r/news • u/One-Emu-1103 • 1d ago
Government records reveal mechanical failures, faulty restraint bars and broken bones at Six Flags theme parks
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/us/six-flags-injuries-invs2.5k
u/mixduptransistor 1d ago
That CNN was able to put together this extensive and detailed of a story this quick is not good for Six Flags
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u/Apprehensive_Pea7911 1d ago
They've probably had tons of existing evidence of poor maintenance and safety issues compiled already. Not that hard to anticipate a major theme park accident.
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u/Pterocacti 1d ago
the section on the six flags ride causing a bunch of severe brain injuries (including two women needing brain surgery within the same week) was part of their reporting from just a month or two ago, they were already on this
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u/NoTerm3078 1d ago
One of those ladies is apparently still in a coma.
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u/unimpressed822 1d ago
wtf is going on at six flags
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u/ZenAdm1n 1d ago
Raising park prices while neglecting maintenance to make the balance sheet look attractive to investors? Won't someone think of the shareholders!?
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 1d ago
They are a profit driven company and this kind of stuff can go on for years before a lawsuit hits. By then the top executives can rank in a ton of bonuses. And this is basically most businesses in the US.
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u/YellowZx5 1d ago
When you can pay people off for a little amount of money, then have them all sign an NDA is a pretty cheap cost of business.
Most people settle for a little amount of money compared to what Six Flags has when they should be getting a full jury and court date set. I would be suing for billions because of the neglect.
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u/BigGuysForYou 1d ago edited 1d ago
I saw in another video about someone falling off a roller coaster that they have a loophole. Fixed site amusement park rides are not federally regulated, unlike rides at things like carnivals.
Lobbyists convinced the government they do a good enough job on their own. One senator has tried to push through legislation to close this loophole every year for years and it's never been passed.
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u/RainSurname 16h ago
Yeah, carnival rides are actually safer than amusement park rides, according to statistics.
And waterslides are more dangerous than both.
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u/cartwheelpanic 1d ago
Let's not forget that six flags already had news breaking accidents long before this ever happened. I remember the Batman Rollercoaster incident.
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u/Retalihaitian 1d ago
Yeah but how can you blame six flags for someone climbing a fence and getting themselves killed?
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u/cartwheelpanic 1d ago edited 1d ago
If I remember correctly they did face repercussions on not having stronger preemptive security around the base of their rollercoasters. Ever since, according to googling, they have placed barbed wire, strongly worded warnings, bigger signs and more security guards. Mind you that was the SECOND time that has happened. A similar incident happened in 2002. Also someone else being ejected from their seat has happened before too in 2013.
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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 1d ago
Are amusement rides just.. not regulated in the USA?
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u/Dhat_dewd 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's up to the states. Fun fact: water parks and water slides are also not federally regulated. The citizens of Kansas learned this the hard way.
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u/annaleigh13 1d ago
And many states do not regulate mobile rides that you see at carnivals
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u/Dhat_dewd 1d ago
And those are the real death traps.
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u/annaleigh13 1d ago
It’s so dependent on the company setting up the rides and the handful of workers assigned to it that it’s not worth the risk. I’m not going to say all of them are death traps, because there are some ride operators that genuinely take care of their equipment, but for every one of them there’s 3 of the ones that don’t care
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u/phluidity 1d ago
Regulations are largely state by state. Different states have different standards. Some states have strong inspection criteria, others do not at all. Some require state inspection of rides, others allow for self certification. But even the ones who mandate state inspection pretty much all underfund inspectors and it largely falls back to the parks.
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u/AlashC 1d ago
I work in “inspection” for a different industry but attend a lot of inspection trainings and conferences that cross over into other industries. What I’ve heard of the amusement park industry has made me never want to ride roller coasters again. They basically choose not to do regular inspections because they know if they do they’ll find defects that need to be repaired. So if they just never look at the equipment then they can claim ignorance when some shit like this happens.
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u/Actinglead 1d ago
Not really, roller coasters (fixed-site amusement park rides in general) are explicitly exempt from the Consumer Product Safety Act since 1981.
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u/imnotminkus 1d ago
And in some states they’re regulated by the Department of Agriculture. Like…farms. Rollercoaster farms.
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u/annaleigh13 1d ago
On a federal level, you’re correct. Fixed amusement rides and attractions still have state certification they must pass
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u/yellow_mio 1d ago
I wonder who were the lobbyists for this one. Seems like there should be fewer journalists covering what is said in front of the cameras and more covering who is paying who.
I suppose oil businesses pay more than governmental green electricity companies do.
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u/APeacefulWarrior 1d ago
Far less regulated than you'd expect. It's down to state and even local regs, which can be very... spotty. And easily influenced.
Look into Action Park - aka "Traction Park" - to see how bad it can get.
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u/Enfenestrate 1d ago
I watched a documentary on Action Park not that long ago. I had no idea just how unsafe that place was. I mean, we all kinda knew it, but it was much worse than we thought at the time.
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u/APeacefulWarrior 1d ago
I still keep learning about new horrors there. I saw a video recently with a story I hadn't heard before, about this insane attempt to make a sort of human hamster ball on a track that - in its first test - sent the victim (who somehow survived) flying off the track, down a hill, out of the park, and into traffic.
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u/The_Spectacle 1d ago
there's also that Verrückt water slide in Kansas where a kid was decapitated or something like that. There was a tv show filming as they designed and tested it (Extreme Waterparks I think?) I saw the episode before that happened, the engineers didn't know wtf they were doing.
