The Flipside of Roller Coaster Accidents
There’s been a lot of news lately about coaster accidents. You’re still a lot safer on a roller coaster than pretty much all other moving vehicles. It’s the percieved danger that makes it fun. In a car chances of death are 1 in 18,000 and in a plane chances of death are 1 in 350,000. You even have a better chance of dying from parts falling off an airplane (1 in 10,000,000). In comparison, you have a 1 in 1.5 billiion chance of being fatally injured on a coaster. I’ll take my chances on that 15-story, looping steel coaster any day over a drive on the Capital Beltway.

Usually the accidents on roller coasters have been a result of rider negligence (ie. standing up or slipping out of a restraint) or a pre-existing condition that someone had prior to riding the coaster. And here’s a story of the Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure actually saving a life.