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Dangerous Play (Playgrounds; Carnivals; Amusement Parks; Etc.)

I was wondering about urban myths that certain rides are 'cursed' and that word of mouth reports of deaths from the past are not based on fact. I recall being told, as on the video links I put on, of deaths on both the Wild Mouse and Rocket Ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I'm not sure if these are urban myths or factual.

And we won't talk about 'Cloggy' on the Ghost Train...

As an aside I found this Trip Advisor review of the Wild Mouse ride. She writes "I can't believe I
queued up to be battered by a ride. I literally was thrown about in the cart. My head was thrashed back causing severe whiplash. " https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...asure_Beach-Blackpool_Lancashire_England.html
Wild mouse is definitely still their when I went a few years ago... Now that rocket ride I like as a kid, HATE it now! It just looks like your only supported by a thin metal chain, and it goes very near to a roller coaster too. Last time I went on the rockets a very large woman and her huge son were behind us, I thought "please hold" , no disrespect but the chains didn't look strong enough to support the weight of 4 heavy adults. I had my eyes closed all way through , hated it , this is supposed to be a kids ride too.

I like that "Derby racer" , very old historical ride been there since the 30s, it's like a big/grown up version of a carousel with horses. The horses are BIG/high, no seatbelt a, you just hold on, when it gets going it's very fast. Love that. I'm surprised more people haven't fallen off, you are going to break something coming off that , fast ride.

And another horse themed /very little "safety harness" (you just have a flimsy chain go over your lap) is the Steeplechase, one of only 2 in the world no less . I know that because I'm a bit of a vintage fairground geek , but yeah , parts are high up , fast and you on,y have a chain on!.

Love Blackpool pleasure beach to be honest. Good safety record too. AFAIK, the only death was the lads fault, not the park (young lad of 14 stood up on the grand national wooden coaster and got decapitated sadly ) I know they are very good at doing all the safety checks, shut certain rides in bad wind and rain ect.

The wild mouse has now been removed, to many people's outrage. Personally I only went on it once, and ended up in a lot of pain when my head collided with my BFs head. He loved the ride, but the queue was always really long
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...-news/wild-mouse-blackpool-shut-down-14124866

The Grand National is also really hard to ride these days. Every time the train went over the hill, the back seats of the car would rise up and SMASH down again on the rails. It had always done that a little but the last time I rode it, a few years ago, it was so bad I ended up in tears at the end of it, it was just too much being thrown around. Sadly there was a case of a man who became paralysed after riding it, but that was partly related to a previous condition. I remember when reading about it, we weren't too surprised as it had been so painful to go on. Even after this, I don't think they made any changes to the ride.
https://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/news/rollercoaster-horror-injury-2616452
 
Yes, dont play in kids playgrounds, ever.
Used to love going to the wakes, not so much now, probably throw up on most of the rides.
The wonderful hot Summers we used to have, miss those.


Not Chase Wakes?
 
That article about Action Park, a few goes above, has entertained me royally this afternoon. Wheres the Will Ferrel "Action Park: The Disaster Ride" movie?
 
I'm sorry, all we have available is a Johnny Knoxville Action Park movie:

As much as I don't like Jackass or Johnny Knoxville, this looks like it could be a fun movie. I hope it's not like Ernest Goes to Camp where it's all "They're going to shut us down! We need something to save the park!".
 
That's a shame the wild mouse was shut down, but not surprised these days . I was reading some Comms on YouTube vids of the pleasure beach other night, according to those who have worked there, people got injured on wild mouse A LOT, lots of teeth smashed out and whiplash.

The Derby racers I like , the horses used to go back and forth as well as up and down..... They stopped that due to HnS, it's slower too these days. One in USA still actually "races".
 
I've googled puke machine... Can't find it. Do you mean a Gravitron? They used to have them at raves.
 
I've googled puke machine... Can't find it. Do you mean a Gravitron? They used to have them at raves.

I'm not sure, but I don't think saltman was referring to a Gravitron powered amusement ride. I think these images illustrate something more like the 'puke machine' playground ride he was alluding to ...

new-2317roundabout-playground-tornado_1_max.jpg
realizacja-1-tornado-34_1_max.jpg


There's a central 'steering wheel' component which is used to make the apparatus rotate.

