Man survived rollercoaster crash but friends died and he’ll ‘never get over guilt’
40 years on from the fatal crash, it continues to haunt this man forever, as he recalls the day he lost his friend and watched other passengers die a tragic death
Rod says he has never got over the guilt(Image: Youtube/Disasterthon – True Horror)
There were four passengers in the rollercaoster cart that day, and yet Rod Chayko was the only one to survive and continues to live with the guilt every single day.
Rod was ‘the lucky one’ who escaped a near-death experience back on June 14, 1986. He and his friend were involved in a rollercoaster crash when the car had been going 100 km per hour before striking a pillar and hurling them all out onto the concrete floor below.
Four passengers were riding The Mindbender, which was at the time the world’s largest indoor triple-loop roller-coaster, situated within the world’s largest indoor amusement park in the world’s largest shopping centre. The deadly ride was based in Galaxyland, a theme park in West Edmonton Mall, in Alberta, Canada.
Its wheel assembly had become detached from both the track and car itself; as a result, the ride started to sway back and forth along the track, damaging it further. Then, the worst imaginable happened when the lap bar restraints unlocked and released the people sat on the ride, throwing them to the ground.
Three out of the four passengers that fell from the ride died that day, and the fourth, Rod, was left with life-altering injuries. Now to 65 and a retired welder, his body remained for years a ‘source of daily pain’, which he was treating even 20 years later with medical marijuana.
He was the only one to survive(Image: Youtube/Disasterthon – True Horror)
On the ride with him that day was his friend David Sager, and sitting behind them was an engaged couple, Tony Mandrusiak, 24, and his fiancée Cindy Sims, 21.
He recalled the moment it happened on the 20-year anniversary of the accident, saying: “I remember feeling it sway and grabbing onto the handle,” recalls Chayko. “The next thing, I was landing on the ground.”
At the time of the incident, Rod was living in Fort McMurray, and he had decided to visit the mall for a night of fun with David. He had described his late friend to be somewhat of a ‘thrill-seeker’ who loved fast cars, and yet nothing could have prepared them for the night they were about to face.
He told CBC News the crash was “an accident — plain and simple”. He said: “David, Tony and Cindy are dead, and it changed my life forever. I think about it every day.”
The ride remained open for years after the accident(Image: Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images)
Ever since the accident, he’s been back to the mall on visits with his children and even grandchildren, but the ride continued to loom over the experience.
It wasn’t until 2023 that the Mindblender was officially closed down after years of taking passengers along the once deadly track. Although he vowed to never go on the Mindbender again, Chayko explained he didn’t want to discourage others.
Following the devastating incident, Chayko says he received an undisclosed settlement from the mall but claims he isn’t “rich”. At the time of the interview in 2016, he did confirm the centre continues to give him free tickets to attractions they host whenever he asks.
Although he has since made the point of asking the mall to create a memorial bench close to the site of where the ride sat to commemorate the lives of those lost. Staff are thought to have offered to put a plaque on an office wall, an offer he didn’t deem acceptable.
