32:00] distance no one sticking around long wait what year was it the ride is open from 1902 to 1907

[00:32:07] that's not a tremendous amount of time no without the leap it was a boring roller coaster and I

[00:32:12] guess maybe not enough girls were throwing their arms around anyone's neck and yelling so I do wonder

[00:32:19] so people are showing up because they heard this is supposed to be the craziest ride yeah so many

[00:32:24] sandbags lost their lives and testing yeah like we got to do it and then they get there and then

[00:32:30] it's just hey two tickets for leap of death whatever it's called and they're like great great great

[00:32:35] absolutely here's your two tickets do us a favor just imagine there's a leap yeah pretty much

[00:32:42] I don't know if they pretended that there was still a leap or at what point they stopped calling it

[00:32:46] the leap the gap it was definitely called the cannon coaster for a while because there's photos of

[00:32:51] it with that name but this wasn't the only roller coaster at koney island that was uh

[00:32:57] causing a scene in the early 1900s okay in 1910 koney island was the site of one of the first ever

[00:33:04] recorded roller coaster accidents a ride called the rough rider had been erected

[00:33:10] in tribute to the calvary that Teddy Roosevelt led into battle during the Spanish American war

[00:33:16] it was a train car ride which means the cars were essentially like the same kind of technology as

[00:33:22] a train so he weren't quite at the point where there were like individual roller coaster type

[00:33:26] ride technology it was still basically just a train a breakman had to ride on each cart

[00:33:32] and these cars on this ride were each operated by a guy dressed in full military regalia who had

[00:33:39] full control over the speed of the car and in 1910 one of these rough riders motorman took his

[00:33:45] train around one bend too fast and it threw two cars loose and tossed 16 passengers out over

[00:33:52] surf avenue four of them to their death oh my god you know there's a guy on the ground who who who

[00:33:58] the driver ten minutes earlier was like mark fucking watch this check this out dude you want to see

[00:34:03] up and then ten minutes later everyone's watching it was like holy shit mark well apparently this

[00:34:10] was just the cost of doing business because nothing happened to the motor man or the park and the ride

[00:34:16] continued to operate until 1915 when the same thing happened again oh wow and this time the accident

[00:34:22] was even worse six passengers boarded the ride and the driver will assume a different guy although

[00:34:29] maybe there was just this one lunatic who was like yeah gotta go fast it's guy who's habitually

[00:34:35] line step is always seeing where the fucking line is yeah the driver sped down in client into a

[00:34:41] curve the car tipped onto its side the operator and four of the six riders flew out of the vehicle

[00:34:47] crashing into the cheap iron railing and closed the track oh no and they hit it so hard that

[00:34:52] the fence broke and three of those victims fell 30 feet to their deaths onto the concrete below

[00:34:58] and the conductors body hitting onlooker and sent the onlooker to the hospital as well oh my god

[00:35:05] just a standing around person yeah well probably because god wants you at that point it's probably

[00:35:10] the same person who the ride operator was like hey mark check this out you know and then slam just

[00:35:16] eating early 1900s popcorn getting hit by a broken ride that's that's no way to go yeah but the

[00:35:23] really dramatic part of this was that two of the riders who were tossed from the coaster the two

[00:35:28] that survived were Clara moles and her four year old son Edward and when the car flipped somehow

[00:35:35] Clara grabbed the handrail with one hand and held her son with the other arm and so she was

[00:35:42] doing a full on like action movie dangling from the roller coaster until two detectives who

[00:35:49] witnessed the event climbed up the coaster's framework and pulled them to safety or those the two

[00:35:54] when you mentioned two weren't flung from it yeah well yeah they weren't flung to their desk they

[00:36:00] were flung from their seats but then they held on you know I think in early automobile racing

[00:36:05] the same type of people who are like who would drive this too fast do you know what I mean like

[00:36:09] race car drivers yeah I think the original thinking behind accidents was don't put a seat belt in

[00:36:16] here like realistically you might have a better chance if you're flung from the car then if you

[00:36:22] just die in a fiery crash and spoiler alert they died both ways every time but it is interesting

[00:36:29] that like yeah so by the metrics of early automobile racing those people should have been flung

[00:36:35] but by virtue of staying in the way that we do now and seat belts actually helped yeah she hung on

[00:36:39] she saved her son and these detectives of course it was two detectives I feel like in the 1900s

[00:36:45] just like two gum shoes happened to be hanging around and hey look at the name hanging off the ride

[00:36:51] yeah you think they were already there just as like a music parkgoers who think they were called in

[00:36:55] she had to hold herself for their daughter the entire time that they were phoned like as they heard

[00:37:00] like a ooga crazy old siren coming for so long no it says the research I had said that they

[00:37:07] witnessed the event so they were just two gay detectives holding hands you confirmed bachelor's

[00:37:14] you can for the who are stolen through Coney Island being like if anyone asks we got this call

[00:37:20] yeah we definitely weren't just here please don't put in the anals of history that we were just

[00:37:25] here yeah so in the aftermath Thomas Ward the rides manager was arrested following the incident

[00:37:33] and was charged with homicide a jury ultimately exonerated him after deciding the accident was

[00:37:40] unavoidable quote unavoidable yeah the guy who could absolutely control the speed said it was

[00:37:46] unavoidable yeah but weirdly it seems like they charge the ride manager with homicide well I guess

[00:37:53] the a ride operator in this case was dead so there was no one he was the manager was the only one

[00:37:58] they could charge somebody had to be charged but he was exonerated and the roller coaster ceased operations

[00:38:04] for good in 1916 and as we will see juries finding people not guilty of murder these situations

[00:38:12] is a fairly common occurrence so shit

[00:38:15] so we're not going to cover every roller coaster disaster because for those of you who are

[00:38:26] afraid of this kind of thing I will tell you there are way too many roller coaster accidents to

[00:38:31] cover in this episode and there are lots of other ways to die at an amusement park and we got to

[00:38:36] get to some of those sure so we're not gonna cover all roller coaster disasters but roller coasters

[00:38:43] are the biggest and most common fear I think amongst amusement park goers and they're designed to

[00:38:48] make you feel like you're cheating death so it is kind of extra scary when death gains the upper hand

[00:38:54] although I will say this before we move into the very specific stories I

[00:38:58] when I rode roller coasters which is not often but you know like I said I'll get talked into it

[00:39:02] sometimes but I prefer a rickety wooden roller coaster because they can't get that fast

[00:39:09] to a crazy six flags 100 mile an hour like that to me is so much scarier than something that

[00:39:17] objectively from the ground looks like it might fall down like no look at that wooden roller coaster

[00:39:22] yeah that's been there for 50 years I'll take that every day of the week because it kind of can't

[00:39:27] get too crazy well people have been pushing rickety roller coaster technology forward there's a lot

[00:39:34] of crazier wooden coasters now but yes the actual old wooden coasters only got so crazy like I

[00:39:40] used to go on this one in Maine at fun town splash town USA with hell yeah the 100 percent sound

[00:39:47] so stupid and made up the jingle rights itself yeah fun town splash town USA I mean I'm

[00:39:53] pretty sure you're gonna get sued for that one no I've pretty sure the Beach Boy estate is coming

[00:39:59] as a song I invented just now I don't using some sort of Beach Boy tune that said never heard

[00:40:04] of the Beach Boys before I don't know what I would that's that's correct they like the hose boys

[00:40:09] they're like the hose boys in the sense that given an opportunity they will get you sick allegedly

