Amusement park thrill rides are meant to give the riders a feeling of danger, without ever actually putting those riders at risk. Unfortunately, accidents happen and sometimes those accidents can be fatal. A 14-year-old girl has died after a roller coaster car came off the track at an amusement park in Denmark. This makes the second fatal accident at an amusement park this year.
This incident took place at the Tivoli Friheden amusement park in Aarhus, Denmark. The park has been in operation since 1958. The Cobra roller coaster, a steel track inverted coaster, has been in operation in the park since 2008. According to Denmark newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende (via Newsweek) yesterday, during a run just before 1pm local time, the rear two seats of the train broke away from the rest of the carriage, and were hanging under the train.
An investigation is underway into exactly what happened, and a great deal is still unclear. What is known is that a 14-year-old girl from Copenhagen died in the accident, though exactly how she died is one of the things that we still don’t know. A 13-year-old boy also sustained minor injuries. The park was evacuated following the accident and is currently closed.
The attraction is an inverted coaster, so riders hang below the track on the Cobra, in a seated position. The ride reaches speeds over 40 miler per hour and is 82 feet high, though the coaster reportedly stalled approximately 10 feet above the ground. Witnesses report hearing “big bang” come from the coaster when the accident occurred
This marks the second fatal accident at an amusement park this year. Back in March at Orlando’s Icon Park another 14-year-old died when he fell from the park's Free Fall freestanding drop tower. It was eventually determined that the boy’s harness had been manually adjusted, allowing for a greater gap between the harness and seat, so the guest was not properly secured.
Video footage of the accident itself made its way around social media. It is perhaps for that reason that a statement regarding this accident on the Tivoli Friheden website specifically asks guests that might have images of the event to not share them on social media.
While accidents on amusement park attractions have certainly happened before, they are actually exceedingly rare, making the fact that we’ve seen two such events lead to fatal consequences surprising to say the least. Because of the potential danger, extreme care is usually taken to make sure attractions meet rigorous safety standards.
We’ll likely learn more about what happened at Tivoli Friheden in the coming days and weeks. Our hearts go out to the family of the girl who died in this tragic accident.
