On the 30th of May 1972 at the Battersea
Park Fun Fair in London a lift cable on
the Big Dipper roller coaster broke while
hauling a loaded train up the ride's main
lift hill. The train rolled backwards and
crashed off the tracks at a corner
killing five children and injuring many
others. It was, at the time, one of the
worst ride accidents the UK had ever
experienced. The Big Dipper was the main
attraction of Battersea Park Fun Fair
and had been operating since 1951, the
year when it was opened as part of the
festival of Britain. While relatively
tame by modern standards it provided the
kind of thrills that simply weren't
available anywhere else at the time. The
wooden roller coaster reached heights of
15 metres (almost 50 foot) and featured
several steep drops and unbanked corners,
as well as a short section in a darkened
tunnel. Trains consisted of three cars,
each of which seated eight riders in
total. At the midpoint of each train
there sat a brakeman whose job it was to
manually apply the brakes when the
roller-coaster approached a corner. The
coaster endured a few incidents over the
course of its 21-year lifespan. In its
very first year of operation an empty
car derailed leaving several passengers
stranded for around 20 minutes. Nobody
was hurt on occasion, but in 1968 a woman
broke her arm when the train rolled back
into the station from the first lift
hill. Just a few years later an arson
attack inflicted a huge amount of damage
on the wooden coaster, causing it to
close for several months.
These incidents were all relatively
minor, however, compared to the one which
took place on the 30th of May 1972. The
weather was good that day and riders
were queuing up for a turn on Battersea
Park fun fair's star attraction. Joining
these queues was 14-year old Carolyn
Adamczyk. It was a half-term holiday and
Carolyn was visiting the park with
several of her friends. The group boarded
the Big Dipper and the ride began as
normal, with the cars being winched up
the first hill by a steel drivetrain.
They were nearly at the top when
disaster struck. The cars detached from
the drivetrain and rattled backwards
towards the station picking up speed as
they did so. They hit a tight turn,
causing the last carriage to derail. The
other two cars smashed into a second
train that was waiting in the station.
Carolyn provided this account of the
accident: "As soon as we started shooting
backwards everything went into slow
motion I turned around and saw the brakeman desperately trying to put the brake
on, but it wasn't working.
Most of the carriages didn't go around
the bend. One detached and went off the
side through a wooden hoarding. People
were groaning and hanging over the edge.
It was awful.
This girl screamed that she wanted to
get off but she leant on a wooden
barrier and it collapsed. I tried to grab
for her but I saw her fall to the ground
in front of me. I told everyone to stay
where they were as I tried to find a way
down but I realized as I was walking
down that I was walking on blood. I
looked up and next to the carriage
people were hanging out over the tracks.
There was blood everywhere." All in all
five children died as a result of the
accident and 13 more people were
injured. The ride was, of course, closed
immediately as an investigation
commenced. The rest of the funfair,
however, continued to operate with
patrons enjoying other rides in the
shadow of the deadly Big Dipper.
One manager and one engineer from the
park were eventually charged with
manslaughter with prosecutors declaring
the park a deathtrap.
Despite this the two accused were
ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing in
court. No compensation or counseling was
offered to the victims and the park
itself faced no sanctions - not even
financial ones. The incident did however
have some effect on the fortunes of
Battersea Park Fun Fair. With the main
attraction dismantled and the accident
fresh in the minds of the public its
popularity waned, and it closed its doors
for the last time just two years later.
Today there is little sign that a
funfair ever stood on the site. The
tragedy that took place on the Big
Dipper in 1972 remains one of the worst
fairground ride accidents ever to take
place in the UK... and yet it is rarely
spoken of, the victims rarely remembered.
This crash which claimed five young
lives has been all but erased from
history.
