The only death that I'm aware of was the girl getting hit by a stray bullet in the wave pool, which I think happened back in the '80s. The area around the park wasn't nearly as developed back then, and some redneck.....er, "hunters" were target shooting quite a ways away where they thought was a safe distance away from anyone. It may have been over a mile, I can't recall exactly. One bullet hit a teenager in the wave pool and killed her, and it took some time to figure out what happened since there was no obvious shooter.
There haven't been any ride-related deaths, nor any serious injuries that I'm aware of. The most serious incident would probably be the Thunder Road collision, followed by BORG's recent mishap. There have been some deaths at it's sister parks, but everything I've read on the incidents at Kings Island and Kings Dominion indicate that they were caused mostly by the guests' combined stupidity and / or drunkenness.
The only time I've personally seen someone almost get seriously hurt by a ride at Carowinds was, oddly enough, on Frenzoid. A girl around 10 years old had her hand resting against the round pad on the lapbar as they were lowering them. Her elbow got jammed against the seat and she couldn't move her arm as the restraint kept applying pressure and it got stuck. I was a bit worried, since to release the restraints they usually have to push down, which I feared would break the girl's arm. The crew jumped in right as she (and everyone else) started yelling, and manually released the lapbars with a big wrench / crowbar contraption. This took a bit of time, but she seemed ok afterwards as she went ahead and rode it after they got everything reset. Looked pretty painful during the ordeal though.
Of course the way that thing attacks my privates before and after each ride, I think it's evil and wants blood, so I'm not terribly surprised it did that. I doubt the name change or move will change Frenzoid's violent squishing behavior. Oddly enough I do like the ride in spite of that.
In one of the few times that Six Flags did something that made more sense, SFOG used to have you put your fists under the pad of Looping Starship as it lowered, so it didn't squeeze us guys in a rude fashion. Probably keeps arms safe too now that I think about it.
KenB
P.S. And remember, it's Ken R that probably knows all there is to know about Carowinds, not me
