Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide, which some readers may find distressing.
Theme parks, you either love them or hate them. While some of us love the high adrenaline thrills of being tossed through the air and spun upside down, others think a trip on the teacups is too much.
As the likes of Universal Studios and Disneyland continue to welcome millions of patrons every year, the competition heats up as these theme park Goliaths try to come up with new thrills and spills to get you paying the price of admission. However, there's one roller coaster in the world that you'll never be able to ride...and it's for a deadly reason.
Unlike the real-life Sarco 'euthanasia' Pod that has already claimed the life of one woman, the Euthanasia Coster is just a work of fiction. Dreamed up by Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas and turned into a scale model in 2010, the concept of the Euthanasia Coaster is supposed to peacefully transition people through to the afterlife by killing riders through prolonged cerebral hypoxia. Basically, a series of massive loops, g-force, and high speeds would starve your brain of oxygen.
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Championing the idea, John Allen, who had been the president of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, inspired Urbonas with his mention of the 'ultimate' coaster being one that "sends out 24 people and they all come back dead."
A simulation from the ever-morbid Zack D. Films shows how the Euthanasia Coaster works. This isn't our first time watching simulations of the roller coaster in action, but in Zack D. Films' video, we see it in graphic detail.
Explaining how the Euthanasia Coaster climbs to over 1,500 ft, it then plummets at over 200 mph – but that’s just the start. Going through seven shrinking loops, we're told the force created causes the riders to black out. In reality, Urbonas' coaster's seven inversions inflict a deadly 10 gs on riders for 60 seconds. Symptoms would start with greyout through tunnel vision to black out. Eventually, you'd suffer-LOC (g-force induced loss of consciousness) and then death.
The video concludes by saying that the Euthanasia Coaster was designed with terminally ill patients in mind, giving them an option to go out on their own terms.
Even though it's just a concept, the idea has taken off in popularity and was even written into Sequoia Nagamatsu's 2022 novel, How High We Go in the Dark.
Replying to the video, one astounded viewer wrote: "If you're wondering 1500ft is around 457m which is comparable with the top 4 tallest roller coasters combined."
Another joked, "Putting the 'fun' in 'funeral'," although not everyone was impressed. One dismayed person added: "The idea of being locked in a roller coaster, going over 200 mph, just waiting to die... Is absolutely horrifying."
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.