SOURCE: https://www.inter-play.eu/products/roundabout-playground/tornado/
 
On a school trip to the Netherlands when we were kids, we stayed in the town of Valkenburg (as a result of which my mental images of the country aren't of windmills and polders, but remain to this day of hills and woods). Several of our school teachers accompanied/chaperoned us on the trip; including our gym teacher, Mr M. who brought along his wife - ostensibly to provide First Aid should it be needed.

One of the attractions at the time was a 'dry' bobsleigh type ride (which I see is still there) called the 'Rodelbaan':

1614250321472.png



Both my best friend and myself set off from the top at the same time on parallel tracks - I made it down in one piece, he on the other hand, managed to remove a very neat strip of skin from his right forearm from his wrist all the way to his elbow. By the time I got to the bottom he was standing, nonchalantly holding his arm up, with this long strip of skin dangling from the point of his elbow. Naturally, there was plentiful blood, and this length of skin (in my memory resembling a strip of 35mm film in it's approximate dimensions and propensity to try to curl back on itself) was twisting gently back and forth in the breeze.

Mrs M. was visibly gagging and making abortive attempts to actually touch the injury when my mate said "Here Miss, I'll do it!" and ripped the skin the rest of the way off and dropped it on the ground.

I think Mrs M. had to go for a stiff drink and a lie down after that.:rofl:
 
There’s a documentary on Sky called “Class Action Park”.... I have downloaded it to watch on Friday with a beer or three...
We watched it the other night - some of the stuff on there is grim!
One of the former life guards was talking about the wave pool and how they had an area they called the death zone, and they used to put the new lifeguards there.
 
On a school trip to the Netherlands when we were kids, we stayed in the town of Valkenburg (as a result of which my mental images of the country aren't of windmills and polders, but remain to this day of hills and woods). Several of our school teachers accompanied/chaperoned us on the trip; including our gym teacher, Mr M. who brought along his wife - ostensibly to provide First Aid should it be needed.

One of the attractions at the time was a 'dry' bobsleigh type ride (which I see is still there) called the 'Rodelbaan':

View attachment 35857


Both my best friend and myself set off from the top at the same time on parallel tracks - I made it down in one piece, he on the other hand, managed to remove a very neat strip of skin from his right forearm from his wrist all the way to his elbow. By the time I got to the bottom he was standing, nonchalantly holding his arm up, with this long strip of skin dangling from the point of his elbow. Naturally, there was plentiful blood, and this length of skin (in my memory resembling a strip of 35mm film in it's approximate dimensions and propensity to try to curl back on itself) was twisting gently back and forth in the breeze.

Mrs M. was visibly gagging and making abortive attempts to actually touch the injury when my mate said "Here Miss, I'll do it!" and ripped the skin the rest of the way off and dropped it on the ground.

I think Mrs M. had to go for a stiff drink and a lie down after that.:rofl:
I was lucky enough that my parents could afford one year for me to be able to go on a school trip to Switzerland to ski .. we'd practiced at Swadlincote dry ski slope .. after doing what you'd expect typical 80's teenagers to do like buy Swatch watches, switchblade knives and beer, completely unsupervised by adults, we'd be taken out on the glorious slopes every day. I'm rubbish at most sports but I took to skiing like a duck to water. One day, me and Graham Tivy were zooming ahead of everyone else when I got round a blind corner and Graham was on the floor with a bit of ski sticking out of his leg. You could see every different layer from the yellow fat, red flesh down to his bone. He didn't seem that phased about it at the time then a teacher caught up and he was air lifted off to some hospital. He was OK in the end but I can see why school visits/health and safety etc are taken way more seriously these days.
 
You never see Puke Machines any more...

They were the steel ball with the steering wheel welded solidly on top and a ring of four seats orbiting it. Attempting to spin the wheel spun the ring of seats. You could get some phenomenal speeds....

There’s one of these in Phoenix Park in Runcorn. Used to get my boys going at phenomenal speeds when they were toddlers. They loved it.
 
There’s one of these in Phoenix Park in Runcorn. Used to get my boys going at phenomenal speeds when they were toddlers. They loved it.
They dont seem to have the bigger ones that can take teenagers any more - cannot even find images of them. They seem to have been expunged from history.

Imagine the speeds your could get with 4 burly teenagers manning the wheel...
 
Good lord, that looks like fun!