[00:40:15] that said fun town splash town USA had a wooden roller coaster that I had no problem with but it was

[00:40:22] opened in like the 90s it was weird and I think it's the only they're like claimed to fame is that

[00:40:26] it's the only wooden roller coaster in Maine which is weird that's like being I don't know I'm

[00:40:33] the only guy in the company who owns a Model T and drives it every day other people are like okay

[00:40:38] cool for you it is a weird claim to fame but I prefer it there are roller coaster enthusiasts who

[00:40:43] love wooden roller coasters who's a park in Pennsylvania called cannobles that has a collection of

[00:40:49] old wooden roller coasters I think I only went once growing up maybe and they were opening some new

[00:40:56] wooden coaster and there were like all these people from all over the world there for the opening

[00:41:01] of this wooden roller coaster it was like a big deal so I guess yeah I guess that's a throwback

[00:41:05] thing right people miss a time of a simpler roller coaster yeah and if you want it you got to go

[00:41:11] to a place that's name sounds like it was poorly translated into English fun town splash town USA

[00:41:17] fun town splash town US and we're gonna go we're gonna get sued we can't keep doing that it's a song

[00:41:22] by the hose boys and I just know now the hose boys are the band this is getting so crazy the the

[00:41:28] fucking oh we're gonna have to release a comic at the end of the year of all these characters we come

[00:41:32] up with I know well it probably won't surprise you to know that the deadliest roller coaster in history

[00:41:36] did happen on a wooden roller coaster sure it happened at London's Battersea Park on May 13th 1972

[00:41:44] now the Battersea Park fun fair is arguably the world's first theme park predating Disney by a couple of

[00:41:51] years although I also read there was a I think like a Dutch park that also some people consider to be

[00:41:58] the first theme park is it's the one that Walt Disney was like oh we should do this oh I want to

[00:42:02] copy that yeah my favorite Walt Disney's gonna copy thing the elevator in club 33 is an elevator he

[00:42:09] rode in Paris or somewhere in France and he was like this elevator slaps and so he offered to buy

[00:42:14] it interesting I would like to buy this elevator and they were like sir we don't sell elevators from

[00:42:20] this old ass 1800s you know whatever and he's like okay understood you got it and so he flew a

[00:42:28] bunch of Imagineers out there and had them stay at the hotel and they secretly took like every

[00:42:32] measurement of the thing in faithfully reproduced it at club 33 I mean that might be bullshit

[00:42:39] I heard that once it's pretty exciting I believe now that we're back into it isn't Battersea Park

[00:42:44] I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly but isn't Battersea Park also where the power station

[00:42:48] from the Pink Floyd album is animals I don't know like the cover of the Pink Floyd album animals

[00:42:53] and for sure is the Battersea Park power station interesting yeah so that had a history that part

[00:42:58] it sound has history uh so the biggest attraction at the Battersea Funfare was a roller coaster called

[00:43:06] the Big Dipper that had been operating since 1951 and on this particular day UK schools had just

[00:43:13] ended their terms so the Big Dipper was crammed with children and teenagers and everything seemed

[00:43:19] normal as the coaster's train was pulled up the initial hill but this time just as the cars

[00:43:26] full of kids reached the top of the hill the hauling cable snapped the train rolled backwards

[00:43:32] down the tracks and its emergency braking system failed oh shit which means the cars picked up speed

[00:43:39] and went whipping around a curve at the bottom where they derailed and piled on top of one another

[00:43:44] or as one child witness put it most of the people on the back all got crushed up because it came

[00:43:50] down backwards oh my god that's also because it came down correct don't add more than you know kid

[00:43:56] yeah people in the front would have been crushed up but um shit I'm glad that they got the little

[00:44:02] rascals uh yeah yeah yeah to give an interview so this was the worst roller coaster accident in history

[00:44:07] and I will say only five children died and thirteen people were injured so you know when you think

[00:44:13] roller coaster accident at least in my mind I imagine almost like airplane levels of

[00:44:19] Gore and disaster but I mean look five children terrible for them to die was it all children on

[00:44:25] the ride with their no adults it seems like yes in this case it was all children okay okay I thought

[00:44:31] maybe it was either at that time kids were only allowed in the back of roller coasters or at that

[00:44:37] time if you were a full grown adult you probably wouldn't have died but the small frail body of a

[00:44:42] child can't handle it yeah no I think the speed with which this thing went backwards probably would

[00:44:47] have been enough to crush about anybody do they do like post mortems where like with playing

[00:44:53] crashes where it's like okay who do we talk to about why this break didn't turn on yes well so in

[00:44:58] this case the ensuing investigation concluded that almost everything was wrong with this roller coaster

[00:45:06] they found a total of 66 defects including missing breaks a poorly maintained hall rope

[00:45:13] rotted wood a missile interact 50 year old parts and something that I couldn't find elaborated on

[00:45:21] a drunken or drugged ride operators oh my god this is a comedy of errors yeah everything this is

[00:45:28] correct they've built it's like so you built a roller coaster for humans to use yeah it sounds like

[00:45:34] out of like waterlogged wood from abandoned peers yeah and the cart might as well just be

[00:45:40] repurposed radio flyer wagons like yeah bro this is not and then hired British alcoholics to operate

[00:45:48] yeah you got a bunch of yeah dude wrapped in a union jack screaming throwing a bottle of rum

[00:45:54] yeah being like this rope doesn't seem strong anyway let's go well they're right from the pub

[00:45:59] and probably ready to spontaneously combust so yeah everything went wrong with this ride and the

[00:46:07] rides engineer and manager were brought up on criminal charges but just like Thomas Ward they

[00:46:13] were ultimately acquitted of any wrongdoing do you think it was a muslim parks were they'll hire

[00:46:18] anybody and they're bringing in a ton of money yeah probably I don't know how taxes worked I mean

[00:46:23] this is England so famously not great I guess you're just paying the fucking monark or whatever

[00:46:30] but I imagine if you're a big enough player in town you can kind of buy off the judges in this

[00:46:34] situation where you know I mean it's like I'm making enough well raffle tickets here we'll

[00:46:39] we'll get into some of that actually near the end of the episode okay okay they found some

[00:46:43] interesting facts on some of that stuff but I will say there is a roller coaster I went on once

[00:46:49] in magic mountain here in california that does go backwards and I didn't know that when I got on

[00:46:56] the ride nope it was the end of the day I was really tired I was like I'll hit one more roller coaster

[00:47:01] so imagine my shock I get on this roller coaster and you we get on everyone's facing forward

[00:47:08] and you know you feel the jolt of the ride starting up and instead of moving forwards I start getting

[00:47:14] pulled backwards and it took me a good like 10 seconds to realize what was at first I was like oh

[00:47:20] there you know you backing up and then you get put in a position or whatever and nope you just keep

[00:47:25] going backwards and then you get to the top of the hill and they drop you backwards and the

[00:47:31] whole roller coaster goes backwards I can only imagine how scary that would be if you think you're

[00:47:36] going forwards and then you get to the top of the hill and they drop you backwards which is Louise

[00:47:41] does any ride engineers out there that actually might be a really fun ride idea just don't call it

[00:47:46] the big dipper that would be in poor taste and also don't crash it into all the ones behind it yeah

[00:47:51] I magic mountains are six flags right yeah yeah yeah the one that's like an hour and a half north

[00:47:56] yes I drive by it free regularly I guess I'm driving all over the place all time but why are you