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u/theobedientalligator 1d ago
Very good podcast called Swindled did a whole ep on that poor boy and those idiot ride designers. That’s where I learned theme parks are state controlled. I think I’m good on roller coasters since Cedar Point almost didn’t secure my harness last year 😕
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u/Worthyness 1d ago
Company specific mostly. Theyre motivated usually because someone dying on your ride means people dont want to go to your park anymore. At least thats why disney does their hyper specific safety checks. Six flags is like thr private equity of the theme parks world.
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u/annaleigh13 1d ago
Yes and no. Each state has its own regulatory body that will certify the rides every year, however the department that handles these certifications are sometimes woefully out of their league. For example, in Ohio (at least through 2008), the department of agriculture certified fixed theme park rides and attractions.
Now carnival rides? Those are rarely covered by state certification
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u/Salt-Operation 1d ago
They are, but much like everything else around here, regulatory bodies have been gutted both financially and politically. Regulators have been fired or laid off and the few remaining have little power to do their jobs when they’ve been hamstrung by lack of funding and interference by corporate interests.
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u/SirNarwhal 1d ago
The US has some of the strictest regulations on amusement park rides. The only place with arguably stricter regulations is China which has rules regarding end of life timelines for roller coasters due to aging steel and to prevent things like what happened here.
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u/AnAncientBog 1d ago
They range from "not really regulated" to "pretty well regulated" and most patrons don't know the difference. Fun fact: the places with less regulation tend to have more parks.
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u/Daren_I 1d ago
My car has more documented service than amusement rides. As for Six Flags (over Texas), I've more than once had to hold myself in the seat to keep from coming out. Once, only my knees stopped me from flying out coming over a hill; my shoulder blades were above the headrest at the peak. I want to say it was the Shockwave, but it could have been the Texas Giant.
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u/Tavarin 1d ago
Roller coaster deaths and injuries are exceedingly rare. You are far more likely to get injured or die on your way to the amusement park, than in it.
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u/strawberrylipscrub 1d ago
CNN broke the X1 brain injury investigation, they’ve probably been looking into each park’s safety for some time now.
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u/R1ppedWarrior 1d ago
Not that it matters much, but I'm in a pedantic mood. There was no X1. It was originally opened as X and then after it was revamped, its name was changed to X2.
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u/NatureTrailToHell3D 1d ago
I’ve only been on X, it was a great coaster.
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u/R1ppedWarrior 1d ago
I've ridden X and X2 more times than I can count and they were both awesome. Was my favorite ride.
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u/XCurlyXO 1d ago
Same for Goliath for me! I used to go all the time when that ride first opened. I’ve been on it more times than I can count, loved that ride. Sad to see a man lose his life to it. Safety standards are clearly lacking, they need to come down hard on six flags.
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u/joepez 1d ago
All they had to do is look at the past forty years of news stories. Six Flags is not unique, but they are big and get publicity. They have had injuries and fatalities for ever, kinda like anyone else.
You want to see some crazy stories go watch the Action Park documentary. The 80s were some crazy times. Miss that amusement park.
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u/IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES 1d ago
Ruined all parks for me. That place was super fun, we went on school trips. Best wave pool.
Friend asks if I used the brakes on the alpine slide, I did, he says I’m a pussy and it’s probably designed so you can’t fly out. About 20 mins later at the bottom hes a little confused and his skin on one thigh is gone and his shorts ripped to the point he had to hold em together in line so his crotch wasn’t visible. He’d launched out on an alpine slide turn. Wasnt till I learned some medicine about 10 years later that the following 2 weeks of photosensitivity was his concussion.
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u/eighteen_forty_no 1d ago
They recently conducted a deep dive into the history of injuries on X2, which ultimately led to X2's closure. So they had this article fully researched already when this latest tragedy struck.
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u/Critical-Ask2154 1d ago
It is the usual story about ignored maintenance or negligence. Financial constraints are used to justify deferred repairs or maintenance to maintain profits and/or keep operating. Just like auto manufacturers the costs of a lawsuit are assumed to be a cost of doing business and saving the capital investment and op costs in repairs.
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u/T-ravMcNavis 1d ago
Pretty sure I’m never riding a rollercoaster again.
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u/Terrible_Shelter_345 1d ago
I just never feel safe in the seats.
I don’t understand why there aren’t also over-the-shoulder style seatbelts on every roller coaster. Similar to what you’d see in a race car, minus the HANS device of course.
I don’t know if that would’ve saved the guy on the Goliath, but those dogshit lap bars and the single lap belt buckle just do not leave me feeling safe (even though statistically yes I know I am).
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u/LakersTommyG 1d ago
Over the shoulder restraints are widely disliked by rollercoaster enthusiasts. That’s probably part of the reason. The lap bars are often preferred for the less restrictive feeling they provide. I’m not commenting on the safety of either, just providing some context.
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u/Automaton_General 1d ago
I loved them as a kid
I rode one as an adult and was in pain for days
I'm just not as pliable as I used to be. Less gelatinous, more arthritic.
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u/ExIsStalkingMe 1d ago
I think I could do a nice metal coaster still at 40, but nothing would get me on a woody anymore. I can only imagine what that would make my joints feel like for the next week
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u/Bad_Repute 1d ago
The Cyclone wooden coaster at 6-flags Valencia gave me a migraine for 3 days, i was 17. Ruined a whole week long family vacation for me. I've never ridden a wooden coaster since.
