Shall I be worried about theme parks accidents?

In short, no. Theme park accidents are like airline accidents, they happen so rare that when they do happen, everyone hears about them. Like flying, theme parks work nonstop and in most cases, without fail. But from time to time, unfortunately an incident occurs and someone may get hurt or even worse. Now I'm no expert, but theme parks or any business for that matter,would not be open very long if they didn't keep their patrons and staff safety on the forefront. My advice, when it's time, pack your bags, get your excitement on and enjoy your time at the parks.

Remember, if they had accidents all the time they'd be shut down. Alton Towers had its one, and its seen income drop off like a cliff.

They are safe. You are probably at more risk driving to the park.

You shouldn't worry about theme park accidents as thy are a very rare occurrence. Most big theme park companies have extremely safe rides and routine checks. The more you start to worry about accidents the less likely you will enjoy your day.
Saying that your worried about a theme park accidents before you go to the theme park is like saying that your worried about having an accident in a car before you even get into the car. You have nothing to worry about.
The problem nowadays with theme park accidents is with the media. After the tragic crash at alton towers smiler any thing that goes wrong, like the people being stuck on air/galacticafor only 20 mins which to be fair isn't that long, but the media made a big fuss over it.

Every theme park has accidents. Even the big destination parks have had numerous incidents where someone was severely injured or killed (Wikipedia has lists of most of them in case your curious). However, when you look at the number of people who visit a theme park compared to the number of people who have been harmed you'll find that they are very, very, very safe. I read once that you are more likely to be injured taking a shower than you are at any theme park, and even if that isn't entirely true you are definitely far more likely to have something happen while driving (or engaging in various other everyday activities).

Something else to consider is that very few serious accidents are due to mechanical issues. Theme park attractions are feats of engineering and have more safety systems and backups than most are probably aware of, and any deviation from normal operation will down a ride. 95+% of the time, accidents are the fault of a guest (either because they don't follow the rules or because they have an unknown condition) or due to operator error. Because they are so rare, the incidents involving mechanical issues are very high profile even if the issue is relatively minor. Additionally, the media likes to report on some incidents that are really non-events and are an excellent example of safety systems at work (most commonly, this is lift hill stops).

The bottom line is that you should not be afraid of anything, and as long as you follow the rules you've probably got a better chance of being hit by lightning than of being involved in a theme park accident.

Yes, you should be worried. Theme park rides are extremely unsafe. 2 of my best friends have died from separate theme park accidents. Every time I go to a theme park, people die. It's pretty sad but hey, it's the reality of life.

JK just read AJ's post.

Find out what happened. Don't go to the parks that have bad safety procedures.

You are more likely to die in a car. Like A LOT more likely.

I do know that my local Six Flags park is only open seasonally and the majority of the ride operators are teenagers. I really put them a notch below Universal and Disney parks.

Theme Park Accidents are extremely rare and as somebody has already said, you are more likely to be injured in the car on the way to the park than in the actual park.

Also, if you take a look at the accidents, a large majority of them are due to guests not following safety rules.

Accidents are also very broad. That includes tripping and slipping too!

@Anthony Murphy
I saw someone faint at Great Adventure a few days ago. That is considered a theme park accident even though in no way was it the parks fault.