Tag Archives: Killer train ride

Killer Train Ride

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, legend
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Sai Mupparaju
  • Date Collected: 3/8/2018

Informant Data:

  • Sai Mupparaju is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2018. She is majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Religion. She intends on pursuing a career in medicine. She was born in Hyderabad, India but she grew up in Atlanta, GA. She has no siblings. She has visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida around five times with her family. She loves Disney and her favorite Disney movie is Aladdin. When she was at the park, she would try to find the park characters, Aladdin and Jasmine. Sai would stay at a hotel not on the Disney World premises during her visits to the park. She is not a Disney Vacations Club Member.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Disney World, there is a popular roller coaster called Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a fast and jerky roller coaster with small drops in Frontierland. Before starting the ride, the ride operators tell visitors to keep their arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. However, during the ride, it is pretty common to see people raising their hands out of excitement
  • Social Context: The informant heard about a mysterious death that occurred on this ride during her first trip to Disney World. While Sai and her family were waiting in line, other park visitors were discussing why the ride is often shut down for maintenance. The park visitors claim that the ride operators always try to take extra precaution with this ride after the tragic death that occurred on it. Sai shared the story about the mysterious death with her friends and family back home in Atlanta.


Item:

  • There is a legend about a high schooler who went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and died. There is a portion of the ride that involves a drop inside a cave and there was supposedly a loose cable hanging down from the ceiling. The boy was very tall and the loose cable caught on the visitor’s neck, resulting in immediate death.

Transcript:

  • “When I was waiting in line for the ride, I heard some people whispering about why the ride had shut down. They said that Disney takes extra precautions after the death that happened a while back. They talked about how a high school boy was killed by a loose cable that was hanging in the tunnel portion of the ride.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This legend was one of the scarier folklore items that I heard. I know this ride is constantly shut down for maintenance so hearing about this mysterious death put the pieces together for me. I know that a lot of ride malfunctions are not disclosed to the public so this is an interesting story because some park visitors have heard it, but it is unclear where it originated from.

Collector’s Name: Meghana Reddy

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Legend
  • Killer Train Ride