But is this summertime tradition safe? A quick glance at the national newspaper headlines from July 2011 makes the thrills seem hardly worth the risk. "Freak roller coaster accidents cause concern over their safety," reads one article. At a theme park in New York in the United States, a twenty-nine-year-old father was thrown from the roller coaster Ride of Steel as it made its rapid descent. He was wearing a safety belt at the time. A couple of days later in the state of Texas, riders were suspended 14 stories up in the air for over 30 minutes before being able to climb down an emergency stairway to safety.