Rapids ride saftey equipment fesability

[jibbsie]

Another topic got carried away with discussing the fesability of using restraints for saftey in rapids rides, the problem is that if the boat flips a restrain could trap you from being able to escape and may cause you to drown (see the cedar point shoot the rapids ride incident)

here are the messages previously:

They need to bring in restraints with tech to resolve the "flip issue". It's not rocket science. When seat belts were introduced they were static restraints (like on an airplane). Then we had the inertia reel, then pre-tensioners and airbags. Can't be that difficult to do the same for water rides - mercury switch combined with tech?? Of course it can "not work" and drown people, in the same way an asteroid can hit Earth and kill us all.

there are many problems with this here are 2 of the key problems:

1. how do you know you're upside down:
you suggest using a mercury switch, the other options are gyroscopes (they drift) or accelerometers. none of these are perfect because it is a ride, it will have negetive G forces, the nature of restrains is that you would want to prevent these negetive G-forces from opening the restraints mid ride (if you were holding on then you would want it not to just open if it has negetive G-forces) you could add some sort of timer, like if upsidedown for more than 1 sec reliease restraints, but every second can count when a multi tonn vehicle is landing on your head.

2. where dose the power come from:
the nature of rapids is that the vehicle may come in at random positions or oreintations, making it difficult to add locations that contactors can allow power to flow through, also if you are using batteries where will these go, there is now a risk of electrocution, water damage to the restraints, etc. this mechanism needs to work every time and can't stop working if something such as the batteries die


you have to remember the restraints are saftey devices, you don't want them to fail dangerouse but this leaves no choice, if power is lost then do you fail open or closed? if closed and it flipps people may get hurt, if open and it dosn't but there is a big bump people who may have been relying on the restraint to hold on may fall out.

Well I have several patents to my name, and some software on satellites (specifically related to power) - so not unaccustomed to solving problems. (My wife says I talk about this waaaay to much )

The bottom of a raft is always in contact with the water, so there's one thing. A mercury switch (first thing I thought of) is perfectly implementable. And any system that creates false positives is fine - human behaviour would suggest people re-insert their seat belts rather than use it as an opportunity to do dangerous things.

As for the power, a Li-Ion battery will last for weeks in monitoring these things between charges. In terms of engineering marvels, this isn't one of them.

My oppinion: Water switches aren't a good Idea as if it flips the water may run over the top of the boat anyway meaning they may stay on, and if it gets some air (as they can sometimes) it may reliease the restraints.

one problem is rapids rides are an unknown when it comes to forces, and are random due to the unpredictability of turbulent water and if you were holding onto your seatbelt, or trying not to hold on relying on your seatbelt, your seatbelt detaching could be really bad as you aren't expecting it.

also about the bateries: I wasn't saying that bateries couldn't power it, the problem is the batteries have to be charged, it is very difficult to do that at the station, and having to have someone move round with a cable charging the batteries in a wet enviroment is asking for problems (also it can take a while for batteries to charge, so the time in the station may not be enough)

 

[That Guy]

I wonder how much power would be required, could you get away with something like a Ryobi battery that could be removed and charged overnight.

That said, I'm not sure you could create a system that people would trust. Even if it was totally failsafe lots of people would probably not want to ride.

 

[rob666]

My opinion.
Simply not needed, never have been.
Stick to the rules and live.
Darwinism at its finest.

 

[Jb85]

Could people just wear a nice jacket?
Would hit capacity mind you.

Or just be sensible ?

 

[rob666]

...Or just be sensible ?

Now you are just being silly.

Back in the good old days, I remember all the woodies with no restraints.
Only the idiots fell off.

 

[Jb85]

Now you are just being silly.

Back in the good old days, I remember all the woodies with no restraints.
Only the idiots fell off.

We need more rides like that. Idiotkillers

To many of them around

 

[Fuct]

We need more rides like that. Idiotkillers

To many of them around

Unfortunately deaths at a park are still deaths at a park, even if the people dying are Darwin Award candidates. I don't think any insurer would be happy with "only the idiots will die".