The Rollercoaster Purposefully Designed To Kill Its Passengers
Meet the Euthanasia Coaster
When thrill-seekers strap into a rollercoaster, they ardently hope that they survive the encounter, and barring the rare freak accident, the vast majority do. But what happens if a rollercoaster is specifically designed to kill its passengers? That is the question asked by Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas. Urbonas designed a rollercoaster that would always kill its riders. In fact, that is the purpose of the coaster — to ensure that no one survives. He developed the idea for the rollercoaster as a euthanasia device that would give people an exciting yet painless death.
Urbonas presented his design at the Royal College of Art in London with a scale model. The coaster kills its riders by accelerating them to breakneck speeds through a 500-meter (1,600-foot) drop. The train then enters a series of ever-tightening loops. By the end, no one would be alive. The physics behind the design kills by suffocating the brain of oxygen. By sending riders through these loops at high speed, the g-forces applied would keep blood out of the brain long enough for the person to die. A rider would first get dizzy, then black out before dying. The bodies would then be unloaded and sent to the coroner. (That job would have to include a sizable amount of pay.)
