3/14-Fatality on Pigeon Forge Flat Ride

One thing I guess no one seems to know is that going by the picture they showed on the news of the woman, she looked rather large to me.

Is it legal to operate these rides without inspection by a professional?

If functioning correctly, can the ride be started, including an 'override' mode if it has one, if a harness isn't locked?

It seems the operator should have to be 18 years of age.

Also I wouldn't call this a 'park'.

if her harness popped open a few seconds into the ride...... she would have had ample time TO SCREAM MY HARNESS IS OPEN!!!!!!!!!

the ride does no automaticaly go upside down, it swings back and forth gaining momentum. The operator should have been able to see that her harness was open and stopped the ride.

also... the ride operatng system should have detected something and stopped the ride.

I still feel that this is a case of operator error!

because if her harness clicked open a few seconds during the ride, so would the other 2 harnesses in the row, all are connected to the same control box on the ride.

I've watch 4 videos (2 on a hawk, 1 on a fabbri cataclysm, and 1 on a kamikaze)

the average time it took before the ride went upside down was 32 seconds. if her harness click after a few seconds (say 10 seconds.) that still give the ride operator 22 seconds. to notice something wrong. Im sure should would have been screaming, because that is the human thing to do. the people sitting next to her would also be screaming STOP THE RIDE.

im still fairly sure that this is a case of operator error.

age plays no part in this case, because me being 16 i would have been able to tell something was wrong....and i would have physically check all the harnesses by pushing and then pulling to make sure the pins locked into place.

I can imagine any number of scenarios that would allow a single restraint to open. These include a wiring short, a damaged locking pin that didn't move fully to the locked position, a cracked weld that broke, a faulty air valve....

K-16 - that's all speculation on your part. It's really easy to say that she could have screamed, but maybe she wasn't able to do that - she might have been overcome with fright!...we just don't know at this point. Maybe the ride operator got a phone call and lost his focus - an infinite number of possibilities exist.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm not neccessarily agreeing with you because we, as the general public, don't have all the facts. Based on the facts that we do know, it appears (to me) to be operator error. But there is room for failure from the ride itself as well. We do know that their product doesn't have to be inspected by the state or local authorities and we seem to assume that since these are small "parks" (or whatever) that they don't spend a lot of time and money maintaining their rides, which may or may not be true, and we know that the Zamperla Hawk has not had a history with this specific problem with other models that exist. Until there is a real conclusion made public by proper authorities, all else is pure guesswork.

If I'm not mistaken all of the restraints are interconnected so that if one fails to lock,or somehow opens mid ride then they'd all open up.

Look at the rotoshake when loading & you'll see that all the restraints move into closed position & are locked simultaniously...if one restraint fails to lock then they've gotta open them up & try again.

About the weight issue: the restraint is designed for the most part to fit larger riders...look at the holes that the pins lock into & you'll notice that it locks into the closest available holes when the restraints come down so I don't think the victim's weight had much if anything to do with the failure of the harness.

It could however be possible that the locking pins simply broke on that particular harness after the ride started which could explain why everything appeared fine when the op had checked the restraints before the ride cycle was activated.

Does anyone know what row she might've been in? my guess is an outside row,otherwise she might not have fallen from the ride but into another rider...it looks like I'm gonna avoid the rotoshake this year because I don't want to end up having the same thing happen to me.

I've already had a bad experience on an SLC with the restraint unlocking during the ride & I don't want to have to go through that again.

As reported in today's (3/19/04)Tennessean newspaper here in Nashville:

"Alexander, who worked in record keeping at Bordeaux Long Term Care, fell from the pendulum-like ride called "The Hawk" at Rockin Raceway after a safety harness that was not properly secured gave way, Nimmo said.
The ride had safety features that should have prevented it from operating if any passengers weren't properly secured, Nimmo said. Passengers cannot remove their own harnesses, he said."

You can read the full article here:
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/03/48558151.shtml?Element_ID=48558151

AS I HAVE TOLD EVERYONE..... IT WAS OPERATOR ERROR

Thillerman1 posted the link......

"Before the ride started, the 5-foot-4, 200-plus-pound Alexander asked a 17-year-old ride attendant whether her body type would create problems on the ride, Nimmo said. The operator, who checked the restraints before the ride started, said that was not a problem and that larger people than her had been on the ride, the attorney said."

