Six Flags Magic Mountain to add two roller coasters, bringing total to globe-topping 18

by Leigh Caldwell on

Six Flags Magic Mountain will add two roller coasters and alter an existing coaster in 2011, bringing the park’s total to 18. That gives the Valencia, California, theme park the most roller coasters of any theme park in the world, dethroning Ohio’s Cedar Point, which has 17.

The first addition is the Green Lantern, is a spinning coaster on a vertical track. It’s the first of its kind in the United States, though the builder, Intamin, has a similar model called the Comet Express at Lotte World in Seoul, South Korea.

The Green Lantern’s cars can spin on a vertical axis. The ride starts with a 107-foot lifthill, after which riders will zig-zag through more than 800 feet of track on the way back down. Check out the video at the bottom of this post to see a rendering of the Green Lantern in action. Six Flags says the new roller coaster will debut in the spring.

The second 2011 coaster addition at Six Flags Magic Mountain is an as-yet-unnamed kid’s coaster that will be adjacent to the theme park’s Bugs Bunny World children’s area. It will be 679 feet long with a 28-foot lifthill and top speeds of 21 miles per hour.

Finally, the theme park’s Superman: The Escape roller coaster will get its name changed to Superman: Escape from Krypton, along with a pretty major makeover. New cars will allow riders to shoot up the 41-story tower at 100 miles per hour backwards.

The Superman coaster has two tracks. Six Flags says following the ride’s alterations, both tracks will operate with the backward-facing cars at first. After a few months, one of the cars will be turned around, allowing riders to choose whether they want to ride forwards or backwards.

Superman’s new ride cars will also have lower sides for a more exposed feeling, and new over-the-shoulder harness restraints. Six Flags says the Superman alterations will be completed early next year.

Woman dies after falling out of roller coaster in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

by Leigh Caldwell on

A 21-year-old Lafayette, Louisiana, woman has died after an accident at Dixie Landin’ amusement park in Baton Rouge.

Witnesses said Lindsay Zeno fell about 30 feet from the Xtreme roller coaster at the park late Sunday afternoon.

State fire officials, who are charged with regulating the park, have said that there were no obvious mechanical failures on the ride. The ride passed its last state inspection, about a month ago.

State fire marshalls and the local sheriff’s office are continuing the accident investigation this morning.

Tadbatha Arnold, who says she witnessed the accident, told WAFB that the chest restraint on the ride was up and she saw Zeno trying to pull it down before Zeno fell from the coaster.

Xtreme is a steel roller coaster that was built in 2000. It was moved to Dixie Landin’ in 2007 from a theme park in the Netherlands. The coaster has a top speed of 37 miles per hour.

It’s roller coaster season: Ride the Beast

by Jamie Rhein on

The Beast at King’s Island in Mason, Ohio not far from Cincinnati is by far my favorite roller coaster. It’s a body rattling thrill that has two major drops. Halfway through the 4 1/2 minute ride which makes it the longest wooden roller coaster in the world, the cars take a step climb upwards and a speedy, spine tingling, stomach dropping ride groundwards. This video was made by placing a camera on front of the roller coaster and captures the sights and sounds of the experience rather well. The Coaster Critique rode The Beast when I last did–at night. Highly recommended.

Here’s my technique for not ending up with a sore neck. Clasp one hand in back of your neck with your forearm pressed against your cheek and your elbow pointing out in front of you. It may look slightly ridiculous, but it works like a charm.

Six Flags New England: A Day Out

by Jamie Rhein on

Here are a few things I discovered about Six Flags New England in Springfield, Massachusetts. If you leave 13 towels and assorted other belongings piled together on two chairs in Hurricaine Harbor water park and forget that the water park closes at 7:00 PM, the park people collect all belongings and bring them to the Lost and Found near the park’s main gate. But, what ends up at Lost and Found is a bit different that what was left behind. Thirteen towels becomes four and a tan pair of child’s sandals possibly walked off with the missing towels. Somehow, an extra pair of sunglasses did end up with all the stuff that was recovered.

Despite the water park snafu, which I have to say has something to do with the thunder and lightening storm that sent us to take shelter under the thatched umbrellas in the water park in the first place, Six Flags is a great day activity for a multi-aged crowd. While the five-year-old went on the kiddie rides in the The Wiggles section, the older kids headed off to the roller coasters. Not just the older kids, but the kids at heart as well. I talked my best friend to go on the Superman: Ride of Steel roller coaster with me even though she swore up and down that under no circumstances would she ever get on it. Two hours after her declaration, there we were, our hands gripping the lap bar, heading towards the sky.