[00:48:01] you know me you would delivery man I wish I wish I had delivery man's uh financial stability

[00:48:07] right now stability but that said I know you know me I'm always like going to

[00:48:11] fucking flea markets or driving to other places and just trying to find comic books places and stuff

[00:48:16] sure sure but that said zero desire to go to magic mountain or any of these six flags every time

[00:48:21] I go to six flag I feel like there's nothing for me to do their whole thing is like crazy rollercoasters

[00:48:25] crazy rides they can't compete with the theming of like a Disneyland so they're just like

[00:48:30] fuck it we're gonna be the energy drink of theme parks right and then a magic mountain it's like

[00:48:34] let's let's add to that just sitting in the baking sun yeah so I have no interest in that yeah

[00:48:40] I didn't have it the greatest day there it was fine but yeah it was really frightening the other

[00:48:45] reason though that you definitely if you create this roller coaster you should not call it the

[00:48:49] big dipper a because it's in poor taste and b because 40 years prior to the batter sea park big

[00:48:58] dipper accident the worst roller coaster accident in US history happened at Krug Park in Omaha

[00:49:05] Nebraska also on a roller coaster called the big dipper what yeah I don't think I looked around

[00:49:12] to see like if they were the same design or something and I couldn't find any indication that

[00:49:17] they were so I think it's just a strange coincidence I think it's just two English speaking countries

[00:49:22] making amusement parks who looked at you know it goes up it comes down it's big you dip I think

[00:49:30] it was as simple as that it was everybody's like second choice yeah hey hey so now this one though

[00:49:35] a it did not fall backwards it fell forwards the accident occurred near the top of the first hill

[00:49:41] so just like airplanes take off and landings are I think the deadliest part of the roller coaster sure

[00:49:47] the accident was the result of a faulty bolt that was supposed to hold one of the brake shoes in

[00:49:54] place so I believe what happened is if you're imagining the first hill of a roller coaster it went

[00:50:00] up just fine and then when it tipped over and started to go down the bolt came loose the brake

[00:50:06] shoe which would normally be resting along one of the tracks slipped and got caught beneath the

[00:50:13] rear wheel of one of the cars which caused the car to come off the track and smash through the

[00:50:20] guardrail yeah wow so then as that car plummeted to the ground it pulled three other cars down with

[00:50:26] it leaving passengers crushed underneath the wreckage that's awful that's so it sucks yeah this

[00:50:33] this comes close to the worst ever so the London Big Dipper had five dead in 13 injured

[00:50:40] this had four people dead in 17 injured so fewer dead more injured I feel like they're almost

[00:50:47] I mean in terms of body count yes technically Big Dipper London style wins but I think this one's

[00:50:55] also pretty awful we've got to like put a we gotta stop naming stuff Big Dipper it's cursed now

[00:51:00] that's what I said yeah and I will say the headline in the paper after this accident is an all-time

[00:51:07] er and it is exactly how I'd like to be remembered if I die this way over a picture of the four dead

[00:51:14] from the coaster a big headline reads they rollercoast to death and injury oh what so yeah that's

[00:51:22] the barely even fucking makes sense yeah I guess it should have been they rollercoasted to death

[00:51:28] and injury but I don't think it should have been any of those it's wildly port taste and it's barely

[00:51:33] upon yeah well newspapers back then were wild man you could say whatever you wanted

[00:51:38] fucked yeah it was it could have been worse honestly based on like some of those headlines you know

[00:51:42] yeah James dead dreams dashed kids crushed yeah Big Dipper outlives riders yeah yeah

[00:51:51] so we're off to the races here with two deadly roller coaster accidents but of course there are

[00:51:57] a lot more ways to die at the amusement park that don't involve roller coasters I don't want to

[00:52:02] leave everything else out in fact the most deadly theme park accident in history actually took place

[00:52:10] inside the haunted castle at New Jersey's great adventure amusement park on May 11th 1984 I hope

[00:52:18] the newspaper headline for that after is haunted castle may now actually be haunted well haunted

[00:52:25] castle did not exist after this accident was over because unlike what you might see in a horror movie

[00:52:31] the disaster had nothing to do with a maniac getting loose inside a haunted attraction and killing

[00:52:36] people one by one believe it or not it was way worse than that so is it type of haunted ride where

[00:52:42] you're in little carts going through or just like kind that like you walk and then at the end you have

[00:52:47] to go past that like I don't know circular tube thing that spinning is the walk version the haunted

[00:52:52] castle in this case was a maze like walk through haunted house and it sounds I'm gonna read the whole

[00:52:57] description because sounds like the quintessential haunted attraction according to Wikipedia quote a

[00:53:04] facade of false turrets and towers lent the illusion of height to the one story structure completing

[00:53:10] the look of a forbidding medieval castle after crossing a drawbridge over the surrounding

[00:53:16] boat visitors entered the castle and felt their way along a 450 foot long convoluted path of dim

[00:53:22] corridors occasionally being startled when employee actors dressed as mummies vampires and

[00:53:28] other creatures jumped from hiding various theatrical props and exhibits were in view including

[00:53:34] coffins ghoulish mannequins hanging spider webs and skeletons alcoves along the route were used

[00:53:41] to present vignettes of famous and infamous characters and events from movies horror and ghost

[00:53:46] stories and sometimes real life with live employed actors portraying the stars of the scene count

[00:53:53] Dracula Frankenstein's monster the wolf man and Lizzy boarded were frequent guest stars strobe

[00:53:58] lights and eerie sounds completed the scene sounds kind of awesome I mean imagine dude imagine being a

[00:54:06] teenager in New Jersey in the summer of 1984 Friday the 13th the final chapter had just come out

[00:54:13] 16 candles had just come out temple of doom is coming out in like two weeks it's maybe one of

[00:54:19] the first warm nights of the year life's good you drive your Camaro out to the park and slam a

[00:54:24] couple brusquies and then head in oh yeah fucking i rock t-top coming down handful of slits dude the

[00:54:31] haunted castle you're there with your best girl it's so kitschy it's cool she's jumpy she's yelling

[00:54:38] and holding your arm just like the freaks who designed koney island would have wanted her to

[00:54:43] it's around 6 30 pm and as you enter the haunted castle and get lost in the dark unbeknownst to you a

[00:54:50] 14 year old boy somewhere else in the castle is using a cigarette lighter to navigate a dark corridor

[00:54:57] when he accidentally sets some padding on fire within minutes the entire attraction is a flame

[00:55:03] fire starts to pour out from along where the attractions hunchback of Notre Dame display is people

[00:55:09] start screaming fire and running to the back entrance bumping into walls fumbling in the dark some

[00:55:14] people thought that this was part of the attraction other people realize too late that it wasn't

[00:55:20] there's too much smoke too much chaos not enough light to find your way back to the entrance

[00:55:25] there's no way out of this one all told there were 29 guests and costume employees trapped

[00:55:32] in the burning maze but you know what was it in the burning maize exit lights sprinkler systems

[00:55:38] or smoke detectors all those would have fucked up the it would have taken away from the illusion

[00:55:44] that this is a spooky graveyard of the illusion of horror and fear well no this is because the castle

[00:55:52] was originally erected as a quote temporary structure there was supposed to only last part of a

[00:55:58] season but when it proved to be one of the most popular attractions at the park the park kept it

[00:56:03] open never installing the safety systems that a more permanent ride would have required so all told

[00:56:11] 18-agers perished in this fire and when rescuers finally got to them the bodies were so badly burned