It was. You can control your speed as much as you like on it. Unfortunately, on that, my first trip down, I thought "I'll take it easy this time, I'll really go for it on the next run!". Of course, with what happened to my mate - a second trip down for any of us was not going to happen. :(

One of these days I'll get back there and have that second descent I was denied 30+ years ago. :cooll:

I remember Valkenburg as being really lovely though. It also has man-made caves (should that be grottos?) that were fascinating. Full of carvings and apparently used as the site of a Christmas market every year:

1614331337245.png
 
Wild! .. the same type? .. I wonder how many others puked on that ride?
I loved that ride, i got off ran round and got back on, they had a metal thing that was pulled in front of you and all the time there was a guy walking around making sure you were ok or showing off, dont know how he did it
There are three things that come to mind from my youth in this thread....

We used to have these concrete forms, used for sewers and whatnot (unused, of course) on the playground. Basically, giant, hollow, concrete cylinders and you weren't a "man" until you could climb up and sit on top one. Being solid concrete, there were many scraped knees and such in the scramble to get to the top.

Later, in middle school, we had a little chain-linked bridge about 2 inches above the ground that had chains as guard rails (so-to-speak). Someone thought, "Oh, hey, we should safety-pad those chains, in case a child gets pinched." We developed a game (of sorts) where one kid would hold on and the other 10-or-so of us would rock that "safety chain" back and forth until the kid flipped over it. This ended when one kid flipped too hard and had to be taken to the hospital. Thus endeth our safety lecture.

Lastly, (oddly enough, earliest-ly) when I went to daycare, we had this amazing playground out back. This included a wooden platform you could climb up to which had a loose bridge (planks of wood attached with chains so we could all jump on it and it would send the person in the middle flying when we had our rhythm down). At the end of this platform, there was a metal pole you could slide down. I was terrified of stepping off the wood and clenching onto the pole to slide down. Still, it didn't stop me from running from one end of the bridge to the other, jumping off *past* the pole and into the sandbox below. I believe I still hold the record for jumping furthest (enough to grab on to the chainlink fence just beyond) before landing. :D
We used to have the big concrete sewer pipes, many a time someone had taken them literally, dirty gits
Wild mouse is definitely still their when I went a few years ago... Now that rocket ride I like as a kid, HATE it now! It just looks like your only supported by a thin metal chain, and it goes very near to a roller coaster too. Last time I went on the rockets a very large woman and her huge son were behind us, I thought "please hold" , no disrespect but the chains didn't look strong enough to support the weight of 4 heavy adults. I had my eyes closed all way through , hated it , this is supposed to be a kids ride too.

I like that "Derby racer" , very old historical ride been there since the 30s, it's like a big/grown up version of a carousel with horses. The horses are BIG/high, no seatbelt a, you just hold on, when it gets going it's very fast. Love that. I'm surprised more people haven't fallen off, you are going to break something coming off that , fast ride.

And another horse themed /very little "safety harness" (you just have a flimsy chain go over your lap) is the Steeplechase, one of only 2 in the world no less . I know that because I'm a bit of a vintage fairground geek , but yeah , parts are high up , fast and you on,y have a chain on!.

Love Blackpool pleasure beach to be honest. Good safety record too. AFAIK, the only death was the lads fault, not the park (young lad of 14 stood up on the grand national wooden coaster and got decapitated sadly ) I know they are very good at doing all the safety checks, shut certain rides in bad wind and rain ect.
That derby racer scared the hell out of me, i was trying to climb onto my mates horse while it was moving i was that scared, there was nothing to keep you from falling off, the Grand National i sat in the back and even with the safety bar down i was nearly stood up, hated that as well
 
I loved that ride, i got off ran round and got back on, they had a metal thing that was pulled in front of you and all the time there was a guy walking around making sure you were ok or showing off, dont know how he did it
We used to have the big concrete sewer pipes, many a time someone had taken them literally, dirty gits
That derby racer scared the hell out of me, i was trying to climb onto my mates horse while it was moving i was that scared, there was nothing to keep you from falling off, the Grand National i sat in the back and even with the safety bar down i was nearly stood up, hated that as well
I used to be terrified of roller coasters in that I was scared of the idea of them until my best mate talked me into going on The Black Hole at Alton Towers on a strangely quite day. I did the same thing as you, got off and got back on .. I think we did that about 6 times in a row then went on The Corkscrew afterwards. I can still remember the music that was being played, we close our eyes by Go West and we built this city by Starship.
 
