Rollercoaster victim Shylah Rodden stared down death before after horror crash last year, Melbourne
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The young victim of a horrific roller coaster accident has previously faced death after a shocking car accident.
Shylah Rodden, 26, is in intensive care after being hit by the Rebel Coaster during the Melbourne Royal Show on Sunday.
Shocking footage of the incident, cruelly shared on TikTok, showed Shylah being hit by the roller coaster and being dragged along the rails before being hurled nine meters into the bitumen below.
A young Shylah Rodden in 2014 – the same year her life would be turned upside down for the first time
Gruesome footage shows Shylah Rodden (pictured in black) moments from being hit by the Rebel Coaster at the Melbourne Royal show on Sunday
As Shylah now faces the fight of her life, Daily Mail Australia can reveal that the Melburnian was involved in a horror crash in January 2021 when she overturned a car after being plowed into a truck and car.
She was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car onto the road.
Shylah survived the crash, but needed significant rehabilitation to get back on his feet.
Supported by her supportive parents, she managed to walk again.
Her grueling road to recovery came after another serious car accident in 2019.
Shylah Rodden made no secrets that she was a free spirit enjoying a good time
Ms Rodden (above) remains in intensive care with critical injuries
The young woman is no stranger to overcoming life’s hard hurdles.
As an 18-year-old, she found herself among a rotten company that led her into a seedy world of drugs and misconduct.
“Live life loose,” she wrote on her arm at the time.
Helped by a loving family, the teenager changed her life.
She got a new job, arranged professional help for her demons, and promised to make new friends.
But the road to recovery is littered with potholes, and it wouldn’t be long before Shylah was back in it.
Locked in a cell, isolated from those she loved, Shylah had reached what she believed had been the crossroads of her life.
It was 2017 and again she promised to clean herself up and live the life she no doubt dreamed of as a little girl.
The demonic ice wouldn’t allow it.
In February 2019, Shylah was involved in a serious car accident, but things went from bad to worse.
In January last year, Shylah suffered shocking injuries when she overturned a car on the Western Beltway after being plowed into a truck and car.
On her way to recovery, and just two months before she was due to be hit by the roller coaster, Shylah got another curveball 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.”
On the day she was to be knocked down again, Shylah had been 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.
The Rebel Coaster (above) opened just days after Tuesday’s incident, with Shylah’s family labeled the move “embarrassing.”
It’s clear that Shylah dropped her phone on the roller coaster.
Video obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows passengers being made to take their belongings with them during the ride.
Police believe Shylah may have walked on the tracks of the fast ride to retrieve her phone.
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 Shylah reopened just days after the sickening incident.
Show management declined to comment on whether any new safety procedures have been adopted in the aftermath.
Daily Mail Australia understands that WorkSafe did indeed have some concerns about the roller coaster’s operation.
Whether that amounts to criminal prosecution is as yet unknown.
As is the medical condition of Shylah, who has miraculously managed to cling to life.
Ms Rodden (above) suffered ‘horrific’ facial injuries in the incident and her family said they are unsure how she will recover
Police revealed on Monday that the roller coaster was traveling at 70 km/h when it was hit.
Shocked families watched as paramedics treated her at the scene for serious facial injuries.
Shylah’s father Alan Rodden told Daily Mail Australia 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.”