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u/SSLByron 1d ago
This is the brand they think is stronger than "Cedar Point." And some agency is getting paid a lot of money to reinforce that delusion.
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u/gundumb08 1d ago
I could be wrong, but all of the parks mentioned are legacy SF parts, not CF parks. I wonder how much has changed from an operations perspective at each individual park.
And you know its gotta be Mckinsey and Co. How they are still used by anyone for consulting I'll never understand.
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u/Khyron_2500 1d ago
I think they are talking about news from early October where they are floating rebranding Cedar Point to a Six Flags name.
In the recent context this seems wild given what you mentioned: Cedar Fair was known for emphasis on safety while Six Flags has seemingly struggled lately.
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u/PrawojazdyVtrumpets 1d ago
Cedar Fair wasn’t just known for safety, they were known as being overzealous with it among enthusiasts. For something close to 20 years, Magnum at Cedar Point would dispatch its trains with ride operators milling about the load platform. Then after a tiny bump between two trains during rain they instituted a new policy that in any rain, light or heavy, all rides go to one train operations effectively tripling the wait time when they used to run all three. On top of that, they made ride operators on the load side stand behind pillars when the train was in motion.
Overkill? Yes but no one was going to get hurt.
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u/PM-ME-CURSED-PICS 1d ago
specified zones for operators is standard at cedar fair parks now, or at least was when i was working at one a few years ago. every single ride had either a gate for an operator to go behind and lock, a booth to stay in, or a painted square on the ground they must stay in while the ride's in motion. ngl as an employee i liked how clear and full of redundancies the operating procedures were because it made me feel more confident in what i was doing and in the safety of the guests even if they took much longer than procedures at other parks do.
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u/jChuck 1d ago
We were at cedar point 3 years ago and my wife nearly got thrown off of magnum due to the lapbar releasing while going down the last hill. I watched in horror from the car behind her as she went horizontal on the turn and was caught by her feet. When pulling into the station we immediately started yelling to the operators to stop the ride and they ignored us and said oh yeah we won't run that car and ushered us down the exit. I turned around and watched them load people into the same car. It took me nearly an hour to get the ride shutdown and required getting the head of park safety to walk over to shut it down because the employees didn't care. I was told by one of the junior employees it's because they bonus based off hitting ride throughout targets. I don't know how legit that is but it made sense given they wouldn't listen at all about the safety hazard.
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u/Friskfrisktopherson 1d ago
I rode The Raptor as a kid and the ride took off without the harness clicking down. Me and the girl next to me tried to get the operators attention but they ignored us. The car took off up the ramp and the harness remained stuck in the open position. I fully thought I was about to be flung hundreds of feet in the air to my death when in the last 30ft of the climb the bar released down and we clicked it into place, with less than 5 secs left before the first drop turn.
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u/VibraniumQueen 1d ago
Cedar fair/point owns Valley Fair in Minnesota, right?
Did they buy it? Or was it always under them?
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u/patchesyar 1d ago
Both, actually. Cedar Fair as a company was formed when Cedar Point acquired Valleyfair. It's where the second half of the name comes from. They proceeded to acquire a number of other parks before a recent "merger of equals" with Six Flags, where they largely decided to run with the latter's name in parks for brand recognition (though as we're seeing the brand isn't always recognized for the best reasons).
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u/avw94 1d ago edited 1d ago
I worked as a Engineer for a roller coaster manufacturer from that was doing installs in both Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks in 2017 and 2018, so pre-merger. I actually felt that Six Flags has the more exacting and comprehensive maintenance approach between the two companies.
Seeing these issues is really fucking disappointing, both as a former engineer in the industry and as a life-long coaster enthusiast.
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u/StrobeLightRomance 1d ago
I associate Cedar Point with the Top Thrill Dragster permanently incapacitating Rachel Hawes with a traumatic brain injury and then burying the story in the press and fighting investigations and Sandusky law enforcement's jurisdiction about it.
So..
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u/Winter_Purpose_5857 1d ago
You mean the survey’s with obviously ridiculous naming options that news stations latched on to for clicks?
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u/Khyron_2500 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mean… it’s not like the company sent out a survey for the LOLs. There is at least someone in the company who thinks the possibility is at least worth putting feelers out there.
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u/ValkyroftheMall 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is the reason why I was devastated when I heard Cedar Fair and Six Flags merged. Its only a matter of time before Six Flags management turns the park I've been going to since I was kid into a flaming shithole like the rest of their parks.
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u/Accurate-Banana-176 1d ago
Ah the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas model
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u/Gastroid 1d ago
Or for a more modern take, the Xbox-Activision model.
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u/JamesonQuay 1d ago
Xbox-Activision didn't kill anyone. Boeing 737 Max 8, however
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u/OldAccountIsGlitched 1d ago
So is XBox killing Activision or Activision killing Xbox in this model. Because both were pretty shitty companies before the acquisition.
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u/ExultantSandwich 1d ago
As of right now? It looks like Activision Blizzard was too big for Xbox Game Studios to successfully integrate. So instead Xbox has been broken up and certain assets sold off, Activision got Halo
gg Microsoft
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u/WowIfOnly 1d ago
Or just literally any corporate merger that's happened in the past 20+ years now. It's never good news 9/10 times.
