When falling more than 200 feet in just a few seconds, most roller coaster riders don’t realize that the contraption they’re riding in does not have an engine.

In fact, at 75 mph, riders are held to the track only by gravity, friction wheels and two sets of track wheels that keep the car following steel pipes.

It sounds dangerous, but a person is safer riding a roller coaster than driving a car.

The effects of gravity give the roller coaster the initial kinetic energy to drive through the entirety of the ride.

Waiting the full minute for the ride to pull the cars to the top of that first hill now seems worthwhile to riders.

The friction wheels control the motion to either side of the track so the car does not fly off the track when following corners at 75 mph.

Running wheels act as a guide for the roller coaster, and a final set is used only for coasters with inversions to keep the cars on the track when the running wheels are separate from the track and guide cars through the loop.

The National Consumer Product Safety Commission said only 7,000 of the 270 million patrons who visit amusement parks each year — 0.0026 percent of riders — receive medical attention for ride-related injuries.

Deaths and injuries on amusement park rides are usually preventable. Lack of routine maintenance and disregard for safety rules take the bulk of the blame.

Each ride has a set of guidelines that operators and patrons must follow. These include age, weight, or height restrictions, and medical conditions.

Worlds of Fun uses a rating system with level one being low risk, and level five being high risk. The park’s haunted houses are level five attractions, along with the roller coasters. Even the Ferris wheel has a four rating, which warns patrons about the risk of heart, back and neck injuries. No rides allow pregnant women to board. These rules are created by the ride’s designers, who understand the key forces associated with the ride.

But which type of roller coaster produces the most thrilling ride: A wooden track or a steel track?
Worlds of Fun has two roller coasters that serve as perfect comparisons for this discussion. The Timberwolf is a wooden roller coaster, which was added to the park in 1989. Its lift height is 100 feet with its first drop reaching 45 mph. At a more than two minutes in length, the ride features hairpin curves and an unusual 560-degree helix. Although the maximum speed is relatively low, the Timberwolf makes up for speed through added sway and bouncing, which is characteristic of wooden roller coasters.

The Mamba is a steel track roller coaster that lifts riders 205 feet in the air and sends them hurtling toward the earth at 75 mph. Built in 1998, it marks the single largest expansion in the park’s history to date. It is one of the longest and fastest roller coasters in the world, stretching almost 5,600 feet and providing a ride that lasts approximately three minutes. Steel roller coasters have the added perk of being able to supply inversions and loops with few mechanical limitations. But makers of the Mamba take pride in the coaster’s ability to create thrills through sheer speed instead of loops.

“When you get to the top, you feel weightless,” said Martin Gakuria, a Blueprint staff member, after riding the Mamba.

What can be more thrilling than the Timberwolf or the Mamba?

Worlds of Fun hopes it’s the Patriot, which will be unveiled in spring 2006.

The Patriot will be 149 feet tall and stretch 3,081 feet wide. Built with blue cars on a red and white track, supported by blue columns, this coaster is set to deliver a ride smooth as glass. Its track includes four inversions: an 89-foot loop, a zero-gravity roll, an Immelmann loop and a corkscrew. The track also features an inclined bank curve and an s-curve with a top speed of 60 mph.

The Patriot will cost $14 million, the most expensive investment in the park’s 33-year existence.

Park officials predict that the two-minute, 18 seconds ride will be wild.

Bolliger & Mabillard (B & M) of Monthey, Switzerland designed the Patriot.

With so many innovations in the roller coaster industry, developers are working to satisfy riders’ dreams of roller coasters with even greater heights and tighter curves. Until then, coasters built during the Roaring Twenties will be enjoyed for decades to come.