For over a century, roller coasters and other amusement park rides have provided thrills by walking the line between scary and fun. Yet for almost as long, these rides have led to accidents that are scarily dangerous. Most recently, an Ohio State Fair attraction known as the Fire Ball malfunctioned, killing one rider and injuring seven others. The pendulum ride was supposed to give passengers a thrill by swinging them in a circle on a gondola on the Columbus fairgrounds. But on July 26, 2017, a whole row of the gondola fell off and two seatbelts malfunctioned, sending people into a freefall, according to The Washington Post.
Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) described it as “the worst tragedy in the history of the fair,” and called for all of the rides to be shut down while authorities investigate them. As Kevin Lui noted in Time, there have already been at least four serious amusement park accidents since May of 2017, both in the U.S. and abroad: A roller coaster collision in Spain that injured 33, another gondola accident in which a teenager fell 25 feet at a Six Flags in New York state, and two water ride accidents—one in California and one in the U.K.—that injured a 10-year-old and killed an 11-year-old.
Amusement park rides debuted in the late 19th century, and accidents on them have been documented since at least the early 20th century. In 1915, for example, Coney Island’s Rough Riders roller coaster—so named for President Teddy Roosevelt’s calvary during the Spanish-American Civil War—killed three people when a car went off the track 30 feet in the air.