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u/ahhh_ennui 1d ago
I've been going to Cedar Point since they introduced the Corkscrew. I haven't been in recent years because I no longer trust my aging inner ear, but I never felt truly scared of anything. Thrilled, yes. The feeling of looking down the first hill of the Magnum and Millennial Force (heck, Gemini was a big scary deal at first) was so great. First seat on the Raptor.
As a kid, I loved the Mine Ride. As an adult, it hurt too much. Same for Mean Streak, yikes. But I felt secure and had no reason to distrust the training of the operators.
I have so much nostalgia and fond memories of a fairly affordable, relatively low-cost option to Disney for my parents and I to enjoy. We visited the Six Flags in IL and Kings Island in the 80s and they were not even close to the layout, cleanliness, and variety that Cedar Point offered.
This timeline is dulling everything. Mergers and empty suits scavenging every delightful thing they possibly can.
I guess this is just a pointless rant and silly grief but man. I hate all of this.
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u/Travon706 1d ago
In a world filled to the brim with pointless rants and resentments, yours was appreciated by one man at least. The grand creations of the past will have to be replaced with more modest, honest, homegrown experiences for a little while it seems.
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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 1d ago
As a kid at cedar point in ohio, I went on one of the hanging seat style roller coasters where your feet dangle. While coming around a curve, both mine and my friends shoulder restraints unlocked. We both held on to the handles for our lives, him actually slipped out of his seat. We kept pulling them back and finally they locked again but it was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me. Once the ride ended we immediately told the ride conductor. He brushed it off and sent the next round of people. Never again will I ride a roller coaster. Fuck that and fuck all the uncaring, undertrained shit stains that own or operate them.
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u/DoDaDrew 1d ago
Did see the nonsense survey they sent out with their ideas to rename both Kings Island and Cedar Point?
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u/thinkingahead 1d ago
There is zero good reason to rename something as established as Cedar Point. Marketing departments start down this road to create work for themselves I swear. Brands carry power. Established brands have a value. I don’t get why they want to throw away the value of an established brand
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u/Neokon 1d ago
Marketing departments start down this road to create work for themselves I swear.
I mean they do, their entire job is to get the name out there, and one of the dumbest ways is to try and rebrand an established product. Remember PibbXtra? Also renaming competitions are the easiest way to get a lot of money for virtually nothing. Hey pay us a lot of money to do a nationwide competition, we chose the top 5 pay us to create a nationwide poll, we decided to let the results fade into obscurity (we never even looked at them).
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u/BLT_Trade_r 1d ago
Ya but how could that marketing exec be able to put that they pushed the successful rebranding of Cedar Point if they don't rename it, huh? /s
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u/phluidity 1d ago
Look, anyone can screw up the theme park industry in Ohio one time. But you have to think outside the box if you want to do it twice.
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u/xXxSovietxXx 1d ago
I feel Cedar Fairs (I go to Cedar Point) has been slipping since the merger too. Not saying Cedar Point was without it's flaws before the merger but feels worse since then
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u/SoCalChrisW 1d ago
Same with Knott's Berry Farm.
They've gutted the meal plan and a lot of food options, Haunt feels cheaper this year, and their ride and food operations (which admittedly had issues before) have just gotten worse.
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u/caffekona 1d ago
Until this season, I hadn't been to cedar point since before the merger. Always felt safe on the rides, but the dining areas were always a mess (sometimes I could barely find a spot to eat that didn't have condiments all over it). This season the outdoor dining spots were the cleanest I've seen in years.
That being said, the merger makes me nervous. I've always trusted cedar point but I have no idea how much control six flags has over things now and if they'll screw up my "home" park.
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u/PresidentMagikarp 1d ago
In the Cedar Fair-Six Flags merger that took place two years ago, the newly combined Six Flags retained Cedar Fair's executive management. So, amazingly, it's not the old Six Flags management's fault. Cedar Fair's old management is just destroying all the goodwill they'd built up at Cedar Point and Kings Island over the last few decades.
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u/BLT_Trade_r 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was curious whether this had been brought up. Its hard to say if enshitification is just a general trend or 6 flags has always been a problem. However, people have widely talked about how much worse Cedar Point has gotten since 6 Flags came in.
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u/ValkyroftheMall 1d ago
Higher costs for food and drink, along with poorer quality and smaller portions, as well as more aggressive pushes for fast passes are the big things I've been noticing.
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u/Starlightriddlex 1d ago
I also just realized six flags owns Knott's Berry Farm too. Feels like every day we move closer to Idiocracy where everything is just Costco and Carls Jr.
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u/randomtask 1d ago
As someone who is deeply familiar with, but not employed by, the amusement industry I encourage everyone to temper their outrage at the idea that fundamental ride safety is an endemic issue. While the article does pointedly identify several ride safety issues that have come up over the years, it often conflates facility and infrastructure maintenance (i.e. the whole site, including things like restrooms, food stalls, shops, pavement, etc.) with ride maintenance, and that's just not the same thing. For instance, the following phrases apply to a lack of capital investments that would improve quality of the guest experience, not necessary operational expenditures relating ride maintenance and safety (emphasis mine):
Six Flags officials had put off basic park maintenance, infrastructure repairs and ride updates
a Six Flags executive described a need to invest in “deferred items” at the amusement parks, while another stated the “list is always long” for needed improvements in response to a question from a financial analyst
failed to make adequate capital investments to conduct routine facility maintenance or improve rides and attractions, and made drastic personnel cuts
Also, the vast majority of injuries are caused by guest behavior, i.e. human factors that are unrelated to the operation and maintenance/upkeep of the rides themselves. If you want to learn more about ride safety, I suggest reading the 2024 industry-wide safety report linked in the article. Their quote:
Theme park-related accidents remain rare, with an industry report showing roughly 1,500 injuries in 2024. Most of these were classified as related to guest behavior or medical conditions, and roughly 25 percent were caused by technical or operational issues, such as mechanical problems with a ride or operator error.