[00:56:18] that they were mistaken for melted mannequins oh shit that sucks yeah it also sucks like the idea

[00:56:25] of having to like this is not a joke the idea that like to be in a burning building that is basically

[00:56:33] an obstacle course sucks yeah that's gotta be so scary where yeah it's like oh I'm in the

[00:56:38] fucking hall of mirrors and it's fun when you're like oh it's I'm bumping into stuff but when

[00:56:43] the place is on fire and you're like wait what the fuck is the real way out must be genuinely so scary

[00:56:48] yeah yeah and I mean I don't know this one's really haunting I think because it sounds like

[00:56:53] something that Bruce Springsteen would write a song about oh my god yeah jersey so it's probably

[00:56:57] the best guy to go to for it yeah or it feels like the backstory of a horror movie just like

[00:57:02] the eighties the haunted castle the fire at I don't know it's a bucket it was the fire of 84

[00:57:09] exactly dude another hose boys hit yeah another hose boys did that yeah they famously were like yeah

[00:57:14] the hose boys you know teenage levels who won't live much longer no more it was the fire of

[00:57:20] a beautiful we should start a band dude yeah I'm sure everyone's loving our singing

[00:57:25] the episode I'm sure they'll write in and say please stop I mean at least we'll get a

[00:57:29] season to say a letter from at least three different bands and artists yeah so there was a trial

[00:57:34] where the theme parks representatives contended that the fire was arson on behalf of this

[00:57:40] unnamed 14 year old the lighter and thus further safety precautions would not have saved

[00:57:46] any lives anyway oh wow and wouldn't you know it no one was ultimately held criminally liable for

[00:57:52] the deaths wow yeah that's so shitty like okay first off two things one how do we know he was

[00:57:58] something around the dark did he survive the one that started the fire a name man I don't know I

[00:58:02] couldn't find I don't know if it's because he was 14 there was I couldn't find any information about

[00:58:07] who this 14 year old was yeah he was reading between the lines there was no 14 year old and it

[00:58:13] was just like electrical fire yeah the park either like made it up or I don't know but yeah that

[00:58:20] is so crazy the idea that like your honor I mean it wouldn't have mattered you know these people

[00:58:28] they enter a ride knowing that this could be the last moments of their life and if they get out

[00:58:33] it's life affirming and if they don't it's suspicion confirming yeah it's it's basically a saw

[00:58:39] movie we put you in here so that you feel more grateful about your life when you come out the

[00:58:44] other end it's crazy that like and I'm sure they were like well technically by virtue of being a

[00:58:49] temporary structure we didn't have to put in any forms that said that these would be required so

[00:58:54] you can't ding us on that yep also if we get through this then very next day is the implementation

[00:59:01] of you have to sign a waiver to go in here 1000% and cover the rest even further like anything to

[00:59:08] not put a green exit light inside a haunted mansion yeah it does make me think though if podcasting

[00:59:14] doesn't work out for us it's already not working out for amusement park lawyer sounds like it must

[00:59:20] be a really lucrative profession oh my god it's just your honor please and that's all you have to say

[00:59:25] yeah it seems like amusement park lawyers have won every case they've ever tried so I'm in I'll do

[00:59:32] it I bet you they don't show up dressed like clowns or anything I bet you they do show up in suits

[00:59:37] like I'm using park lawyer came in dress like a clown like fucking squeeze in a big horn they

[00:59:41] would lose every case so there has to just be some like ambulance chaser dude who's like has a

[00:59:47] business card with like a big top tent on it yeah dextamana rail salesman it's gotta be maybe one

[00:59:52] of the greasiest jobs in the world like what's that Aaron Brockovich villain like are we gonna see

[00:59:59] a movie I guess not because they always get away with it like at least Aaron Brockovich they won

[01:00:03] for once yeah no you have a better chance getting a criminal settlement from like a poison company

[01:00:09] yeah some chemical manufacturing plant mark ruffalo is not gonna make a movie about the

[01:00:16] indomitable spirit of the people who fight the amusement park it's just it's they lose every

[01:00:22] time they lose every time yeah come to the amusement park to win at games die on rides in losing court

[01:00:30] yeah exactly that could sum up the history of amusement parks yeah one of the busiest days in

[01:00:35] amusement park lawyer history might have been sunday june 9th 1991 at kings island amusement park

[01:00:42] in Ohio displaced had been open just a little over 20 years it's been open since 1972 and they

[01:00:50] hadn't experienced a single fatality at the park until death caught up in final destination three

[01:00:55] people in two separate incidents back to back on the same day oh my god and this is a place with

[01:01:02] 20 year pretty decent record they don't have an amusement park lawyer and retainer this is this is

[01:01:06] the worst possible scenario yeah I will say one of the problems with this amusement park well

[01:01:11] one of the great parts of this amusement park is that they featured a beer garden but also as you'll

[01:01:17] see the beer garden may have played a part in both of these yeah so the day was going smoothly

[01:01:25] death struck late in the day 9 p.m. was when park guest Timothy Benning and his friend William

[01:01:32] Haythcoat walked by a fountain near a bridge in the park's beer garden Benning reached towards the

[01:01:39] water in the fountain intending to drunkenly splash his friend just a little harmless horse play

[01:01:45] between drunkards but little did Benning know what was lurking just beneath the surface a shark

[01:01:51] what I assume this is like a man made fountain or something is it not yes it is just kidding it's

[01:01:57] a man made found oh okay geez I thought I think you can't fit a fucking shark in there no no no it

[01:02:01] wasn't a shark it was an electrical wire that had become exposed and as soon as Benning touched the

[01:02:06] water he got jolted got knocked out and fell into the shallow water oh no now I don't think William

[01:02:14] Haythcoat quite realized what was going on probably because people don't flash their skeletons all

[01:02:20] see through in real life when they get a huge you don't you don't cart to yeah which we should

[01:02:25] because if he had William Haythcoat would not have jumped in the water after his friend and tried

[01:02:30] to help only to find himself getting immediately fried oh my god another guy a park employee named

[01:02:37] Darryl Robertson saw what was going on and tried to help but electricity cares not for a good

[01:02:43] Samaritan and Robertson was electrocuted as well oh my god yeah now it would have been tragic

[01:02:48] and hilarious if this had continued all night and eventually just killed everyone that's about

[01:02:54] the park yeah it's just like that's the newspaper headline beer garden becomes fear garden 34

[01:03:01] people died of electrocuting learning nothing yeah tragically the two good Samaritan's died and the

[01:03:07] initial guy with the horse play trigger in his mind Timothy Benning survived with serious injuries

[01:03:14] the guy who fell in and got who's passed out yeah the guy who got shocked and fell in survived

[01:03:20] and the other two died well what the fuck was shocking to other people if he was in the water with

[01:03:25] a current potentially I think him like they must have been reaching in the water to save him

[01:03:30] and then you know like if you touch someone who's getting electrocuted you will also get electrocuted

[01:03:35] so no but what I'm getting at is if he's most in the water yeah he's most playing with the wire

[01:03:39] but he survives that's weird yeah yeah I guess just luck or maybe I don't know he had electricity

[01:03:45] proof heart or something I'm not sure but a subsequent investigation revealed that this all could have

[01:03:51] been prevented if a circuit breaker had been installed on the electrical pumps under the pond but of

[01:03:56] course as we keep learning with amusement parks they cut every corner they can and so there were no

[01:04:02] circuit breakers it just kept pumping electricity through the water yeah never nothing shut it down

