Though a staple of amusement parks and carnivals, the original models of the Zipper garnered a reputation for being unsafe due to their rough nature, and a series of deaths on the rides in the late 1970s after cabin doors came unlatched led to a series of revisions, primarily restructuring of the door lock system. Nevertheless, the ride has amassed a cult following over its decades in operation, and was named by "Popular Mechanics" as one of the strangest amusement park rides in the world.