Pleasure Beach Not So Enjoyable for Rollercoaster Victims

Blackpool Pleasure Beach is normally associated with fun and good times. Indeed, it is recognised as Britain’s top tourist attraction, attracting nearly six million visitors a year. However, it wasn’t so much fun for some visitors on Tuesday evening.  Over 30 people suffered injuries after a collision on one of the theme park’s most famous rollercoaster rides, the Big Dipper. According to the BBC website, one of the carriages became jammed on the rails and as a direct consequence of this the second carriage, which had continued as normal, slammed into the back of the first carriage.

Of those injured, 21 were taken to hospital, complaining of facial, back and neck injuries. The ride is closed while the Health and Safety Executive investigate the crash.

The circumstances surrounding this incident are not dissimilar to a road traffic accident. Where one vehicle collides in to the back of another, the fault is almost always given to the driver of the vehicle behind. Common injuries from such a crash include neck and back pain and stiffness caused by a whiplash effect.

The obvious differing circumstance in this case is that the people in the second carriage had absolutely no control over the operation of the vehicle, and the responsibility should have been for the person in the control room to stop the ride when one of the carriages became stuck. It is unclear from the initial report of the accident whether there was an attempt to stop the second carriage, with no details of the speed at which the vehicles collided having been leaked.

After the crash, the vehicles came to rest 20 feet above the ground and fire fighters had to be called in order to rescue riders.