Oversights still happen, and injuries still happen. But the incidence of serious guest injuries and maintenance oversights are far more rare than the tone of the article suggests.
All that said, I'll leave you with this: what happened on the roller coaster in Georgia was a complete shock to myself and many others familiar with the industry.
The accident occurred on a model with a pristine rider safety record and reputation for being extremely well-engineered, with heavily redundant safety systems that had been developed, tested, and refined over decades, even prior to this installation's 2006 opening. The procedure for the correct maintenance and operation of the ride type is heavily documented. The entire ride, including its trains, track, and structure, has a robust multipoint daily inspection schedule, along with an extensive plan for preventative maintenance on its trains, lift, controls, and braking systems that specify when and how to swap out parts that can wear out or fatigue over time, e.g. friction brakes, mechanical interlocks, wheels, structural components, etc. This includes a requirement to completely tear down, inspect, and rebuild the roller coaster trains and its restraints every year, to ensure every single critical component is both metallurgically and mechanically sound.
It's not clear yet what the cause of the accident was, but one thing is clear: based on how much effort goes into the engineering, operations, and maintenance of this ride type, an accident like this shouldn't have happened. But it happened just the same. So until we know exactly what factors caused this, I find CNN's choice to run a hit piece on Six Flags specifically to be highly premature and in poor faith. We simply don't have enough information to start casting blame upon the chain that installed and operated this ride that they had every reason to believe, through years of engineering and operational best practices, was redundant and safe.
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u/arizonadirtbag12 1d ago
Thanks. I was a season ticket holder at a Six Flags for years, and while there were aspects of the park where you could feel corners being cut, ride maintenance never seemed like one of them. And yeah, actual injuries are quite rare.
I was surprised at the recent shutdown of X-2 due to multiple serious injuries, which suggests an actual issue with the ride design/condition. It still wasn’t many injuries considering the number of riders annually, of course.
A rider dying on a roller coaster is vanishingly rare though. That’s why this is news.
Feels like people don’t get that.
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u/samtdzn_pokemon 1d ago
There were 29 rider deaths on rollercoasters in the 10 year period between 1994 and 2004. Of those, 18 were due to pre-existing medical conditions while only 11 were due to mechanical or restraint issues. So just over 1 per year. They are very, very rare.
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u/cBurger4Life 1d ago
I have no knowledge of any of this, but uh… 2004 was 22 years ago. A lot can change in that time
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u/ThePensiveE 1d ago
So glad they merged with my local park!
At least they already enshittified the meal plans and overall experience so much that we won't waste our money on passes next year for the first time in a decade.
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u/SoCalChrisW 1d ago
Which park? We're in the same boat with Knott's.
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u/ThePensiveE 1d ago
King's Island, although Cedar Point isn't far either and same thing is happening there.
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u/sleepymoose88 19h ago
And here we’ve had a Six Flags for decades (St. Louis) that was decent when I was a kid in the 90s but lately has been mediocre. Six Flags recently sold it to the PE firm “Enchanted Parks”, so we are ditching our passes. My son loves roller coasters, so he’s disappointed, but half the roller coasters in the park are so janky these days he won’t even ride them.
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u/eeyore134 1d ago
Glad to have had Busch Gardens as my go to theme park. They haven't had a perfect track record, of course, but they've had a pretty good one comparatively. Not just that, but they keep their parks super clean and care about making things beautiful. It's not just expanse after expanse of concrete. Even after Busch sold it the quality remained pretty high.
Some unfortunate things have been made a lot worse in recent years, but it's still a nice park. They allow way too many people in at once, there used to be stricter limits. They've pretty much ruined all the stores, only a handful aren't just generic tourist crap when almost every shop used to be unique. They removed the oompa band and a lot of the entertainment, especially the wandering folks. The food also isn't quite as good, but still decent. I never died there, so that's also a plus.
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u/djankylosaur 1d ago
"Busch Gardens - At least you won't die!"
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u/eeyore134 1d ago
* Probably. And you might still get nailed by a goose to the face.
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u/docskreba 1d ago
Coincidentally Apollo’s Chariot was made by the same company as Goliath and has the same types of restraints.
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u/cultfourtyfive 1d ago
This...can't be the Tampa park. The Tampa park has been in poor disrepair for decades and it's far from clean. The last time I went (Spring 2025) there seemed to be a modest improvement from when I had my annual passes, but overall it was still poorly maintained. I live nearby and gave up my passes because it just wasn't a fun time with the poor condition of the park and the piss poor selection of food and drink, even when they run their various festivals. The only reason I go now is to see bands if someone comes along that I like.
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u/tehpoorcollegegal 1d ago
Lol I came here to say this! There's no way they're referencing the FL park. BG Tampa is AWFUL. It's hard for me to decide which they do worse - animal welfare or human safety. (And I worked with the animals at one of their sister parks so iykyk.)
