Latest ride at Wonderland
- Thread starter Big Rig
- Start date
1986 – Wilde Beast Injury- A teenage girl suffered serious back injuries while riding the Wilde Beast, a classic wooden coaster. The incident was caused by sudden jolting, leading to a lawsuit and increased scrutiny over ride maintenance.
1992 – Skyrider Ejection Claim- A man claimed he was partially ejected from Skyrider, a stand-up coaster, during a loop. While the investigation didn’t find mechanical failure, the story sparked debate about body-type safety on stand-up coasters.
1997 – Top Gun (Now Flight Deck) Evacuation- Top Gun, the inverted coaster themed on the movie, stalled mid-course, suspending riders for nearly an hour. No injuries, but the media buzzed with images of dangling feet and emergency ladders.
2003 – Drop Zone Fatality (Paramount era)- The most tragic: a 21-year-old man with a mental disability died after falling from Drop Zone Stunt Tower (now Drop Tower). It was found he had unfastened the safety restraint. This prompted sweeping changes in ride policy for guests with cognitive impairments.
2007 – Dragon Fire Injury- A woman suffered a head injury after being struck by an object while riding Dragon Fire. Park officials suggested it may have been a loose item dropped by another rider.
2012 – WindSeeker Breakdown- The WindSeeker ride malfunctioned, leaving 26 guests stranded 300 feet in the air for over 3 hours. No injuries, but it reignited fears about vertical ride reliability.
2013 – Stunt Show Accident- During a live stunt show, a pyrotechnics mishap injured a performer. Though not related to a ride, it was a major public incident that altered show safety protocols.
2019 – Yukon Striker Malfunction- Shortly after its debut, the record-breaking Yukon Striker experienced multiple breakdowns. On one occasion, guests were evacuated manually from the vertical drop zone. Again, no injuries, but the drama was real.
1986 — The Beast Knows Your BonesThe Wilde Beast snarled one summer afternoon. A teenage girl left the ride in a stretcher, spine misaligned by the rough wooden sway. Parents asked if the ride was too wild for its own name. Lawyers saw an opening. Wonderland said nothing—just tightened bolts and repainted the sign. But the Beast still growled.
1992 — Skyrider, SkyfallA man claimed he was flung forward in the loop, restrained by nothing but corporate silence. Skyrider was the kind of ride that buckled your knees, even while standing. Wonderland argued the ride was flawless. The public wondered if perfect machines can still be indifferent.
1997 — Top Gun: DownedWhen Top Gun stalled mid-air, dangling riders painted a tableau of 20th-century anxiety: wires, steel, failure. The newscast cut between shaky cam and the embarrassed grins of thrill-seekers turned hostages. Rescue ladders clanged like the soundtrack of a low-budget horror film. “You okay?” one boy asked. “I can’t feel my toes,” the girl replied.
🪦 2003 — The Drop Was Real
A 21-year-old man with a developmental disability plummeted from the Drop Zone Stunt Tower. The restraint hadn’t failed—but he had unlocked it. The silence from Wonderland afterward was deafening. Legal changes followed. But behind the scenes? Staff whispered about “ghost codes” and anti-rollback sensors that blinked red even when no one was riding.
2007 — Dragon Fire, Dragon’s BiteA woman was struck mid-ride—perhaps by a falling phone, or a piece of the park itself. No one could say for sure. The official report was neat and clean. The rider’s bandaged head wasn’t. Like something from King’s Gerald’s Game—the illusion of control, shattered by one freak moment.
🪂 2012 — WindSeeker, Sky Prison
For three hours, the WindSeeker riders stared down at the earth. Rescue crews considered sending helicopters. One girl wet herself and cried. Others laughed nervously. The ride was brand new. The press called it "teething issues." But some said it was Wonderland’s Tower of Babel moment—man built too high, and the sky pushed back.
2013 — Stunt Show Gone StygianThe explosion was meant to entertain. But fire has a mind of its own. A stunt performer suffered burns when a misfire licked past the safety line. The audience applauded at first, not realizing the horror wasn’t fake. The man behind the curtain was screaming.
2019 — Yukon Striker: Strike OneJust weeks into its run, the Yukon Striker glitched during its vertical hold. Riders were walked down steel catwalks while TV helicopters circled. The irony? This was the safest coaster ever designed in Canada. But safety, like sanity in a King novel, is fragile when suspended over the abyss.
Epilogue — The Park That Smiles Too WideCanada’s Wonderland wears its corporate face well: Snoopy statues, overpriced funnel cakes, playlists stuck in 2013. But in every ride’s shriek and screech, there’s a whisper. The machinery remembers. And somewhere in the archives, beneath the promotional gloss, is a stack of reports stamped “confidential.”
I didn’t die (but felt like I would) on Wonderland's new record-breaking roller-coaster
‘This is not an experience you’re going to get on any other roller-coaster. Your legs are dangling over open air. When you’re hanging there for those three seconds, there’s nothing between you and that drop but open air,’ says Canada’s Wonderland director of communications
Jenni Dunning
Apr 28, 2019 12:15 PM
Meh, given the number of riders, the % of problems are likely way less than 0.1%. Safer than my driving. Which actually isn't that hard.
