Hydro at Oakwood will reopen this year

Provided that they don't mean 3-point harnesses when they refer to over-the-shoulder restraints, the restraint configuration seems logical given the nightmare that the park went through after the death of the girl. Even though it's been pretty much determined that the third generation of Intamin lap bars are safe (ie TTD), you can't blame Oakwood for straying away from Intamin lap bars for good.

I agree, although the restraints were different to the ones on Perilous Plunge I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the ones on PP had a straight bar, while the ones on Hydro were bent as shown here: http://www.coasterclub.org/gallery/displayimage.php?album=50&pos=2

If there is a large gap between the rider, any restraint is going to be redundant to a certain extent. That said, we STILL don't know why that girl came out.

To me it still appears that the biggest issue with those seats were that they lacked sides. Look at that photo... I suspect you could easily slide out to the side if you were sitting on the end (especially if you're a thin 16-year-old girl).

I think Intamin doesn't understand how seats and lap bars are supposed to interact. Furthermore, parks and regulators, on the whole, don't understand it either.

What kind of testing did Intamin do on these rides, anyway?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Jeff I can see where that could be a concern...one thing that runs through my head is ...Did Intamin ever check that as a possibility? Although if these restraints are better, there should be no possible injury.

Define "better"...

Did they fix a problem, or did they replace one bad design with another?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

"Better as in no possible accidents" Although with Intamin, its one bad thing after another ....so we shall see!

Which is a better design: One in which under certain specific conditions, one person in tens of thousands gets tossed out and killed, or one in which under all conditions *most* riders end up slightly injured?

I submit that neither qualifies as a good design.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Ha, Ha, Good One RideMan! It describes Intamin to a tee. although they would of selected teh one which under all conditions *most* riders end up slightly injured! ;)

Hi, im new to this and i just wanted to say i have been on Hydro and i think it is the best ride ever. Even though the girl died on it i will still continue to ride it because i will not stand back and let a great ride go to waste.