Liz Haigh-Reeve and her friend Alison Comerford were at Battersea park in May 1972 when the Big Dipper collapsed. It turned out there were more than 50 faults on the ride
At first, Liz Haigh-Reeve thought the driver of the rollercoaster was messing around, trying to give the children a bit of a scare. It was her 15th birthday, 30 May 1972, and she and her friend Alison Comerford were at the funfair in Battersea park in London. They had been on the Big Dipper once already – the wooden rollercoaster that was the main attraction, opened more than 20 years before – and had loved it so much they asked if they could stay on and go around again. Sitting in a carriage near the back, they were hauled up a steep incline by a rope, the wooden struts clacking beneath. They were expecting to tip over the brow and whoosh along the track. Instead, as they reached the top, Haigh-Reeve felt the train start to roll backwards. That’s when she thought the driver was doing it as a joke, but other children on the ride were panicking. Later, they would find out the rope had snapped.
It took seconds for the train to hurtle back down, “but it felt a long time,” she says, “and I had this logical thought process that we’re just going to swing up the hill behind us, and back again, and eventually come to a stop. By the time I thought all that, we’d crashed through the bottom of it and I was buried in debris.”
Continue reading… Liz Haigh-Reeve and her friend Alison Comerford were at Battersea park in May 1972 when the Big Dipper collapsed. It turned out there were more than 50 faults on the rideAt first, Liz Haigh-Reeve thought the driver of the rollercoaster was messing around, trying to give the children a bit of a scare. It was her 15th birthday, 30 May 1972, and she and her friend Alison Comerford were at the funfair in Battersea park in London. They had been on the Big Dipper once already – the wooden rollercoaster that was the main attraction, opened more than 20 years before – and had loved it so much they asked if they could stay on and go around again. Sitting in a carriage near the back, they were hauled up a steep incline by a rope, the wooden struts clacking beneath. They were expecting to tip over the brow and whoosh along the track. Instead, as they reached the top, Haigh-Reeve felt the train start to roll backwards. That’s when she thought the driver was doing it as a joke, but other children on the ride were panicking. Later, they would find out the rope had snapped.It took seconds for the train to hurtle back down, “but it felt a long time,” she says, “and I had this logical thought process that we’re just going to swing up the hill behind us, and back again, and eventually come to a stop. By the time I thought all that, we’d crashed through the bottom of it and I was buried in debris.” Continue reading… Death and dying, Children, Life and style, Society
