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Ride/Park Accidents

It's a awful incident. I actually watched the video not realising what it was and it just seems surreal.

When I went on Hang Over at Winter Wonderland that scared me immensely. I cant recall if there are seatbelt's on there either? I'm assuming if there isn't that FunTime will want them added before operating any further.
 
The facts someone (I think it’s a female op) asks “did you check him” is incredibly disturbing. I feel so sorry for his friends and family, you just don’t expect this to happen - thoughts are with them. 😢
 
If the ride didn't tilt forward I believe the poor kid would have still been alive. His restraint was probably locked but it left a huge gap. So the seat is tilted forward with the restraint not really doing the job it's designed to do at the angle and that immense force under sudden breaking. In a way the ops should never have sent it up with how his harness looked but they obviously fully trusted the ride design/system and if the green light is on just send it up. Even if it didn't look right. Truly awful, so young and I can't imagine how his family feel.
 
The picture of the position the lad was sitting in shows the entire seat is missing. Explains why the ride system allowed it to be sent. It looks as tho the restraint was fine/did its job, but scarily the seat has come loose and slid out from under the restraint! That poor boy and his family, feel so sorry for them :disrelieved:
 
Tommy85 said:
The picture of the position the lad was sitting in shows the entire seat is missing. Explains why the ride system allowed it to be sent. It looks as tho the restraint was fine/did its job, but scarily the seat has come loose and slid out from under the restraint! That poor boy and his family, feel so sorry for them :disrelieved:
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I saw a news report with video of the ride idle at the top of the tower with a seat cover on, which also covers underneath the seat. That may be what you are referring to? There was also one of these on TPWW's video when he went and a seat was out of action. From what I have seen the seat didn't come loose but there was movement in the restraint.
 
Adam H said:
I saw a news report with video of the ride idle at the top of the tower with a seat cover on, which also covers underneath the seat. That may be what you are referring to? There was also one of these on TPWW's video when he went and a seat was out of action. From what I have seen the seat didn't come loose but there was movement in the restraint.
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No there is a picture online of the ride at the bottom after the incident and the seat is completely missing. I have it but I dunno if it would be in bad taste to post it here?
 
Tommy85 said:
No there is a picture online of the ride at the bottom after the incident and the seat is completely missing. I have it but I dunno if it would be in bad taste to post it here?
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I can't speak for the Team, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to post it on the ground that it'd be in very bad taste to do so.
 
Jonathan said:
I can't speak for the Team, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to post it on the ground that it'd be in very bad taste to do so.
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Yeah I did think that, I don’t want to cause any upset. The media posted it but then their morals are lower than a snakes belly. At the end of the day the poor lad died and was just having fun like everyone on here loves to do. It’s so sad. Also feel for the poor people who saw it happen, that’s something that will never leave you 😢
 
I think we're ok to post main stream media coverage of the incident? I agree mobile phone footage of someone's death posted to social media is beyond the pale.

** Discard the below - I am fake news **

Fox 35 Orlando posted some photos of site now, this seat has components missing - but it could be that they have been removed for inspection, or not.

seat2.jpg
 
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Reading the article it seems those pics are from a few weeks previous (5th March) by a person who noticed a seat out of use and decided not to ride. Who knows if that's the same seat as the one involved in this incident.

Edit. Austin Towers beat me to it
 
Skyscraper said:
That is indeed correct. It's the same seat and restraint style that is found on Eurofighters, Infinitys and Sky Flys.
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Does this make it the second Gerst seat on another manufacturers ride to be involved in a fatality in recent years then? I can't reacll which but I'm sure a non Gerst coaster using a Gerst seat was involved in a fatal ejection a couple of years back.
 
That site has changed what it said vs yesterday ! My bad for not rereading.

pluk said:
Does this make it the second Gerst seat on another manufacturers ride to be involved in a fatality in recent years then? I can't reacll which but I'm sure a non Gerst coaster using a Gerst seat was involved in a fatal ejection a couple of years back.
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You're thinking of the death on New Texas Giant, which is one of two RMCs that uses Gerst trains.
 
From this pic here from Midway Mayhem you can see the guy in the centre seems to be not fully secured in my opinion and his body language looks to confirm that while going up the tower. Imagine the force when hitting the brakes with a tilting seat with the restraint up like that, but in this pic it's not as bad as the poor lad.
Screenshot_20220326-104831_Twitter.jpg
 
Rick said:
You're thinking of the death on New Texas Giant, which is one of two RMCs that uses Gerst trains.
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That's the one. Settled out of court with no attribution of blame or public confirmation of cause. That ride reopened with multiple adjustments to the restraints system.

www.dallasnews.com

Victim’s family settles Texas Giant fatality lawsuit

Details of the settlement with Six Flags Over Texas and the German ride maker were not disclosed.
www.dallasnews.com

Another opportunity missed to make things safer by the American disjointed and secretive regulatory and legal system? Probably.
 
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Adam H said:
From this pic here from Midway Mayhem you can see the guy in the centre seems to be not fully secured in my opinion and his body language looks to confirm that while going up the tower. Imagine the force when hitting the brakes with a tilting seat with the restraint up like that, but in this pic it's not as bad as the poor lad.
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Oh wow, that looks really unsafe doesn’t it! Looks very easy to slip out that gap! Are we looking at a design flaw here for larger guests? Either in the seat design or more likely in the sensors that r allowing the ride to be sent when the restraint is clearly not closed enough? Either way it’s ridiculous in this day and age that this was not picked up! And also how cheap is it to just add a seat belt for added peace of mind like most rides do now days? This should never of happened 😞
 
Matt.GC said:
Any restraint that requires a seatbelt as a backup is not fit for purpose.
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Seatbelts are "redundant" safety features though; they are there to make the rider feel safer but will physically keep the restraint from opening fully in the unlikely event it failed catastrophically.
 
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