Fascinating Horror - At around 2pm on the 28th of June 2008 a 17-year-old boy on a trip to the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park made a fatal mistake.
For reasons unknown he scaled two fences and entered a restricted ride area, and was subsequently decapitated by a passing train.
The horrific incident made news nationwide... but it was not the first to occur on that same roller coaster.
Batman: The Ride
Batman: The Ride is a steel inverted coaster replicated at several Six Flags parks across America. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard it consists of a steel track around 820 meters (2,700 foot) in length.
At the time it was the world's first inverted roller coaster, a name given because trains dangled from the track rather than running on top of it.
Riders were secured with over-the-shoulder harnesses and completed the ride with their legs dangling over the void. Initially there was just one version of Batman: The Ride operating at Six Flags Great America in Illinois.
Once the concept proved to be successful, however, management were quick to approve clones of the ride for six other Six Flags parks across the country.
The clone at Six Flags Over Georgia opened in 1997, making it just over ten years old by the summer of 2008.
That was the summer that Asia LaShawn Ferguson and his parents came to the park as part of a trip organized by their local church group.
At around 2pm Ferguson and another boy entered the restricted area underneath Batman: The Ride. There are conflicting reports about why they did so.
Some witnesses claimed that Ferguson lost a hat while riding the coaster and was trying to retrieve it.
Others claimed that he wanted to touch the ride or grab the foot of one of the riders as they went by overhead. Still others speculated that the pair were taking a shortcut to the entrance of the ride in order to beat the queues.
While the reason that the two boys entered the restricted area is unknown what they had to do to get there is a matter of widely-publicized fact.
The dangerous area beneath the roller coaster was protected by two six-foot fences which the boys scaled one after the other, ignoring multiple highly visible warning signs in the process.
Once inside the ride area the boys made their way to a spot directly under the ride track at the bottom of a drop. It was here that Ferguson was hit.
The train was travelling at its top speed of 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) when the incident occurred. A rider's dangling foot connected with Ferguson's head and at this speed the impact was significant enough to completely decapitate him, killing him instantly.
The other boy who had accompanied Ferguson into the restricted area was uninjured. Somewhat miraculously so too was the rider whose leg had been involved in the collision.
In the immediate aftermath of the accident the ride was closed while an investigation was completed. It was during this time that it emerged that Ferguson was not the first person to die in this manner.
In May 2002 a 58-year-old groundskeeper named Samuel Milton Guyton was killed while in the same restricted area, again by an impact from thedangling leg of one of the ride's passengers.
On both occasions the ride was closed for little longer than a single day - just long enough for the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to inspect the ride and deem it safe for passengers.
On both occasions it was ultimately unknown why the victim ended up where they were. On both occasions the incident was caused by the same mechanism... and yet no changes were made in the aftermath of either death.
The clone of Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Over Georgia still operates to this day. There is no memorial on site to either of its victims. (The Batman Rollercoaster Decapitation)
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