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u/BizProfessor 1d ago
Do you trust them?! I’ve been going to Williamsburg for years and every year seems a little worse in terms of low staff and stupid staff. It’s moving ever closer to six flags on the scale of WDW to county fair. I’m worried there could be a big accident soon with how absolutely incompetent and disgruntled the staff seem
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u/Foe117 1d ago
Six flags has gone the way of private equity, they've cut maintenance down so badly, its a travesty.
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u/dcduck 1d ago
Six Flags is owned by Cedar Fair and it's a publicly traded company.
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u/The_Original_Miser 1d ago
51% Cedar Fair, 49% Six Flags
CF unit holders were not permitted to vote on the "merger" (odds are they would have voted no).
Only two original executives from Cedar Fair remaining in the merged company.
This does not count park presidents/general managers and other full time staff (those that are left).
Very little of Cedar Fair remains, unfortunately.
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u/moreobviousthings 1d ago
So as long as shareholders are happy after the victims family gets paid off, it’s all good.
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u/Blapoo 1d ago
In either scenario, the line must always go up faster than it did before. Forever.
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u/Ja_Rule_Here_ 1d ago
My fondest of Six Flags was when I had a job next to Six Flags White Water in Georgia. A buddy invited me to the water park mid season, and while I was buying a ticket they pitched me on a season pass for like $15 more for the rest of the season. Then they pitch their food pass, also discounted from $250 to $110 for the remainder of the season. I’d been blazing so I knew I was dropping $40 that day on snacks anyway so said why not and copped it.
Proceed to the rest of the season, I go to six flags every day for lunch, sometimes with one or two coworkers waiting in the car because the food pass allowed for 2 entrees and 3 snacks per day, and I wanted to use all of the benefits. Probably went though $3000 of food over the next 2 months on that $110 pass.
Good times, getting fat at white water, I recommend it!
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u/Ornery-Distance-8680 1d ago
Years ago, I had a Six Flags STL coaster's shoulder restraint come undone after the employees gave it the old push-pull at the station. Let's keep in mind that an immaculate record for the manufacturer can mean these incidents were never reported by the park. Safety ratings assume proper maintenance and care.
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u/Winter_Purpose_5857 1d ago
Honest question- did the restraint come all the way up or did it just slip into the next “latch”? Having a restraint between latches and loosening slightly to settle into a latch is extremely common and not a maintenance issue but the way the restraint is intended to work
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u/Ornery-Distance-8680 1d ago
It came up several inches to the point the seat belt was extended. My friend next to me saw me fall forward on the first decline and we spent the majority of the ride trying to get it to lock back into position. If it did have that much room before clicking in to the next latch, they may need to change their rider size requirements.
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u/daboswinney123 1d ago
Roller coaster restraints are designed to give you as much freedom of movement while still ensuring you are secured. Restraints also have some slight play in between ratchets, and can occasionally (but rarely) jump a ratchet outwards if it was not fully set in the lower ratchet. I don’t doubt your story that you felt insecure while riding, but I will say that I think as an experienced and terrified rider, you did not properly understand how the restraint worked and felt more unsafe than you really were. Restraints do not come unlocked during the ride. If the incident that happened this week really did have a case of a restraint unlocking mid ride (I am not convinced yet that is the case, but we will see when the reports come out), it would be, to my knowledge, the first case of someone being injured because a restraint unlocked mid ride in at least the past 30 years. I’ve never even heard a verifiable claim that a restraint unlocked without injuries.
The incident that happened this week was tragic, and it no doubt has lessons to be learned and not repeated. Six flags has major flaws and should scrutinized and held responsible. But that does not change the fact that roller coasters are safe.
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u/International-Ing 1d ago
Same thing happened to me and a friend at six flags years ago when I was a kid. We were lucky we didn’t die. Attendant said sometimes it happens and blocked off the row until they could fix it, whenever that was. Shoulder restraint failure should have led to ride being shut down until fixed, but they clearly didn’t care and neither did their regulator.
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u/braapstututu 19h ago
If restraints were genuinely failing there would be a hell of a lot more serious incidents happening.
What can happen is the restraints ratchet isn't fully seated in the pawl and it slips up to the next click which if your scared on a rollercoaster will make some people panic and think it's unlocked.
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u/TodayIAmMostlyEating 1d ago
I gather it’s closed now (good) but Six Flags America is the worst theme park Ive ever visited. Expensive, long lines, no organized fast pass system. We managed to ride 4 rides in an entire day. All the coasters were waaay too rough, just uncomfortable and not fun. I’m so glad we didn’t have kids with us because they would have been bored.
That’s what you get for involving private equity in something that’s supposed to be fun for people.
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u/RustledForeskin 1d ago
Private Equity and rollercoasters shouldn't be anywhere close to each other.
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u/SmokingTheBear 1d ago
Private equity should not exist. Not how it is in current form. It’s killing way more people than on just roller coasters.
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u/livefreeordont 1d ago
Private equity is just a group of individuals pooling their money together to buy a private company or part of a public company to take it private. In order to stop that you’d have to get rid of private ownership altogether.
Private equity firms that are predatory are usually the ones doing leveraged buyouts to bleed companies dry and extract whatever value they can before it’s a husk.
