roller coasters

Imagine you’re at a Six Flags theme park, and after waiting an hour in line, you sit down in the front seat of The New Revolution, a looping roller coaster that hits top speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. The ride operator calls, “All clear,” your coaster takes off from the loading station, and you make your way up a lift hill. As the car goes clack clack clack, you realize that the lap bar was never secured and there’s no way back.

What would happen if you were stuck on a looping roller coaster and the harness stopped working? Could you hold on to the person securely seated next to you and make it through the loop, or would you be thrown out of the car for what would be a tragic ending? Popular YouTuber Zach D. Films, who specializes in digital recreations, showed what would happen if you rode a looping roller coaster without a harness, and the good news is that there’s a decent chance you will survive. (Not that you'd want to try, though.)

What would happen if I rode a rollercoaster without a harness?

“If the bar came loose while you were riding a roller coaster, you'd probably expect to immediately fall out, but that probably wouldn't happen,” Zach D. begins his video.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

According to Zach D., the competing forces of gravity and the speed at which you’re moving counteract each other, most likely keeping you safely in your seat. “You see, as you're being pulled into the loop, gravity tries to pull you down towards the ground, but because of the speed you're going and the direction of the tracks, a special force actually pushes you further down, outweighing the pull of gravity and keeping you in your seat,” Zach D. says in his video.

Another example of these forces is filling a bucket with a few inches of water, attaching a rope, and swinging it around your head. If you forcefully spin the bucket, the water will remain inside, even without anything to restrain it from falling out.

Even though science shows that it is possible to ride a looping rollercoaster without restraints, there aren't many people out there who want to try it. In November 2024, a passenger on the Desert Storm coaster at Castles and Coasters in Phonix, Arizona, claimed that his restraint released while he was on the ride. The restraint failure happened as the coaster climbed its first lift hill so he could exit quickly and make it to the emergency stairs near the coaster's peak.

"We started going up, everything seems to be OK. And then, when we get closer to the top, I hear a click. Different from the click of the roller coaster going up on the chain," he said. "So I check my bar, and when I pushed it, it released. It opened." The incident was caught on camera, and the footage is chilling.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

While the idea of riding a roller coaster without a lap bar is horrifying, Zach D. proves that physics may be your unexpected friend in case of a lap bar failure. That being said, let’s keep those restraints locked and double-checked. Roller coasters are meant to be fun, not a test of your centrifugal force knowledge.