Melbourne Show rollercoaster tragedy: Shylah Rodden was in three other freak accidents

A young woman fighting for her life after being thrown 30 feet into the air when struck by a roller coaster has been involved in three other freak accidents.

Shylah Rodden’s family took legal action Friday in Victorian County Court over injuries sustained by the 26-year-old in a traffic accident in January 2018.

That was the first of three similar incidents she would experience, after it was previously revealed that she was involved in a serious car accident in February 2019 and her car overturned after hitting a truck in January 2021.

Ms Rodden is in critical condition after being hit by the Rebel Coaster ride at the Melbourne Royal Show last Sunday – the fourth freak accident the young woman has experienced.

Her family filed a subpoena to protect her rights from Friday’s 2018 incident.

Arnold Thomas and Becker’s practice manager, Aki Munir, said she is seeking damages for injuries sustained in a “transport accident due to the defendant’s negligence.”

“It (the action) concerns a transport accident and she sustained a number of significant injuries in that accident,” Ms Munir told the… Herald sun.

“The purpose of filing the subpoena is to preserve her rights should anything happen to her.”

Ms Munir also said Ms Rodden’s family could take legal action against the Melbourne Royal Show and the operators of the Rebel Coaster for negligence.

On the day she was hit by the roller coaster, Ms. Rodden was working in a friend’s booth on the show.

They had been on hiatus when the pair decided to take a few rides to pass the time.

It is clear that she dropped her phone while on the roller coaster and police believe Ms Rodden walked on the tracks of the high-speed ride to retrieve the device.

Ms Rodden was involved in three other accidents, including a serious car accident in February 2019, and another in which she overturned her car after hitting a truck in January 2021.

Gruesome footage shows Shylah Rodden (pictured in black) moments from being hit by the Rebel Coaster at the Melbourne Royal show on Sunday

Her father Alan Rodden told Daily Mail Australia this week that his daughter had suffered life-changing injuries.

‘Of course I can’t talk to my daughter. She will be in a coma for quite some time,” he said.

“The injuries are terrible. Awful. She has brain damage. It’s the pelvis, her arms, legs, back, neck – there’s almost nothing that isn’t broken. I just don’t understand how the hell so much damage was done.

“Even the doctors have said they haven’t seen this much in ages.”

Police revealed on Monday that the roller coaster was traveling at 70 km/h when it was hit.

Ms Rodden had to learn to walk again after being involved in a horror crash in January 2021 when she overturned a car on Melbourne’s Western Ring Road after being plowed into a truck and car.

She was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car onto the road.

The young woman survived the crash but needed significant rehabilitation to get back on her feet and with the support of her supportive parents, she managed to walk again.

Her grueling road to recovery came after another serious car accident in 2019.

Mr Rodden (pictured) has been involved in three separate road accidents, in 2018, 2019 and 2021

Two months before she was due to be hit by the roller coaster, she was dealt another blow with the death of her beloved brother, Jason.

“Dad sat me down and told me my brother had died,” she wrote in the weeks before her accident.

“He wasn’t just my big brother, he was my best friend, my everything, the person I looked up to and looked for.”

A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show claimed that ‘the safety and well-being of our visitors to the show remains our number one priority’.

The safety watchdog WorkSafe is in the process of determining whether that claim is true.

The roller coaster that hit her reopened just days after the sickening incident.

Show management declined to comment on whether any new safety procedures had been adopted in the aftermath.

A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show claimed that ‘the safety and well-being of our visitors to the show remains our number one priority’ (pictured, the Royal Melbourne Show)