Death by Rollercoaster? Man’s ‘Euthanasia Coaster’ Design Reemerges

We all know the tantalizing sense of danger that comes with riding the latest, massive rollercoaster. However, one Lithuanian designer has come up with a plan for a “Euthanasia Coaster” whose sole purpose is to kill its riders – painlessly, of course.

Julijonas Urbonas is described on his website as “an artist, designer, researcher, engineer, [and] founder of the Lithuanian Space Agency” who is studying for his PhD in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art in London.

He’s also not afraid of tackling some morbid concepts, made clear by the fact that he drew up an elaborate design for the fatal theme park ride back in 2010. He described the concept as “a hypothetic death machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely—with elegance and euphoria—take the life of a human being.”

The concept resurfaced after TikTok user Luke Davidson shared a video discussing the ride’s design.

“You can only ride this roller coaster once,” explained Davidson. “It’s capable of holding up to 24 passengers. Once they’re all on board there’s a slow ascent to the top, which is 510 feet in the air. That’s just a little bit smaller than the tallest building in America.

“Once they’re at the top, it gives everyone the decision to stop and go back down safely,” he continued. “After that, everyone has to manually press a button to start the ride.”

At that point, those remaining on the rollercoaster fall at a withering speed of around 223 miles per hour before the cars go through a set of seven loops, each one smaller than the previous one.

As Urbonas explains:  “Riding the coaster’s track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death.”

Riders would also wear a special biomonitoring suit that would double-check vital signs to see if there is “a need for a second round, which is extremely unlikely,” Urbonas added.

In the years since Urbonas’s strange concept has been released, there haven’t yet been any parties interested in making them a reality… at least not yet.