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Ride/Park Accidents

pluk said:
Interesting article...

www.clickorlando.com

New records show Orlando FreeFall has weight limit as state continues to investigate teen’s death

The Orlando FreeFall is the subject of scrutiny as state agencies look into what caused a 14-year-old to fall to his death from the ICON Park ride last Thursday.
www.clickorlando.com www.clickorlando.com

So it seems the user manual has a weight limit (which the deceased significantly exceeded), but the company representative has said there was no weight limit and if you physically fit in the seat you could ride. “We have a size restriction,” Stein said. “You have to be 50 inches or taller, and you have to be able to fit in the seat, and so there is really no weight restriction unless you cannot fit in the seat. So this is how we operate, and then the harness blocks you in, and we operate the ride."

Basically an accidental admission they were not operating the ride safely using their own restrictions.
Click to expand...

You could see from the video and a few stills that he didn't fit in the seat properly. The restraint looked miles further out than on the other riders just before the ride started to move.

They are in big big trouble then as they have basically caused that accident themselves through neglect of their own rules.
 
Crickey. When it says hit by a roller coaster gondola one assumes it means a part that came off. Terrible news.
 
pluk said:
Back to America, the incident report confirms the restraint remained locked in position when the ride came to a stop.

edition.cnn.com

Accident report in teen's Florida park ride death says seat was locked | CNN

The seat of a teen who fell to his death from an amusement park ride in Florida last week was still locked, according to an accident report from the state.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
Click to expand...
It also states that the victim was denied from both the Starflyer and Slingshot. Goodness knows why they weren't also denied from the drop tower. The accident wouldn't have happened otherwise.
 
Skyscraper said:
It also states that the victim was denied from both the Starflyer and Slingshot. Goodness knows why they weren't also denied from the drop tower. The accident wouldn't have happened otherwise.
Click to expand...

Back to seatbelts I think. Didn't physically fit on the rides with the seatbelts, did on the one without.
 
Is a weight restriction a common thing? I don't ever recall seeing one on a ride restrictions sign, let alone enforced.
 
I’ve seen it on restriction boards before, but I’ve only ever really seen it enforced in water parks, where you’re batched onto a scale. That tends to be more for total group weight though.

I’m pretty sure Slammer at Thorpe had a weight restriction advertised and I have a feeling there might have been other rides at Thorpe with one too…
 
As @Ian said, I haven’t really seen weight restrictions much outside of water parks. They’re quite common on water slides, but considerably less so on theme park rides.

However, I do know of rides that have them. I seem to remember reading that Spinball supposedly has one (although any trace of it seems to have vanished from Towers’ website), and I also know that Dragon’s Fury and Rattlesnake have some form of weight restrictions, as only 3 adults are allowed per car on those, apparently.
 
You have to be weighed before riding Flying Turns at Knoebels, but that is more to do with making sure the ride vehicle does not exceed a certain weight rather than anything to do with the restraint system.

I guess in a case like this weight could be used as a proxy for body size/shape.
 
Sounds like the OL incident is a staff member error

"The incident took place around 9 p.m. The woman suffered serious head injuries. At the moment, the police does not assume a technical error. According to eyewitnesses, the staff member was too close to the track when the rollercoaster was operating. An attempt at resuscitation was unsuccessful."
 
Ian said:
I’ve seen it on restriction boards before, but I’ve only ever really seen it enforced in water parks, where you’re batched onto a scale. That tends to be more for total group weight though.

I’m pretty sure Slammer at Thorpe had a weight restriction advertised and I have a feeling there might have been other rides at Thorpe with one too…
Click to expand...
Depth Charge has a maximum combined weight limit of 127kg/20 stone, although it is a water ride.
 
Arkansas - 10 year old falls from ride, hospitalised with unknown injuries. I know them as eggs, effectively spinning seats on a ferris wheel. Sounds like she was on with a parent who bottled it and got out as the ride was starting, then encouraged the injured to jump out. As on that ride type the restraint is fixed by the door closing the kid couldn't have been strapped in at that point.

India - 30 year old scalped when her hair gets caught in the bearings of a merry go round. Ouch. I've heard of this happening a few times before, once at Thorpe decades ago, be wary of long hair on rides!
 
Matt N said:
As @Ian said, I haven’t really seen weight restrictions much outside of water parks. They’re quite common on water slides, but considerably less so on theme park rides.

However, I do know of rides that have them. I seem to remember reading that Spinball supposedly has one (although any trace of it seems to have vanished from Towers’ website), and I also know that Dragon’s Fury and Rattlesnake have some form of weight restrictions, as only 3 adults are allowed per car on those, apparently.
Click to expand...
111kg Matt, just googled.
Anyone clever enough to put that in stones and pounds for me to see if I have been breaking the rules?
 
Apparently, in Europe the maximum passenger weight for the drop tower is 287 Ib, according to the manual, but in the USA there is no maximum weight limit. How is that allowed?! ⁉️
Also, the investigators are looking at redundancies that may have prevented the accident, like seatbelts. I won't be surprised if those are one of their recommendations in the final report.

Source (news report (includes an interview with one of the investigators)):


 
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Skyscraper said:
Apparently, in Europe the maximum passenger weight for the drop tower is 287 Ib, according to the manual, but in the USA there is no maximum weight limit. How is that allowed?!
Click to expand...

An oddly worded bit of crap journalism there. The 'manual' is universal but the operator in the USA has simply not used the manufacturers restrictions in their operating restrictions.

It's the land of the free; they largely do what they want with only the threat of legal repercussions hanging over them if they get it wrong to guide them rather than prescriptive regulations like we have here. There is no national body overseeing safety like we have here (and most countries have in the rest of the world), some states have better regulation, some have none.

That this incident is being investigated by the department for agriculture probably tells you all you need to know about how they view ride safety!
 
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