Three years ago Johnston was a healthy working mom. That changed forever on Aug. 7, 1999, the day she and Jim, married just six weeks, took her three children from a previous marriage to the Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement park. After enjoying several rides with Victoria, now 13, Robert, 10, and Tiffany, 9, the newly-weds braved the Joker's Revenge by themselves. Johnston claims the roller coaster—which hurls riders backward and forward at speeds up to 48 mph and through loops and corkscrew turns—made her head whip around uncontrollably and slam against a safety harness. She says she was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury that left her with epilepsy and dementia, and is suing Fiesta Texas for $20 million. Since the accident, she says, "my life has been a virtual roller coaster." (Six Flags did not respond to requests for comment on the suit.)
Johnston is not alone. A recent study by Dr. Pete Speth, a forensic pathologist based in Wenonah, N.J., documented 58 cases of brain injuries—eight of them fatal—possibly linked to thrill rides. All but three of them have occurred since 1990, and some experts say many more may have gone undocumented. The injuries, which included burst aneurysms, subdural hematomas and leakage of cerebrospinal fluid, took place on rides that were reportedly functioning normally. Critics are especially worried about the new generation of "hypercoasters," which reach speeds that top 100 mph and heights of more than 400 feet. These coasters, they say, should come with a warning: This ride may be hazardous to your brain.
"In the last 10 years we've developed rides that really push the envelope," says Barry Novack, a Beverly Hills lawyer who has filed 12 theme-park-injury suits for clients across the U.S. Even an ordinary coaster, some researchers say, can cause harm if it subjects riders with weak necks, delicate cranial arteries or other hard-to-detect vulnerabilities to violent acceleration or deceleration. "If you suddenly stop the head," explains Speth, "the brain keeps moving." And, advocates say, the more extreme the motion, the greater the risk.
At least 18 coasters in the U.S. slam riders with at least four G's, exceeding the gravitational force that space-shuttle astronauts experience during take-off. In October, New Jersey will become the first state to set limits: a maximum of 6 G's on descents and 1.5 on curves. This month, prompted by U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the Brain Injury Association of America, an Alexandria, Va.-based research and advocacy organization, formed a panel to study whether there is a link between thrill rides and brain injury and whether they should be subject to federal safety regulations. "There's been a roller coaster arms race," says Markey. "Each park advertises that their rides are bigger and faster. As the arms race escalates, so does the potential danger to riders."
Theme-park officials oppose government oversight, noting that 320 million people a year ride without harm. Any exceptions, they suggest, result from preexisting medical conditions. "There's no evidence out there that demonstrates a link between roller coasters and brain injuries," says Bill Powers, spokesman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. "An 8-year-old boy watching television died of a brain aneurysm—was that the TV's fault?"
Pearl Santos's family doesn't buy that argument. In May, they filed a wrongful-death suit against Valencia, Calif.'s Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park, where the 28-year-old teacher's aide died of a brain hemorrhage last year while riding Goliath, an 8 5-mph coaster with a top G-force of 4. An autopsy determined that Santos had boarded with an undiagnosed aneurysm but that the ride's intensity may have triggered the rupture. "When Joe Citizen walks into an amusement park," says Pearl's cousin Javier Santos, 47, "he has no idea what his body is going to be exposed to."
Recently an industry task force recommended that parks set voluntary limits on G-forces and determine who is most vulnerable so that warnings can be posted. One high-risk group, says Kathy Fackler, the founder of Safer-parks, a California nonprofit organization pushing for stricter safety regulations on rides, may be children under 14. "Experts know the limit should be lower for kids," she says, "but they don't know what it should be." Doctors caution that more research is needed before all the risk factors are known. "It's too early to give medical advice," says neuropsychiatrist Gregory O'Shanick, national medical director of the Brain Injury Association.
For Johnston, any answers will come too late. "I'm mad as hell," she says. "But I was one of the lucky ones—I lived."
J.D. Heyman
Theresa Crapanzano in Washington, D.C., Ellise Pierce in Dallas and Vickie Bane and Maureen Harrington in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Theresa Crapanzano,
- Ellise Pierce,
- Vickie Bane,
- Maureen Harrington.
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