Right before the ride started, the women decided they didn't want to stay on, Nimmo said. He said they told the attendant, who told them something like, ''It's too late to get off.''

look at that last sentence!!!!! IT IS NEVER TOO late to get off a ride (other then it being in motion, oh course)

The operator probably didn't wanting to unlock all the harnesses and lock them again, so he just fluffed it off! (that is totally my opinon, but im sure it's correct)

im still unsure HOW the harness opened, but her wanting to get off and the ride attendent not letting her is enough for me!

also... batwing... it would take a HUGE amount of force for both pins to break, more force then is physically possible on that type of ride. The pins would have have to of retracted due to a failure of some sort.

batwing.... to stay on the safe side..... i wouldn't ride the rotoshake until zamperla finds out what happened.

Well the Zamperla Hawk 48 was not open at Marine World today, and from what they told me, it won't be open tomorrow either. Too bad. :(

I know they have different restraints, but I can't help but feel this is somewhat related. *** Edited 3/20/2004 9:38:28 AM UTC by GoliathKills***

Goliath - Im sure it is related, to be on the safe side, I would ride any Rotoshakes, Mixers, or Hawks (all with the same style harness)

Trust me....Iron Eagle is now on my list of rides to avoid while at SFA,along with Mind Eraser for that very reason.

You say it would take a great deal of force to break the locking pins on the harness? not if there's already a defect with the device itself,the pins could've had a stress fractures caused by repetitive use & since the park owner was able to get around the inspection process of using trained professionals to maintain the ride it could very well have failed in just that one seat.

If it were a total failure of the ride controls that allowed a restraint to just pop open then all of the restraints would've failed at the same time & we'd be talking about 24 dead passengers instead of just one here because they're all locked together by the same mechanism.

I will agree with you that it was to an extent operator error due in part by the op's refusal to let the woman off of the ride when she asked him to do so just before starting it up.....I've seen several occasions on Iron eagle & various other rides where people have asked to be let off at the last minute & the op's graciously let them off & then recheck the ride....last year on Batwing I was a bit nevervous about my lap bar being a little less than tight & told the op to adjust it,they had to unlock the entire train to check it for me but at least they did so when they were asked.

Batwing- by the looks of the picture I would say those locking pins are a 1/2 an inch in diameter (maybe 3/4th's) and are made out of galvanized steel. Due to the rides motion the harness has minimul stress put upon the pins. the only time the pins would have stress is when the ride is not in motion with gondala upside down. with the ride being in operation for 6 years, i don't believe that it is possible that daily ware and tare could cause that much damage. also... if the pins on her harness would have been cracked due to her pushing, the main hydrulic lock would have still held her in (the one that lowers and raises the harnesses.)

that is just my opinon.

IF ANY ONE HAS ANY NEWS ON THE CASE PLEASE POST IT!

Update: The manager of Rockin Raceway was found guilty of second degree murder in the accident that killed a woman in March.

http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=20130

There is another story at www.knoxnews.com, but you have to register to read it.

Please re-read the article. He was not 'found guilty' as no trial has occurred yet.

A Grand Jury INDICTED him to stand trial for 2nd degree murder and reckless homicide charges. He was just recently arrested in relation to this and faces very serious felony charges. If found guilty, he could spend 15 to 25 years in prison.

That's pretty odd. I'll give them wreckless homicide or even manslaughter, but murder? That seems a bit off.

Thanks for the catch brotherdave.

I agree with Jeff that a 2nd degree murder charge in this case is a bit steep,reckless endangerment/negligent homicide is more appropriate in this situation don't you think?

Still it should send a strong message to park/carnival operaters/owners to follow all safety guidelines & maintenance procedures so as to avoid an accident like this in the future,remember what happened to a carnie owner in 99 in texas? he was tried & convicted of murder/manslaughter in the death of a 15 year old girl after the himilaya car she was riding in broke free from the ride throwing her against the wall of the ride enclosure.

Anyone watching this trial on Court TV? Pretty interesting stuff coming to light.

* There was a similar incident 9 months prior in which a visitor's restraint opened up. He managed, somehow, to hang on until it stopped.

* After this initial incident, the visitor said that when he was talking to the managers at Rockin Raceway, that they did not seem to take this incident very seriously, and so he called the police to file a report.

* The investigation after the 2004 accident revealed that the safety system was circumvented. The owners were having trouble with the rides safety system alarm going off, and so they 'corrected' this by rewiring the system useless.

* They had prior knowledge, because of the first incident, that this ride posed a safety threat.

I did watch some of this earlier today becuase a coworker who is interested in the law had it turned on. It sounds like the prosecution may have trouble making it's case if the judge decides that the key "expert"