Silver Dollar City Rollercoaster, 1980
No one had died at Silver Dollar City in Missouri since the theme park first opened in 1960. But all that changed on July 9, 1980 when 23-year-old James Frederick Polley was riding on the Fire in the Hole rollercoaster. The workers were unaware that Polley and other passengers were aboard the train, so they switched the ride from the main tracks to a maintenance track that had a low hanging door. When the workers realized their mistake, they screamed to the riders to duck down. But Polley didn’t react in time and hit his head on the hanging door. Sadly, he did not survive his injuries.