Significant spinal injury resulting from low-level accelerations: a case series of roller coaster injuries.

Objectives: To describe a cohort of significantly injured roller coaster riders and the likely levels of acceleration at which the injuries occurred, and to compare these data with contemporary efforts to define a lower limit of acceleration below which no significant spinal injury is likely to occur.

Design: A retrospective case series of roller coaster ride-induced significant spinal injuries.

Setting: Injury incident records and emergency medical service records for the Rattler roller coaster in San Antonio, TX, were evaluated for a 19-month period in 1992 and 1993.