National roller coaster safety expert dead at 64

"Brown helped Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, redesign a roller coaster that was breaking the collar bones of some riders."

Anyone know what coaster that was?

Hmmm... the only one I could think of that would do that would be Corkscrew because of the violent bunny hop and restraint design. Admittedly, it's not THAT violent, not even close, but maybe it was modified?

Anyone know?

Jason - who knows that Carowind's Corkscrew's bunny hill is rather violent.

Probably Magnum. The entire stretch of track leading up to the pretzel turn was completely redone because riders were being injured.

I agree, the third hill on Magnum was brutal before it was reprofiled.

I see, Arrow must have really messed up on that then. I also read somewhere that opening year on Magnum there wasn't any up-stop wheels, just the metal hooks that are on some of the mine train coasters. Hmmm... what genius made that decision? Oh yes oh yes, the man who wouldn't ride his own coasters after he designed them with a bent coat hanger.

(just joking, Toomer deserves a ton of credit for his contributions, just easy to take a stab at him sometimes)

Maybe it was adding the trims to Mantis' first drop.

As far as the upstops go just look at Magnum's little siblings Gemini. They just used the same style trains. Before Magnum there wasn't any minetrains that needed upstop wheels.

There is a Plain Dealer article that implies it was Jumbo Jet.

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Brown was an instructor at Case Western Reserve University in 1972 when Cedar Point Amusement Park sought help from the school because several teenage girls broke their collarbones riding a new roller coaster.

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His findings also led to changes on Iron Dragon, WildCat, and the change to Mantis' first drop.

http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=648

Interesting.