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    When we go to an amusement park, we’re expecting to be scared for our lives while not in any real danger. Unfortunately, even the most well-maintained roller coaster carries the potential of hideous injury and even death. Before you buy your E tickets this summer, why not read this sobering look at nasty things that happened on roller coasters and other rides?

    Batman: The Ride – 2008

    You don’t have to be riding a roller coaster to get killed by it. You just have to be a dumbass. On June 28, 2008, a young man at Six Flags Over Georgia dropped his hat on Batman: The Ride. Instead of, you know, getting another hat, he decided to jump two fences and get it back himself. Do you know why they tell you not to do this? Because you get decapitated if you do. That’s what happened to our poor anonymous sucker here, as the roller coaster car knocked his head clean off, which is ironic considering he was trying to retrieve a lost hat.
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    Mindbender – 1986

    Located in Alberta, Canada, the Mindbender is the world’s largest indoor triple loop roller coaster. But when you go for world records, you’re just making more possibilities for disaster. A year after the ride opened, it suffered one of the most disgusting crashes in amusement-park history. Bolts on one of the inside wheels were missing, causing the last car of the train to fly off the track and start fishtailing wildly. As it collided with concrete walls, the safety lap bars disengaged, sending passengers flying. The ride of horror finally ended when the train slid backwards and crashed into a concrete pillar. Three people were killed and many more injured, but the ride is still in service today. Do you have the balls to ride it?
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    Big Dipper – 1972

    The single worst roller-coaster accident in history happened in England, at the Battersea Park Fun Fair. The Big Dipper was the park’s main attraction, an old-school wooden roller coaster that offered tons of rickety thrills. Unfortunately, wooden coasters wear out quickly if not scrupulously maintained, and one day in May of 1972, the rope that hauls the cars to the top of the launch hill snapped, the anti-rollback mechanism failed, and a chain of cars came barreling back into the boarding area, killing five children and horribly injuring thirteen others.
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    Fujin Raijin II – 2007

    Japan’s worst amusement-park disaster happened in 2007 at Expoland, outside of Osaka. The Fujin Raijin II roller coaster derailed, sending cars flying off the tracks, which killed a college student and injured 19 others. The accident revealed that the coaster’s axles hadn’t been replaced in 15 years. Even worse, they reopened after the accident and safety inspectors discovered another train with an axle about to snap that the park was still letting run. Expoland closed soon after, blaming “a lack of customers.” Next time try not killing them.
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    Big Dipper – 1930

    Considering how much we’ve learned about safety in the last few decades, it shouldn’t surprise you that old-school roller coasters were insanely dangerous. One of the most intense roller-coaster accidents in U.S. history happened at Krug Park in Omaha, Neb. The park’s hottest ride in 1930 was the Big Dipper, but it didn’t stay hot for long. While the ride was in motion, a bolt worked loose on the train and sent four full cars of people crashing to the ground below, killing four people. Omaha immediately passed a law making roller coasters illegal in the city, and Krug Park closed down soon afterwards.
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    Superman Tower of Power – 2007

    This Six Flags mainstay isn’t a traditional roller coaster; it’s more of a vertical drop ride where passengers legs hang free. But what happened at Six Flags Kentucky in June of 2007 was so grisly that it earns a place on this list. When a group of teenage girls headed up on the ride, they were horrified when a number of support cables broke loose and started whipping them in the face and torso. They screamed “Stop the ride!” as smoke began billowing from the sides, but they were cranked all the way to the top and dropped, the steel cables snapping back and forth viciously. Many of the passengers were injured and one girl had both of her feet completely amputated.
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    Puff the Little Fire Dragon – 1989

    The amazing thing about roller coaster fatalities is that they don’t have to happen high in the air. The “Puff the Little Fire Dragon” coaster is one of the slowest and safest at Utah’s Lagoon Amusement Park, but it claimed the life of 6-year-old Ryan Beckstead in 1989. The boy managed to slip out of the ride’s safety restraints and stand up shortly after it left the station, but he quickly fell out onto the ground below. It was only a four foot drop, so he wasn’t badly hurt. Unfortunately, he then tried to climb back onto the tracks and the same car looped around and knocked him in the head, killing him instantly.
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    Ride of Steel – 2011

    Iraq War vet Sgt. James Hackemer came back from duty in the Gulf War minus two of his legs from a roadside IED, but he didn’t let it get him down. He went with his family to the Darien Lake amusement park outside of Buffalo, making sure to ask park employees what rides were safe for him. They gave him the OK to be strapped into the 20-story Ride of Steel coaster, which proved to be a fatal mistake. Going over one of the small hills towards the ride’s end, Hackemer bounced out of his restraints and fell to his death.
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    The Rat – 2007

    Roller-coaster fatalities aren’t restricted just to parkgoers. Sometimes they claim the lives of the men and women tasked to operate them. At Scotland’s Loudoun Castle amusement park, young Mark Blackwood had just been trained in the operation of the Rat roller coaster on July 15, 2007. He was then left on his own to run the ride. When the car stopped on the track, it was common for the ride operator to climb up and push it to get it to continue on. When Blackwood tried this one-man repair job, the car started to move and Blackwood found his hand stuck. Once it reached the top of the rise, he fell to his death.
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    The Cyclone – 1988

    If you’ve ever been to New York’s legendary Coney Island, you’ve seen the Cyclone. This classic wooden roller coaster is one of the most famous amusement park rides in the country. And, of course, it’s tasted its fair share of blood. On a hot August day in 1988, a maintenance worker was the only rider on the train and managed to bypass the safety bar, standing up as the coaster began to roll down its first big hill. Needless to say, the maintenance worker quickly was thrown out of the coaster and fell 30 feet, landing on a crossbeam and dying instantly. The ride was reopened the next day after inspectors determined that the guy was the one at fault.