Roller Coaster Decapitates Deer and Covers Riders In Blood

250px-white-tailed_deer250px-UltimateLifthillsNow this has the makings for an interesting torts lawsuit. Riders on what is billed as Europe’s longest roller coast in Ripon, England experienced an unexpected fearful element when their car hit a deer — covering the riders in deer blood. “The Ultimate” ride left many hoping for a bit less than the decapitation of a deer.

The Lightwater Valley theme park said that the deer wandered onto the track after making it into the park the night before.

What is really amazing is that hitting the deer only delayed the ride by 30 minutes.

It would seem an obvious case of gross negligence in not maintaining security over these rides. Here is the really amazing fact. This happened before. In 1994, another deer was hit on this very same ride — resulting in the hospitalization of a 12-year-old boy.

While England has lower awards and greater restrictions on tort litigation, the damages from being covered in deer blood and sinew would seem a significant proposition. However, the case would no doubt prompt someone to create an even scarier “Road Kill” roller coaster.

This must also have yielded a memorable roller coaster picture for the riders. Amusement parks often take such pictures in the hopes of riders buying them. On this occasion, they might regret such photos.

29 thoughts on “Roller Coaster Decapitates Deer and Covers Riders In Blood”

  1. maxcat, They would dine on the “critter du jour” scraped off the road. I love Newhart, although his first show was much better.

    Just finished watching a great comeback by the O’s.

    1. You’re right about the first Newhart show, but he was great in both. Can’t believe the O’s came back; when I left that game, they were behind. Now the Nats have to get some bats going!

      1. nick and maxcat06 – I think the two Newhart shows are hard to compare since the casts and setups are so different. Each had something I liked and something I didn’t like. If it were up to me I would take some things from each show and make a third show. 🙂 The thought the wife was better in the 2nd show and Larry, Darryl and Darryl cannot be replaced. Still I like the fact that he was such a terrible psychologist in the first show. Maybe he could have had Larry, Darryl and Darryl as patients? You have to admit they would have been a challenge.

    2. Nick – I think Montana legalized ‘road kill’ as something you could pick up and eat legally. You no longer had to leave it on the road.

    1. maxcat06 – I remember the great comic trio of Larry, Darryl and Darryl. Or is it a duo?

  2. So sad – I love dear, and the Queen’s Deer in England are lovely.

    It sounds lucky that people were not injured, just horribly traumatized. Thank goodness the car didn’t derail.

  3. A story hit the wires a few days ago highlighting the increase in deer being hit by planes at airports. According to the FAA, there have been over 1000 such incidents between 1990 – 2013.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PLANES_DEER_STRIKES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

    But what really struck me was this sentence:

    “Their [white tail deer] population has risen from about 350,000 in 1900 to more than 28 million in 2010.”

    The funny thing is that a day or two after the news story about how the explosion in the deer population is causing an increase in plane accidents at airports, zealots at the WWF issued a scary press release promoting another one of its doomsday reports in which it claims mankind is largely responsible for a 52% decline in wildlife populations since 1970.

    http://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/half-of-global-wildlife-lost-says-new-wwf-report

    It was an interesting juxtaposition.

  4. Really, you take the Ultimate Thrill Ride and you are going to sue when you get covered in deer blood? What kind of gutless wimp are you? Geez?

  5. The road kill roller coaster should be designed by “Larry, Darryl and Darryl.”

  6. Too true wrxdave;

    Right now there’s some executive asking his creative team and GC, how to adapt rides, to give this same kind of gory thrill during Halloween.

  7. If you live in a neighborhood where deer hang out then this story would not surprise you. Deer like to wander. The amusement park would do well if they removed any vegetation from the roller coaster.

  8. I think the damages might be mitigated if they took home some venison. Or they could bill it as a ride for hunters, and let them take shots at deer as they ride. It would make it a more sporting proposition than some deer hunters are used to.

  9. Now extreme coaster riders everywhere will not be satisfied until they too can ride a BLOODCOASTER! New at Magic Mountain for 2015!

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