The Superman: Ride of Steel roller coaster is a massive steel thing that’s been named the “Number One Coaster in the World.” For the biggest thrill, sit on the left. That’s the side without the catwalk railing. I can vouch that it feels like being on the edge of the world without any barrier to falling off. I had the brief thought, “Ya, know, I don’t really like this all that much” as I took in the unobstructed view of the Connecticut River. That thought flew out as we flew down the first incline. At the end of the ride that lifted us slightly out of our seats on a couple dips, my friend opened her eyes and said, “That was fun. I’m glad I did it, but never again.”

The Batman: The Dark Night ride coaster that made upside down loops suited both of us more and I’d have gone on it again if we didn’t have to go retrieve our stuff, or what was left of it. [The photo is from The Coaster Critic who blogs about rollercoasters.)

* As a note, the park had nothing to do with the missing stuff. It was totally our fault since we left it for hours on end. Moral of the story: Lock up belongings, or at least remember the water park closes before the rest of the park does.

5 Bizarre Theme Park and Carnival Ride Accidents

by Justin Glow on

While reading Jamie’s post on roller coaster accidents, I began to wonder that with the number of theme parks, carnivals, and fun fares around the world, ride accidents have to happen all the time! I remember going to carnivals as a kid and wondering why my parents were so protective when it came to riding the rides. As I grew older, I noticed that many of the contraptions that once seemed dazzling and fun to ride were actually rusty death traps. Researching this story has me even more afraid to step on another Tilt-O-Whirl or Kamikaze again.

And here’s the thing: it’s not even the big, metal, high-speed rides that are the most dangerous. Kids are dying on slides, infants are being carried off in giant inflatable castles by the wind; rides that seem innocent enough can actually become quite dangerous in the right conditions. Check out these bizarre accidents I found, and you’ll see what I mean.

Hope, Arkansas — A seven-year-old boy was killed while on the Sizzler, a ride at the Easter Week 2007 carnival in the southern Arkansas town of Hope. Allegedly the boy and his mother were late arriving at the ride, and a miscommunication — perhaps due to the fact that they spoke Spanish and the ride operators spoke English — prevented their chair from locking properly before the ride was started. The boy and his mother both fell out shortly after the Sizzler began it’s run, and the boy was struck in the head not once, but twice. “[The operator] tried to stop it, but it was spinning so fast the boy was falling out of the chair, and the mother is trying to get him, but he is too heavy,” the boys uncle told the Hope Star. “When he was on the floor (ground), he stood up, and the chair hit him.” The boy stood again only to be struck in the head once more. He was quickly transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead from “traumatic brain injury.”

Sahuarita, Arizona — Anything in the right conditions can be dangerous… even those giant inflatable bounce castles. Just south of Tucson, Arizona, strong winds picked up and carried away an inflatable castle holding a 5-year-old girl and her 22-month-old sister. Thankfully the girls weren’t severely injured, but their parents (who rented the ride) claim that the waver they signed which explicitly warned them of the dangers of high wings wasn’t enough — they wanted a verbal warning as well. The Arizona case most certainly isn’t isolated. In fact, there have been numerous reports of inflatable rides blowing away with children inside. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a dust devil whirled through a park and sent two inflatable bouncers filled with 12 children flying through the air. Fortunately no major injuries were reported.

Somerset, England — A 19-year-old Oxford student from Bulgaria paid an independent “human trebuchet” operator £20 to be catapulted 100 feet through the air and onto a safety net. Unfortunately for him, the trebuchet launched him just short of the net. “As he hit the ground I heard a thud and then a second thud,” said Oliver Nelson, the person set to jump after the student, to The Guardian. Before each jump, the participant is weighed and weights are adjusted on the machine. A dummy jump is done to test the weights, and only then is a human catapulted towards the net. Manslaughter charges were brought against the ride operators, but were later dropped.

New Jersey, U.S.A. — A 26-year-old volunteer firefighter was cleaning up the grounds from a recent carnival when he wandered off to slide down an enormous three-story slide. The slide was extremely wet from recent heavy rains, causing the man to slide so fast that he hit a dip in the ride and bounced through the air, cracking his head against the surface and losing consciousness. He was later pronounced dead. There must be something about New Jersey and slides, because in July of 1998, another person was killed on a similar slide. A 19-year-old kid broke into a closed park in Ashbury Park, New Jersey to ride the mega slide. All was well until he reached the end, where a metal chain was strung along the width of the slide. He suffered a “lacerated liver and ultimately bled to death.”

Rakvere, Estonia — In May of 2007, a fire broke out on the “Tivoli Tuur” ride while in operation. The ride, which is similar to the Enterprise, was running at full speed when smoke and flames engulfed the gondolas, burning them to a crisp. Thirty-seven people were injured, most of who were treated for smoke inhalation and burns. “The blaze took hold at about 11pm, and was well alight by the time three fire crews reached the fun fair. By the time the fire was extinguished at 12.16am, flames had destroyed five plastic gondolas and the ride’s electrical system,” according to the Baltic Times. Here’s a video of the incident:


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Photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 4