[01:04:07] and that's another like a museum park lawyer being like you're on her yeah yeah how are we to know

[01:04:12] we were under the impression that people when struck by lightning flash transparent over and over

[01:04:16] again and they're see their skeleton I somehow blame Benjamin Franklin for this and I will say

[01:04:22] nothing more yeah nothing in the farmers allman X said anything about electricity that night yeah

[01:04:27] but death wasn't satisfied yet the park remained open during all of this and the

[01:04:32] marimen continued in the rest of the park until about an hour later around 10 p.m. when a 32-year-old

[01:04:38] woman named candy tailor decided to take one more ride before the park closed she chose the flight

[01:04:45] commander which is one of those rides where there's like a bunch of like rocket ship capsules

[01:04:50] in a circle and you get in and then they all lift up in the air and just spin around yes of

[01:04:54] course yeah pretty hard sometimes they move up and down as they go yeah it's basically a kitty ride

[01:04:58] basically a kitty ride unfortunately for Taylor she'd been drinking possibly also at the beer

[01:05:04] garden and something distracted her during the ride and she was alone in the capsule so no one's

[01:05:09] entirely sure what happened some people theorized that she was trying to get a look at the medical

[01:05:14] helicopters that were taking Timothy Benning to the hospital whatever the case she leaned way too

[01:05:20] far out over the edge of her capsule slip from her harness and safety belt and fell out of the pod

[01:05:26] 70 feet to the ground oh my gosh she did not survive the impact that's she didn't have it on

[01:05:33] and like there's no way you're going 70 feet in the air with any kind of harness that well I guess

[01:05:38] as we've learned they probably weren't even in there yeah but it's just crazy that you would have

[01:05:43] even the opportunity yeah to in a ride be able to unseat yourself when you're 70 feet in the air

[01:05:50] yeah you know you're in trouble at amusement park when the high tech looking flight commander ride

[01:05:55] just has a rope to tie around your waist it's just yeah you'd think it was just barrels yeah

[01:06:00] you got to get in a barrel yeah this really is for her at least the most final destination of these

[01:06:06] deaths because it was like for all intents and purposes she was supposed to she was scheduled

[01:06:11] to die at the beer garden yes but she got out yeah she should have been the 33rd person to grab

[01:06:16] his leg or whatever but then she like drunkenly forgot to follow life's plan yeah and just like

[01:06:22] stumbled to these spaceships and then death was like bitch I can see you yeah yeah yeah you'll be

[01:06:28] there in a minute you know I'm getting out of this one yeah I couldn't find if anyone was

[01:06:32] prosecuted for these deaths in this case but I think we can safely assume they weren't

[01:06:36] uh uh uh everything continued as normal at that park I mean they were still open yeah they

[01:06:42] well the ship was going on yeah there was no attempts made to be like oh we got to draw

[01:06:47] chalk outlines around these people let's clear the area yeah like that's there's a horror movie I

[01:06:51] love called killer workout it was also released under the name of Robeside yep and there's a

[01:06:56] bunch of killings happening in this gym and every time I've seen it twice which is probably two

[01:07:00] more times and people should watch it but I love it and I'm like how the fuck is this gym still

[01:07:06] open like they're on your third body in two days and people are still do you hitting the elliptical

[01:07:11] so crazy yeah oh this just still happening they probably had a great lawyer too yeah part of what's

[01:07:16] so scary about all these disasters at amusement parks is that amusement parks are designed to be as

[01:07:23] safe as possible but there are other rides that I swear to God are designed to be death traps

[01:07:31] like there's there's one that we won't go into because there's one tragic case and it wasn't

[01:07:35] really all that interesting but I learned in my research of this the existence of a ride where

[01:07:41] it's literally the ride is it's built like a tower you go up in this little steel cage in the middle

[01:07:49] and then when you get to the top 100 150 feet in the air they put you in a harness they lower

[01:07:55] you through a hole in the middle of the cage and then they just disconnect the harness and you just

[01:08:01] free fall 150 feet into a net that's the right you're in like a ball you're in the cage they take

[01:08:07] you up in a cage you're a free floating human being at this point yeah they take you up in a cage

[01:08:12] and then just drop you through a hole in the middle of the cage into a net that's it that's the right

[01:08:17] that doesn't even it seems like they had a ride they were building a ride it had all the infrastructure

[01:08:22] for a ride and then ran out of money and we're like what we stopped at the hole let's just drop

[01:08:26] people through this hole so just toss those idiots through it I guess like we have no more ride

[01:08:30] that's a ride that I feel like is one unfortunate teenage girl she didn't die but she was very

[01:08:36] severely injured because the net wasn't ready to go when they dropped her so they just dropped

[01:08:40] her to the ground oh my god yeah that's something where you do want to be drunk yes because I think

[01:08:47] you'd go limp yeah exactly a lot of times in like drunk driving accidents and stuff unfortunately

[01:08:52] it's the drunk person that lives because yeah there weren't they didn't race for impact for anything

[01:08:56] and then they kind of survived yeah so yeah hopefully that girl was hammered drunk and well she

[01:09:00] just fell like a cartoon carrier she was like 12 so I don't think she was ever drunk oh no anyway

[01:09:08] this brought me to there is one ride it's a bit of a side step but I think it's super interesting

[01:09:13] because there is a ride in the history of rides that was designed literally to be a death trap

[01:09:21] Ed have you ever heard of the euthanasia coaster I absolutely am aware of it because it's pretty

[01:09:28] prominently featured in a show I liked a lot that came out last year oh and I don't want to say

[01:09:34] anything more than that because it's kind of spoilery okay in the way it's used in the show whatever

[01:09:38] so I don't want to give you anything away but I'm gonna give you a quick rundown of this and then

[01:09:41] you can tell me about it the reason I even know that it's that I was watched the show thought it

[01:09:47] was a wacky thing mm-hmm then I was at a NASCAR race in Pennsylvania and I was with some other people

[01:09:53] and so we were drinking and it came up it was an engineer I was talking to and he was like brought

[01:09:58] up the euthanasia coaster and I was like what you're describing is this thing from this TV show that

[01:10:03] I just watched two weeks ago that's so insane and he hadn't seen it or anything so it was just

[01:10:08] this like synchronicity but here we are again I'm sure you'll do a better job explaining it

[01:10:12] than he did well yeah I weirdly am aware of it yes well the euthanasia coaster is a real thing

[01:10:18] or it's hypothetically real at least because it was designed in 2010 by God a name I'm gonna butcher

[01:10:26] jewel of Jonas or bonus of Lithuanian okay sorry yeah you probably just put your day I thought

[01:10:32] you were giving me like an SNL character or something no I mean literally it's spelled J U L I

[01:10:38] J O N A S so jewel Jonas or bonus you are B O N A S is the name relevant no you could just say

[01:10:46] some person at this point but it's just it's a fun name to say jewel a Jonas or bonus he was

[01:10:52] a Lithuanian artist and a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London he'd had some

[01:10:56] experiences in amusement park employee in the past and this whole thing was inspired by a conversation

[01:11:02] he had with Josh Allen who was then the president of the Philadelphia Toboggan company and the current

[01:11:08] quarterback of the Buffalo Bills yes man he's had a life he described the ultimate roller coaster as

[01:11:13] one that quote sends out 24 people and they all come back dead so that that inspired jewel

[01:11:21] of Jonas or bonus to design this coaster and again it hasn't been built it's just designed and he

