Thorpe Park - Incidents

Incidents

• In Rumba Rapids opening year of 1986 (then known as Thunder River), an 11 year old boy called Jonathan White was thrown from a boat and lost an ear. The news was broken by Children's BBC TV news programme, Newsround.
• On 21 July 2000, seven thousand people were evacuated from the park after Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels boat ride caught on fire. The fire was allegedly started by a stray cigarette butt. A number of other attractions were also damaged, including Wicked Witches Haunt, which was totally destroyed as the majority of the ride was housed underground beneath the area of Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels that caught alight.
• On 31 August 2000, a 11-year-old boy broke both his legs and was left with slurred speech after suffering a brain injury on X:\ No Way Out (left vertebral artery dissection) after falling out of the car.
• In September 2001, two teenagers were left dangling from a gondola on the Zodiac Enterprise ride. The two pupils from an East Sussex school, Gemma Clark and Scott Reeves, were on the ride when a support holding the gondola snapped, leaving it hanging by a single support. When the operator tried to halt the ride, the gondola repeatedly hit decking at the bottom before coming to a stop. Minor injuries were sustained. In 2004, Tussauds Theme Park, then owner of Thorpe Park, were fined £65,000.
• On 29 May 2008, a 4 ft piece of metal fell off the "Rush ride" and fell 100 feet.
• On 5 April 2011, the park's horror maze, SAW Alive, suffered minor damage after a fire broke out in the building, It was caused by an electrical failure by one of the timers used in the films. The park was closed at the time of the fire, and no guests were in the attraction.