Good lord, that looks like fun!

I've been on one of those in Austria, whizzing down the side of a mountain - I think I was 10. We had gone on a bus tour one day and that was part of the deal. I was following my dad, who was obviously a lot bigger and heavier than I was, but the handbrake on his toboggan had stuck and he was fighting to get it released, all the while with "I'm gonna catch you!" being bawled from behind him - 10-year-old me had not looked forward to the possible consequences of actually doing so! Luckily he managed to wrestle the handbrake into submission, and his superior mass meant he got to the bottom well ahead of me.

And then, while we were standing at the bottom, comparing notes, we happened to look up at the mountainside at the second dry toboggan run, and there was a huge jam being caused by my mother, who, a somewhat nervous driver at the best of times, was resolutely hanging onto the handbrake and proceeding downhill at snail's pace. :rofl: We felt so sorry for the people behind her whose big adventure that day had been scuppered by the anxious English woman on a glorified tea tray!
 
When l was a kid in Norway (‘60 - ‘63), l had what l’m sure was called a “ski pan” or “skli pan”. lt was simply a kid’s-bum-size round metal tray, exactly like the one you’d use for your TV dinner, but with the rim pierced at one point for a leather strap.

The operator placed it at the top of a snowy slope, sat on it and urged himself for’ard over the edge. Much excitement ensued.

l can even remember that there was quite a considerable slope in our school grounds, which the staff used to hose with water to get it to freeze into a sheet of ice. This was precisely so that their wee in loco parentises could endanger life & limb in the pursuit of fun.

Happy days.

maximus otter
 
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When l was a kid in Norway (‘60 - ‘63), l had what l’m sure was called a “ski pan” or “skli pan”. lt was simply a kid’s-bum-size metal tray, exactly like the one you’d use for your TV dinner, but with the rim pierced at one point for a leather strap.

The operator placed it at the top of a snowy slope, sat on it and urged himself for’ard over the edge. Much excitement ensued.

l can even remember that there was quite a considerable slope in our school grounds, which the staff used to hose with water to get it to freeze into a sheet of ice. This was precisely so that their wee in loco parentises could endanger life & limb in the pursuit of fun.

Happy days.

maximus otter
Reminds me of this scene from 'National Lampoons Christmas Vacation'

 
When l was a kid in Norway (‘60 - ‘63), l had what l’m sure was called a “ski pan” or “skli pan”. lt was simply a kid’s-bum-size metal tray, exactly like the one you’d use for your TV dinner, but with the rim pierced at one point for a leather strap.

The operator placed it at the top of a snowy slope, sat on it and urged himself for’ard over the edge. Much excitement ensued.

l can even remember that there was quite a considerable slope in our school grounds, which the staff used to hose with water to get it to freeze into a sheet of ice. This was precisely so that their wee in loco parentises could endanger life & limb in the pursuit of fun.

This was my school in the 1980s.

1615453360648.png

That slope was perfect for sunbathing on during the summer and sledging down during the snowy winter days we used to get back then.

We didn't take any form of physical sledge with us to school (obviously), but a plastic fertilizer bag could be used and carried (conveniently folded up) in a school bag. :hapdan:

That pale coloured, hard-surfaced area to the left used to be tarmac (and there was no boundary fence when I was there). One of my school friends (he was in the year above me, but we both attended extra-curricular activities together so knew one another quite well) rode his bicycle down the hill one Summer's day, hit the edge between the grass and the tarmac with his front wheel and went over the handlebars.

He suffered a fractured skull and died a few days later in hospital.

Ironically, he had been given the bicycle in lieu of a motorbike by his parents as his mother thought motorcycles were too dangerous. :(
 
When l was a kid in Norway (‘60 - ‘63), l had what l’m sure was called a “ski pan” or “skli pan”. lt was simply a kid’s-bum-size metal tray, exactly like the one you’d use for your TV dinner, but with the rim pierced at one point for a leather strap.

The operator placed it at the top of a snowy slope, sat on it and urged himself for’ard over the edge. Much excitement ensued.

l can even remember that there was quite a considerable slope in our school grounds, which the staff used to hose with water to get it to freeze into a sheet of ice. This was precisely so that their wee in loco parentises could endanger life & limb in the pursuit of fun.

Happy days.

maximus otter
I had no idea that you were from Norway!
 
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