[01:11:28] built like a model of it but the coaster begins with a very steep hill that takes riders up

[01:11:34] 1600 feet or for our not American listeners about 500 meters the purpose of this long climb is both

[01:11:43] to get the coaster to the necessary height for what's going to happen next and also to give the

[01:11:48] passenger a few minutes to contemplate their life as a comparison if you're not quite sure how tall

[01:11:54] 1600 feet is the tallest roller coaster in the world is King Dakar at six flags great adventure

[01:12:02] which is the same six flags great adventure as the haunted castle tragedy so ride King Dakar with

[01:12:09] caution that coaster the King Dakar is barely a third as tall as the Euthanasia coaster it stands

[01:12:17] about 456 feet tall or 139 meters anyway once you get to the top our bonus designed a landing

[01:12:26] platform where the user can choose to exit the ride because they've contemplated their life at

[01:12:30] this point and may decide that they don't want to finish riding the death ride sure if they choose

[01:12:35] to stay on they take a moment to say their last words and then press a button to continue when you

[01:12:41] hit the button the rider drops down the other side of the 1600 foot hill reaching a nearly terminal

[01:12:48] velocity of 220 miles an hour or 360 kilometers per hour you can go take a look at the link in the

[01:12:56] show notes but just to give you the visual the Euthanasia coaster basically looks like this big

[01:13:01] massive hill and then once you hit the bottom of that first hill the coaster enters a series

[01:13:07] of increasingly smaller loops there's seven loops in total and the idea is that each loop is

[01:13:13] of a smaller diameter than the last in order to make a consistent and lethal 10 g's of force onto

[01:13:20] the passengers as the train loses speed after the last loop the coaster takes a sharp right hand

[01:13:27] turn on to a straight track back to the station where the dead are unloaded and new passengers can

[01:13:33] board according to Wikipedia the Euthanasia coaster kills its passengers through prolonged

[01:13:38] cerebral hypoxia or as we discussed in the airline disaster's episode insufficient supply of

[01:13:44] oxygen to the brain the ride seven inversions inflict the 10 g-force on its passengers for 60

[01:13:50] seconds causing g-force related symptoms starting with a gray out through tunnel vision to blackout

[01:13:56] to g-lock which is g-force induced loss of consciousness and eventually death subsequent

[01:14:03] inversions or a second run of the roller coaster would serve as insurance against unintentional

[01:14:07] survival of more robust passengers geez now I am against the death penalty in all forms but

[01:14:15] I feel like you could convince me otherwise if each state that practiced the death penalty had to

[01:14:20] install one of these coasters as a way to do it because it does seem like a much more humane

[01:14:26] way to kill someone than lethal injection or electric chair like all these other methods that

[01:14:30] are basically torture um I don't know I think it's an interesting thing if the idea is going down

[01:14:37] this would be a more peaceful or on my own terms death yeah no one survives at the end to be like

[01:14:43] actually that was not as advertised it was terrifying I puke down myself 20 times my heart exploded

[01:14:49] so I think they probably sell it as yeah you're gonna get on this and you're gonna roll into sleep

[01:14:54] as you spin down these circles or whatever yeah basically so it might not be any more humane

[01:14:59] and if it's built by the only people who build roller coasters which is amusement park contractors

[01:15:05] uh it's definitely gonna break the like third fucking time that you use it and catch fire yeah

[01:15:09] and it was like oh I came here for the really pleasant death great well you just fell 1600 feet

[01:15:14] into a fiery crash yeah because uh the net guy was smoking a cigarette yeah it wasn't manning any

[01:15:21] of the important machinery I could see the pitch for it though being like so have you ever wanted

[01:15:25] to own and operate a private prison with a hint of whimsy by by the euthanasia coaster like makes

[01:15:32] the skyline look nice you can put some other rides in maybe make an event out of it yeah that's

[01:15:36] the thing do you put the euthanasia coaster like in a field somewhere where everyone can see it or

[01:15:42] do you like put it underground no well where it's like oh don't worry about this like put it

[01:15:48] underground that the expense starts to add up I feel like the excavation sure does yeah it sure adds up

[01:15:55] can you even dig 2000 feet underground I mean here's the thing we'll never know if we don't try

[01:16:01] yeah that's true

[01:16:02] so I mostly bring this monstrosity of physics up as a way into our last amusement park disaster

[01:16:13] of the episode and for my money one of the worst things that has ever happened at an amusement park

[01:16:20] and that's really saying something considering the journey we've just been on and saying something

[01:16:24] considering you watched a man get a disease from a bygone era from a dumpster in front of you

[01:16:30] at a amusement park yeah yeah yeah well this I'm talking in this case I'm talking about the

[01:16:36] verrooked tragedy not only is this incident incredibly tragic I think it's one of the scariest

[01:16:43] in the sense that if you are afraid of amusement park rides or you're thinking about becoming

[01:16:48] afraid of amusement park rides this really eats the idea that we should trust the people who

[01:16:54] build the crazy looking rides because like I don't know about you listener but one of the reasons

[01:17:00] I feel safe on amusement park rides is the implicit social contract of these rides are safe

[01:17:07] I assume they're designed by highly trained and competent teams of engineers I assume they're

[01:17:12] tested and inspected on a regular basis both before and after they're opened but it turns out

[01:17:19] that is an assumption that makes an ass out of you and me and sent and sent at least one ass to

[01:17:25] the big ride in the sky so I guess we should describe this ride to start the verrooked or insane

[01:17:34] in German was a 168 foot tall water slide constructed at Schlitterbahn Kansas City which was an

[01:17:42] expansion of the Schlitterbahn parks water park empire in Texas now for reference 168 feet tall

[01:17:50] is about as tall as Niagara Falls or if you prefer torch to toe of the statue of liberty I

[01:17:58] love that you've abandoned giving kilometers and just have moved to structural measurements yes it's

[01:18:04] tall it's a lot of kilometers I didn't do the kilometer measurement for this one it's actually less

[01:18:08] kilometers well true it's not it's not me I did do the beaters yeah listen with this is an imperial

[01:18:13] system here and we're fine with it yeah this park was a 750 million dollar investment I don't know

[01:18:19] how much that isn't euro or pounds or rubles or whatever but what would that be in plates of food

[01:18:24] yeah and it was pitched as sort of the greatest water park in the Midwest excitement was really high

[01:18:30] in the Kansas government was happy to do whatever it took to get kanzans to spend their disposable

[01:18:35] summer dollars in state instead of crossing the border to Missouri which I guess is a thing

[01:18:40] that happens a lot in Kansas sure now question yes is it a German company who's doing an offshoot

[01:18:48] in America or is it just an American company I know there's a lot of Germans in the Midwest

[01:18:52] or whatever and Scandinavian and shit it's an American company I don't a Texas that doesn't make

[01:18:57] a lot of sense out of Texas yeah and I don't know I mean we're gonna talk about the co-owner Jeff

[01:19:03] Henry which is not a very German name but I didn't look into why they were called Schlitterbond he

[01:19:08] probably changed it when he came through Ellis Island that's actually probably where he got the idea

[01:19:13] of how tall it should be because he's looking up at that fucking statue of liberty he's like I'm

[01:19:18] gonna change my name and I'm gonna make a roller coaster that I think his parents started Schlitterbond

[01:19:23] and he worked there when he was young okay well then I guess none of the things that just

[01:19:26] said happened that's fine well let's just get into Jeff Henry he worked at the original Schlitterbond

