How many times would you imagine a roller coaster designer had ridden on one? Fifty? A hundred?

Ron Toomer had never taken a roller-coaster ride before he created his first runaway train for Six Flags Over Texas in 1966.

Toomer, 63, is president of Arrow Dynamics in Utah, one of the leading ride-design companies. He started his career as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry.

He met a welder of exotic metals who worked for Arrow, and he liked the sound of that kind of work.

"Up until that time, (the company) had built a lot of rides for Disneyland and various amusement rides, but no roller coasters," said Toomer.

Toomer applied for a job and was hired to design his and the company's first roller coaster. At the time, he was 36.

"I was hired to design the first roller coaster the company built. And I had never been on one up to that time."

Toomer was lucky in his career move. He says only 15 to 20 people around the world make a living designing roller coasters.

"It's very very difficult to get into it," he told Children's Express in a recent telephone interview. "I think you'd have a better chance at brain surgery or being an astronaut.

"I haven't ridden a lot of competitors' roller coasters," he continued. "I don't ride ours anymore, really. I never liked them too much. It's kind of funny, but I get real motion sickness. So I can only go around once or twice on one anyway."

So how do you make a safe ride for amusement parks like Paramount's Kings Island, Cedar Point, or Disneyland?

After making the preliminary designs, engineers spend months doing calculations to work out the speed, how to bank the tracks, how to design the curves, and other items to ensure that the ride is safe. The whole process usually takes six to nine months.

"Usually what happens is we get a customer that calls in and wants something specific. They usually have a pretty good idea of what they want. . . . We take all of that information and start doing a layout on the ground. We call it a plan view, where you look down on top of it."

The time taken to design a ride is well spent. Arrow rides carry 200 million people a year, and very few people are hurt.

"Roller coasters are probably one of the safest things you do," Toomer said.

Safety errors, according to Toomer, are virtually impossible. Designs are basically fool-proof and the rides are checked and maintained daily.

We asked him what he would think if he turned on the evening news one night and saw that a roller coaster he designed had derailed, killing all the passengers.

"It's an impossibility," he said, chuckling. "The things are so safe. I'd have to think it was April Fool's Day."

EDITED BY: Aaron Shackelford, 15