Venture capital firms that invest in startups are also a form of private equity
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u/DeliciousMoments 1d ago edited 1d ago
Six Flags in general took a serious nosedive in the past 10 years. The last time I went to Magic Mountain was a joke. At least a third of the rides we wanted to go on were closed (
Fast and FuriousWest Coast Racers broke down while we were in line), even more were just running one train.→ More replies (1)3
u/Mega_Pleb 1d ago
Magic Mountain doesn't have any ride called Fast and Furious, that's a new Universal Studios Hollywood ride.
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u/Mindless-Damage-5399 1d ago
I remember back in the 90s I met a guy who worked at the Atlanta Six Flags. He said he wouldn't let his family go on those rides due to lack of adequate maintenance.
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u/OhManOk 1d ago
Venture capital bros who worship Elon and cut staff down to the bone and make the experience so bad that no one wants to go to the park so they cut more staff and then people start dying is the most American shit I've heard this week. Fucking stupid ass country.
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u/becoming_brianna 1d ago
Venture capital doesn’t invest in businesses like this. VC is for startups. Six Flags is publicly traded.
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u/Oops_I_Cracked 1d ago
They are probably confusing VC with private equity (which I do believe is involved with six flags)
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u/becoming_brianna 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think you’re correct about the other commenter, but like I said, Six Flags is publicly traded (FUN on the NYSE), so private equity isn’t relevant here. Private equity primarily invests in private markets, i.e. businesses not traded on public stock exchanges.
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u/Oops_I_Cracked 1d ago
A private equity group that currently owns around 9% of six flags stock has been pushing them to sell to private equity for at least the last 9 months, so despite being publicly traded, private equity is relevant here. There is a non-zero chance six flags has been making business changes to prepare for a sale to private equity.
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u/LuSiDexplorer25 1d ago
I can’t believe six flags bought cedar point. That was clearly the better park now I feel the change in ownership will be their demise.
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u/Xlipki 1d ago
Hopefully this does lead to an increase in safety at the parks, but to put this in perspective, you are something like 20x more likely to die on your drive to the park than you are while you’re at the park. They should be held accountable for any deaths or injuries though.
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u/SirNarwhal 1d ago
It’s actually way closer to 4,000 times more likely to die in your car on the way to the park. Amusement parks are incredibly safe and this reporting is just a hit piece that ignores that so many of these “injuries” are only reported due to there being an uptick in predatory lawyers that see one actual rare freak accident and then scour the internet looking for people saying similar to back up their case and try to extort for quick money, but genuinely always fail because amusement parks are that safe. What happened here genuinely is one of the absolute rarest freak accidents to ever happen in damn near anything ever. You are more likely to have what happened here happen to your car by such an order of magnitude (4,000 times or so difference probability wise) that you’re also actually more likely to literally get struck by lightning or bitten by a shark than experience any semblance of an issue on a roller coaster. Shit, you’re even more likely to get in a train accident than have an issue on a roller coaster.
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u/Dakozi 1d ago
I agree with you, but that argument likely relies on the amusement park adhering to regular safety inspections and maintenance, which is something that Six Flags has done a poor job keeping up with as they continue to fire workers in order to stay afloat.
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u/arizonadirtbag12 1d ago
I think that argument is outcome-based, which is to say it’s based on the actual rate of fatalities based on the actual inspections and maintenance parks actually perform.
So “but they’re cutting corners on maintenance!” is already baked in. Same way half the drivers on the road are cutting corners on maintenance.
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u/21Rollie 1d ago
Yep, the car industry is so well protected. They got rid of pedestrians, bicycles, and streetcars using the same roads as them to avoid lawsuits
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u/bigdipper80 1d ago
And they STILL cause 10s of thousands of deaths each year. It's a public health crisis but no one wants to talk about that.
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u/Embarrassed_Film_684 1d ago
Just a reminder that the rollercoasters are an exemption under the Consumer Product Safety Act. So the government has no rights to apply safety standards to them.
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u/Flipslips 1d ago
Rollercoasters are heavily regulated under other governing authorities.
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u/DustyRacoonDad 1d ago
No, he means they're specifically exempted from that one federal-level act, and there are no other federal safety standards that apply to them. States have standards. There are agreements with manufacturers and parks, but from a legal standpoint, the federal government exempted them from standards that even your toaster has to meet.
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u/randomtask 1d ago
The federal government has no rights to apply safety standards under the CPSA. This isn't new.
State governments have had regulatory authority over amusement rides for years, and insurance companies have all generally converged to enforcing the same international ATSM standards as a condition of coverage. These cover everything from allowable forces exerted on riders, to functional safety standards for guest restraints, controls standards, etc. Manufacturers and operators also share safety bulletins with one another and if they don't comply then their license to operate can be revoked or their insurance policy cancelled.
It is entirely possible for an industry to be overseen by agencies and institutions that are not federalized. Honestly, I'm actually glad that the current federal government doesn't have oversight, because they've shown time and again that they care far less about the safety of individuals than the states and insurance companies historically have. Incentives matter.
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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago
So did Six Flags ask McKinsey to “streamline” their parks the way Disney did?
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u/SalParadise83 1d ago
Another business ruined by private equity. I guess the dead man's family can sleep at night knowing that they returned serious value to the shareholders.