[01:19:30] when he was young he thought a lot about water rise while he worked there I think he has some

[01:19:36] quote where he says something about like I learned everything I needed to know about water from

[01:19:40] observing it yeah creepy and by the time he opened Schlitterbond Kansas City he was regarded in the

[01:19:46] water park community as quote the Wizard of Wett the Lord of the Slides and an aquatic Walt Disney

[01:19:54] so these are three moniker's he gave him fucking self probably there is no way he was just it's

[01:20:01] probably written on his business card he was like oh my name's slick Henry I'm the Wizard of Wett

[01:20:06] or you might know me as the splash in the drink of life or some stupid shit like fucking so dumb

[01:20:13] well he made up a lot of shit as we will soon see yeah he's a carnival barker yeah he was the youngest

[01:20:18] member of this family and he was the one leading the charge youngest member of the hose boys oh

[01:20:24] actually I guess I should say I don't know if he was the youngest member of the family but he

[01:20:27] was a son of the original Schlitterbond owners and he was the guy who led the charge to open

[01:20:33] this one in Kansas City so during an appearance that Jeff Henry made on the travel channel show

[01:20:40] X-treme water parks with just an X at the beginning sure he was asked what he was working on and

[01:20:47] he spontaneously invented the idea of building the tallest and fastest water slide in the world

[01:20:54] he called this invention a speed blaster a term he also copped to making up on the spot oh my god

[01:21:01] at first I was like I don't know but now he's this is how pitch and every meeting this is how

[01:21:06] successful people operate they go what are you working on and you go oh you know just making the

[01:21:11] best podcasts in the history of podcasting like anyone can say that and he just did and then he

[01:21:19] realized he had to actually build the thing and he realized it immediately because it came out

[01:21:24] in court later that he he appeared on this travel channel X-treme water park show at some sort

[01:21:32] of a like they were at like a water park convention and after he said this on camera he then went

[01:21:39] around the convention and pitched the idea to vendors at the show but you couldn't get anyone to bite

[01:21:48] and Jeff Henry is an idiot so when the experts said no Henry decided he would just build the thing

[01:21:54] himself so he called up a 73 year old man named John Shuley or schooly as the rides lead designer

[01:22:02] and also set a crazy timetable of completing the ride in seven months well he thought schooly

[01:22:08] might only have seven month left to live yeah yeah you got to get on this buddy yeah you're not

[01:22:13] doing so well you had medical issues before I met you yeah school is like I won't be here to see

[01:22:18] how this fucking thing turns out so your price is right and your morals are loose yeah the fuck over

[01:22:24] now the other reason I just hate Jeff Henry off the bat is some emails came out in discovery during

[01:22:30] this case of him communicating to his team and he sounds like the worst boss ever on December 14th

[01:22:38] 2012 Henry wrote an email to schooly and others quote we all need to circle on this I must communicate

[01:22:45] reality to all time comma is of the essence no time to die Jay he followed up that same day I have

[01:22:54] to micromanage this now this is a designed product for TV absolutely cannot be anything else speed

[01:23:02] is 100% required a Florida day tough schedule Jeff fuck this guy this guy sucks this guy sucks anyone

[01:23:10] who talks about themselves like this I have to micromanage time is of the essence it's a tough

[01:23:15] schedule love go fuck yourself oh yeah to fulfill this made up promise you made now you're embarrassed

[01:23:21] because you set it on camera yes also okay first off sending an email to a 72 year old man whatever

[01:23:26] year this is that's not getting read and then secondly he just said like 15 things that I feel like

[01:23:31] aren't not going to help him in court in the event of a major accident yeah no time to die is a real

[01:23:36] bad one to put in here but yeah anyway this quote unquote tough schedule meant that calculations

[01:23:43] that were normally allotted three to six months to complete had five weeks to be completed and so

[01:23:50] as they began testing rafts repeatedly went airborne on the rise large bottom hump now just

[01:23:57] again to describe this ride it's nothing it's literally one giant hill and then there's a second

[01:24:04] so the first hill's like 17 stories tall or something and then the second hill is five stories tall

[01:24:09] so the idea is you go down the first big hill and then you know you're using physics to slow the

[01:24:14] rider up the five story hill and then slowly down the other side but because they're doing a half

[01:24:20] years worth of physics in a month they're just shooting rafts up off the top of this second ramp yeah

[01:24:28] and they're not taking it air into the account of any of their equations yeah so they're like oh this

[01:24:33] is going to have down for sure right and it was like no immediately the first gust of wind caught

[01:24:38] this raft and it blew into the fucking app yeah now shockingly Jeff's in imitable management style

[01:24:45] didn't result in anyone meeting his deadlines by the time Jeff's episode of extreme water parks first

[01:24:52] aired on June 29 2014 the slide had yet to open when it finally did open a month later hype was at a

[01:25:00] fever pitch and Jeff described the ride as dangerous but a safe dangerous now oh my god and this is

[01:25:09] in the era of you know all sorts of legal paperwork like you have to sign like that he probably

[01:25:15] thinks he's covering his ass by outwardly saying that you know it's pretty it's pretty risky and

[01:25:19] then also you know this guy's having everybody sign waivers I don't know if they actually did that's

[01:25:24] a good question I didn't look to see if he had people signing waivers I don't think he did that's

[01:25:29] a dumb person that he should have micro managed that he should have made sure everybody's signed

[01:25:33] something yeah I mean it doesn't matter nobody gets in trouble in the world of music parks we've

[01:25:37] learned this yeah ignore that continue so he did wrap netting around the entire ride on so they

[01:25:44] basically put like metal ribs sort of so like if you imagine the slide is like the bottom half

[01:25:49] of a curve then he completed the top of the curve with all these metal ribs and then put netting

[01:25:55] over that so that if you did become airborne you wouldn't literally like you said blow into the

[01:26:01] atmosphere yeah but like metal ribbing like so now you're just gonna like get cheese graded yeah

[01:26:06] the atmosphere like hang tight for months after this ride opened guests reported straps on the

[01:26:13] rafts coming loose as well as flying up off the surface of the slide and hitting the netting that

[01:26:18] covered the entire slide and according to the eventual criminal indictment at least 13 nonfatal

[01:26:25] injuries were recorded in the 182 days the ride was open between 2014 and 2016 up to and including

[01:26:36] the day of august 7th 2016 which is when Caleb Schwab the 10 year old son of Kansas state representative

[01:26:44] Scott Schwab died while riding vergh t oh no all right he got blessed but luckily your dad's

[01:26:51] of somebody so hopefully this helps everything went as it should as the rafts scream down the initial

[01:26:57] drop at nearly 70 miles an hour but when it hit the ascent of the second hump the raft went airborne

[01:27:03] and Caleb struck one of the metal rails that supported the netting decapitating him instantaneously

[01:27:09] well this is what i'm saying about ribbed fucking supporting yeah you shouldn't it shouldn't have any

[01:27:14] breaks in it the two passengers sitting behind him on the raft were also injured from the impact of

[01:27:19] Caleb's head hitting one or possibly both of them after it came off one suffered a broken jaw

[01:27:25] and the other suffered a facial bone fracture and needed stitches yes stitches is the last of

[01:27:30] that you're need therapy for a hundred years a 10 year old head broke your jaw yeah like how do you

[01:27:36] say that ever to anyone and not just go right back to that moment yeah in the immediate aftermath

[01:27:41] chelidurban kansas city was closed for an inspection that inspection lasted an entire three days

