Euthanasia Coaster – The Death Ride

The Euthanasia Coaster is a hypothetical steel roller coaster designed to kill its passengers. It was designed in 2010 and made into a scale model by Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas, a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London. Urbonas, who has worked at an amusement park, stated that the goal of his concept roller coaster is to take lives “with elegance and euphoria”. As for practical applications of his design, Urbonas mentioned: “euthanasia” or “execution”. John Allen, who served as president of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, inspired Urbonas with his description of the “ultimate” roller coaster as one that “sends out 24 people and they all come back dead”.

Design

The concept design of the layout begins with a steep-angled lift to the 510-metre (1,670 ft) top, which would take two minutes for the train to reach. Any passengers that wished to get off could then do so. From there, a 500-metre (1,600 ft) drop would take the train to 360 kilometres per hour (220 mph), close to its terminal velocity, before flattening out and speeding into the first of its seven slightly clothoid inversions. Each inversion would have a smaller diameter than the one before in order to maintain the lethal 10 g to passengers while the train loses speed. After a sharp right-hand turn, the train would enter a straight, where unloading of corpses and loading of new passengers could take place.

Mechanism of action

The Euthanasia Coaster would kill its passengers through prolonged cerebral hypoxia, or insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain. The ride’s seven inversions would inflict 10 g (g-force) on its passengers for 60 seconds – causing g-force related symptoms starting with grey out through tunnel vision to blackout and eventually g-LOC (g-force induced loss of consciousness). Subsequent inversions or another run of the coaster would serve as insurance against the unintentional survival of more robust passengers.

Exhibition

Urbonas’s concept drew media attention when shown as part of the HUMAN+ display at the Science Gallery in Dublin from April through June 2011. The display, designated as its 2011 ‘flagship exhibition’ by the Science Gallery,  aims to show the future of humans and technology. Within this theme, the Euthanasia Coaster highlights the issues that come with life extension. The item was also displayed at the HUMAN+ exhibit at Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in 2015.

Popular culture

In 2012, Norwegian rock group Major Parkinson released “Euthanasia Roller Coaster”, a digital single with lyrics alluding to Urbonas’s Euthanasia Coaster.

Lavie Tidhar’s short story “Vladimir Chong Chooses to Die” incorporates Urbonas’s Euthanasia Coaster into the ending.

Glenn Paton’s short film H Positive explores the motivations of a wealthy man who, upon discovering that he is dying, commissions an architect to build a Euthanasia Coaster identical to Urbonas’s design. Although Urbonas is not mentioned during the film, the end credits affirm that the film was based on Urbonas’s project.

Author Amanda Saint wrote a flash fiction called Golden Glow which tells the story of people in the queue to get on the Euthanasia Coaster and cites it as her inspiration for the story.