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u/teal_hair_dont_care 1d ago
i grew up in the same town as a six flags park so ive easily gone over 100 times in my life.
obviously ymmv but my only bad experience was on the batman roller coaster. the teenaged attendants (who i went to school with at the time) were playing grab ass and didn't hear me yelling at them that my brothers restraint was WAY too loose (he was just at the height requirement so i was extra nervous) obviously we made it off the ride fine but it was so scary in the moment. i remember during one of the flips thinking to myself if my brother fell out of the ride id have to run away from home because my mom would kill me when she found out 😅
we still talk about it 10+ years later. we reported it in the park and i sent in an email but that kid and the girl he was "training" both still worked there, for at minimum, the rest of the summer.
i understand that ride operations isn't necessarily a glamorous job but we need to have some sort of incentive for the people working the job to actually care about what they're doing.
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u/Suicidal_Jamazz 1d ago
Does that mean they lose a flag or gain a flag?
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u/Far_Mathematician924 1d ago
half the flags are going to be at half mast for half a month and the other half are going to be at half mast for half of the next month
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u/Tree_Sure 1d ago
Lose. Once they lose all six flags, they should be subjected to shut down permanently.
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u/RikiWardOG 1d ago
There's been many lawsuits over the years for concussions and severe injuries including brain damage from six flags coasters. You just don't hear about it because they settle out of court.
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u/octopuscharade 1d ago
I used to really enjoy theme parks. Does anyone know any in the south east that won’t kill you?
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u/-FoofooCuddlyPoops- 1d ago
Dollywood in East TN is very high quality with good rides, but is expensive. Definitely more of a "theme" park like Disney with a healthy blend of actual rides, shows, attractions, and things to do.
King's Island near Cincinnati is also fantastic and very roller coaster centric. Feels like a gourmet higher quality version of Six Flags.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on where you live) the best theme park I've ever been to was Cedar Point at the north end of Ohio touching Lake Erie. Front row on Top Thrill Dragster (now Top Thrill 2) is something I will always remember.
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u/ehisforadam 1d ago
King's Island and Cedar Point are now part of the Six Flags parks after Cedar Fair merged with Six Flags.
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u/samtdzn_pokemon 1d ago
Ironically, Cedar Points ownership are the ones who merged with Six Flags. All one umbrella now.
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u/ironic-hat 1d ago
Not the southeast, but Knoebles in Pennsylvania is affordable and has some high quality rides and good food. They also do a great job maintaining their rides, some of which are over 100 years old.
But it’s not an amusement park like Disney in that there are attached hotels, you can camp or stay in an AirBnB. Hershey park is also a solid choice too.
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u/Dt2_0 1d ago
Any of the big ones.
Seriously, you are safer going to any park, Six Flags included than you are driving to the park. By like several orders of magnitude.
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u/toomanymarbles83 1d ago
I would very surprised if Six Flags makes it another decade without going bankrupt.
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u/One-Emu-1103 1d ago
I loved going to amusement parks but after all this I dont think that I will get on another ride again
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u/RaZ-RemiiX 1d ago
You under stand that you're over 4,000 times more likely to get in a car accident on a 100 mile journey (~0.027%) to/from and park than you are getting injured on an amusement park ride (~0.0000065%)?
Your logic doesn't really track when you actually look at the statistics. But hey, to each their own.
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u/mydoortotheworld 1d ago
Difference is I have to use my car to go to work and the grocery store and other things. I don’t have to get on a rollercoaster, which reduces the chances of injury from 0.0000065% to just 0%, which is an improvement I’ll take
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u/RaZ-RemiiX 1d ago
I was really trying to paint the picture that you're more likely to be injured in an accident on the way to the park than inside the park. Hell, you're more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to be injured at an amusement park. Some people have different risk tolerances and will evidently take steps to avoid a 0.0000065% probability of an injury happening. So like I said, to each their own...
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u/xxwerdxx 1d ago
Lived in Texas my whole life. This headline is the equivalent to saying "we just discovered the sky is blue"
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u/InitiativeGold7953 1d ago
Six Flags was having a hard time back in 2008 and was considering closing down their flagship park. That never really went away and has only gotten worse. They don’t pay for upkeep and now are only open certain days instead of 24/7 like they were before 2008.
I did work in these parks and let me tell you from first hand experience, I would not go on these rides. I had access to parts of these rides the public doesn’t see and that is where all the cost cutting goes. It says a lot about a buisness when you find roaches when lifting up the rugs. It’s not a coincidence this is all happening at once.
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u/Checked_Out_6 1d ago
After working at a six flags over twenty years ago, I have never stepped foot on another ride, especially at a carnival.
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u/Lord_Dreadlow 1d ago
That attitude is what kept me off the jury in a civil case against a parking lot carnival operator.
Plaintiff was injured on, of all thing, a merry-go-round where the horse she was riding became detached from the ride and "imagine my clients horror as she flew through the air with a wooden horse between her legs." - LOL
I told them I wouldn't let my kids on those rides because I didn't think they were safe.
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u/annaleigh13 1d ago
This is going to be completely missed in the story, but I do want to highlight something:
“Most of these were classified as related to guest behavior or medical conditions, and roughly 25 percent were caused by technical or operational issues, such as mechanical problems with a ride or operator error.”
I worked at a regional theme park in the 2000’s, both in ride operations and maintenance (not at the same time) that is now under the Six Flags banner. First aid/safety kept meticulous injury records, including all investigation paperwork, and at that time their records showed 95% of all accidents were rider caused, 3% operations caused, and 2% malfunction.
The rise to 25%, to me, is shocking.