[01:27:48] and then the park reopened though verhook remained closed part of why this incident is so shocking to

[01:27:55] me it's because it is the kind of accident you might expect at some janky low rent carnival

[01:28:00] not a park that was supposed to be the Disney of the Midwest i mean it was like featured on reality

[01:28:06] television shows like and when the ride opened it was featured on the today show like it was on

[01:28:12] morning shows like there was a big hype around this ride when it opened so everybody bought into the idea

[01:28:18] that it's safe and it made me wonder like how the fuck does this even happen like where were the safety

[01:28:23] inspectors how does this ride even get permitted and it turns out the chelidurban name went a long

[01:28:29] way the chelidurban parks are big money makers in texas and they're a known entity and they made

[01:28:34] big promises that the state of kansas wanted to believe about the tourism and the money that

[01:28:39] would come in and that is where the state of kansas made their biggest mistake because in an attempt

[01:28:45] to make things easier and cheaper for chelidurban kansas agreed to let them operate under what is

[01:28:52] commonly referred to as the disney exemption rule i did not know about and it's a rule that many of

[01:28:58] you listening probably don't know about and i got to say it kind of does make me think twice

[01:29:04] about going to amusement parks because disney and other major parks such as universal are allowed

[01:29:11] to self inspect their rides by the states that they operate in their argument has been the rides

[01:29:17] are so unique and so specific that state inspections would fail to live up to the company's own

[01:29:23] standards and that's exactly what happened with chelidurban except the rides in this case were

[01:29:29] being tested and inspected by a maniac who also had no real experience in physics and like i said

[01:29:36] claim that he learned everything he needed to learn about water by watching it so yeah and who also

[01:29:43] potentially on camera approached anyone you would need to help make this and they all said

[01:29:48] potentially on camera yeah no don't do this yeah then he went and did like a space cowboys where

[01:29:54] he went and got like an old engineer yeah from a bar somewhere to be like hey you know i'll keep the

[01:30:01] fucking bourbon coming just come work at this place and sign off on this he's like dude what's so

[01:30:07] hard i drew one big tall hump and then a smaller hump that's just build it it's like i mean look at

[01:30:13] this is camels have been doing it for you this is in nature to humps so let's get out there and do

[01:30:19] it yeah and so i know what you're thinking okay i know no one is ever held liable for these incidents

[01:30:26] but this kid was the son of a state representative who went on to become the Kansas secretary of state

[01:30:32] so surely if anyone had the pull to get the park owners held criminally liable for this it would be

[01:30:38] scotch swab ed can you please play a buzzer sound here because if you think that you'd be wrong

[01:30:47] i mean here's what i'm thinking yes you want ed's fucking theory on this what's ed's fucking theory

[01:30:52] on this look it if you're gonna grease some hands to get your fucking amusement park somewhere and

[01:30:57] get the red tape cut and blah blah blah blah you're probably 33 seconds redacted no no you probably

[01:31:06] can't say that i don't know if there enough yeah um while schwa was successful in getting some state

[01:31:12] laws changed and he won a hefty 20 million dollar settlement from schlitterbond which did eventually

[01:31:18] close in 2018 as did the other two people in the accident although the amount of those settlements

[01:31:24] remains undisclosed no one was ever brought to justice on march 23rd 2018 a grand jury issued an

[01:31:32] indictment against schlitterbond and Tyler Austin miles the park's former director of operations

[01:31:38] charging them with involuntary manslaughter aggravated battery aggravated child endangerment

[01:31:43] and interference law enforcement the indictment accused the park of negligence concealing design

[01:31:49] flaws and downplaying the severity of previous injuries reported on the ride so all in all some

[01:31:55] pretty serious shit in this grand jury indictment wow this indictment against slitterbond wrote

[01:32:00] the jeff hennery and john schoolie quote lacked technical expertise to design a properly

[01:32:04] functioning water slide and did not perform standard engineering procedures or calculations

[01:32:10] on how the slide would operate instead they used quote crude trial and error methods to test

[01:32:16] its performance out of haste to launch the ride according to court documents shuly or schoolie

[01:32:21] conceited that quote if we actually knew how to do this and it could be done that easily it wouldn't

[01:32:27] be that spectacular wow what a stupid fucking like silicon valley move fast and break things answer

[01:32:34] yeah yeah sounds guilty to me jeff and john were arrested that march and almost a year later their

[01:32:40] trial ended in bomb bomb a dismissal of criminal charges they won with the argument or there

[01:32:48] amusement park lawyer one with the greasy fucking argument that inadmissible evidence had been

[01:32:53] presented to the grand jury in the form of presenting the extreme water parks episode two jurors

[01:33:01] as fact instead of as a fictional and dramatized version of events created for entertainment purposes

[01:33:09] wow that's greasy it's smart I mean it's a good amusement park lawyer I guess but holy shit

[01:33:14] is that greasy also sir is this or is this not you saying these words it doesn't matter that they

[01:33:18] put crazy music over it doesn't matter that's been edited it's still you being like what do you

[01:33:24] mean a little die if I make this you then I'm going to do it with the fucking whatever that old man is

[01:33:30] yeah the judge also noted that expert witnesses claimed that the designers of the slide were negligent

[01:33:36] in not following certain standards although the law at the time did not require that those

[01:33:43] standards be followed which I think is sort of a flavor of the same bullshit that got the designers

[01:33:48] of the haunted castle which is like listen yeah you know it's put it on the law now it can be an

[01:33:54] issue now but you can't get me on it like there was nothing yeah you know we were simply asked to

[01:33:59] do things at the high standards of our internal you know operation yeah until you make a law you

[01:34:06] know it's like that fucking hey I don't think that politicians should be able to profit off of

[01:34:10] knowing things ahead of time and buying stocks yeah but they're like hey that ain't illegal so

[01:34:14] fuck it's only legal if you do it I hate that shit I hate that shit so much I hate it anyway

[01:34:20] Ed where do you place amusement park disasters on the fear tier it's tough I don't like rides

[01:34:28] so I have there's already a fear there and you said it's pretty low the number of times

[01:34:33] it happens four to five people a year so I guess I shouldn't place it high but I'm scared that

[01:34:39] if something did happen to me that my family and friends would have no recourse I completely

[01:34:44] understand that I would put it sort of somewhere in the middle of the fear tier there's a very low

[01:34:48] chance of it happening but it's something I think about every time I get on a ride sure and honestly

[01:34:54] learning in my research about this Disney exemption that parks are allowed to self inspect I generally

[01:35:02] would prefer a state inspection you know not if you like slowing things down we might never get a

[01:35:08] ride that can kill you with that point yeah be waiting for years I mean look would amusement parks

[01:35:13] be as fun if you knew they were a hundred percent safe let's be real I mean that's you know that's

[01:35:19] something a amusement park lawyer has literally said to a jury yeah like that's no way they haven't

[01:35:25] yeah well on behalf of myself and all the amusement park lawyers in our fine nation I'm Chris

[01:35:32] Calary and I'm Ed Vocola and this has been scared all the time we'll see you next week bye bye

[01:35:38] scared all the time it's co-produced and written by Chris Calary in Ed Vocola edited by Ed

[01:35:42] Vocola additional support and keeper of sanity test-fifle our theme is the track scared by perpetual

[01:35:48] stew and Mr. Disclaimer is no part of the show can be reproduced anywhere without permission copyright

[01:35:55] astonishing legends productions tonight we are in this together together