Cajun Cliffhanger - CoasterBuzz

Is it being taken out? And how did that girl get her toes stuck? Also, is Power Dive going? What will replace3 them?

From what I have heard Cajun Cliffhanger is already gone and there is a whole in the ground where it used to be. I really am going to miss that ride when I come off of Roaring Rapids now it used to be a good spin dryer I thought.

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I don't know exactly how the girl's toe was jammed in the ride, but I've read it was partially ride operator's fault (apparently he/she dropped the floor when it wasn't spinning fast enough, so people slid down a little bit) I don't know if rotors can drop if it's not going fast enough, but if they can, there still isn't any reason that her toe should have been caught unless if there is rider error. Your feet are faceing toward the middle of the ride, and should always face that way. The only way to get a toe stuck is to have them against the wall, and toes don't belong there. Because of that, I blame the girl, even if the ride op did drop the floor too soon. Riding a rotor correctly, I can think of no scenario which would cause toes being injured.
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Agreed. Except, if the ride op did lower the floor before it was going fast enough, how was the girl able to get the soles of her feet against the wall so that her toes could slip between the floor and the wall?

Also, isn't everything automated now, so that the ride time is planned and all the ride-op has to do is push the button?

One problem I have is that the girl wasn't tall enough to go onto the ride. I have a serious problem with parents who try to get their children on rides when their kids aren't tall enough. They act like the height restriction is just to keep little kids from having fun. They don't think about safety concerns. A ride-op gets, what, minimum wage? Parents are expecting the equivilant of a McDonald's employee to care more about their children than they do.

It's like electrified fences-- they are clearly marked so that you don't touch them. They expect you to be able to decide not to electrocute yourself. Likewise, if the signs says you cannot ride if you are too short, they expect you to make the decision for your own safety. If you or your guardians chose incorrectly, then it should not be the park's responsibility. If the ride-ops catch a few people who shouldn't be there, fine, it is for their own safety. But anything above the sign itself should not be necessary, but only an added benefit to the safety of the guests. I think you should be forced to sign a waiver upon entering the park which states that the park is not liable if you break the rules.

To take the ride out because the parents don't realize that it was their child's and their fault is ridiculous. I can guarantee you that the park would not have lost business because the terrible, dangerous cajun cliffhanger stayed open. Considering the number of people that rode the ride every day, and knowing how many years it was open, I think it is safe to say that 15 so-called "incidents" is a pretty good record. I'd like to take a look and see the total number of "incidents" for a ride like Shockwave, which has been known to cause some serious headaches.

I remember reading in the news she was wearing sandals. Which is a no no on the ride. And no, Cajun Cliffhanger is not all automatic.
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"The doctor said I wouldn't have as many nose bleeds if I could
just keep my finger out of there!"

If she slipped down, even a little, why didn't anyone else?
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I did notice a problem about the operation of this ride though that could have hurt some people. Usually when riding this ride when they bring the floor back up to about an inch under your foot. You would slide down to the floor and then step in the middle of the yellow circle and they would raise it back to level. Some ride ops would raise it back to level right away which if you were wearing sandals could trap your foot in there. This is what I think happened but she shouldn't have been wearing sandals in the first place so it was her fault.
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What was the Cajun Cliffhanger?

It was a ride kind of like a dryer (for laundry) you get in, stand against a wall and spin really fast then the floor drops down, and you cling against the wal because it's spinning so fast.
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Rob

"The doctor said I wouldn't have as many nose bleeds if I could just keep my finger out of there!" -Ralph

Oh like Spin Out at SFMM. Thank you ALF is cool I've asked that question so many times on different other post and no ones ever asnwered me. I wonder if SFMM is going to get rid of there's because its never open.

The name of the ride that Cliffhanger is would be a rotor.
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SFMM 4 Ever said:
I wonder if SFMM is going to get rid of there's because its never open.

Its never open? That might not be a good sign. Possibly they will be removing that rotor as well because of the incident at SFGAm. Do other SF parks have these rotor rides and if so are they closed or open?

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""An hour wait for a 2 minute thrill. Yes, we need our heads examined""

The rotor @ SFStL (Tom's Twister) was running when I went in April and the rotor @ SFGAdv (Taz's Tornado) was running in both July and October for my visits. So I'm guessing it's not a chainwide thing. Though admittedly, the one @ SFStL dropped only about 6 inches as opposed to the foot and a half Cajun used to. Also, it was a slow decend not a sudden drop.
jeremy
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"Nobody writes about the planes that land." Steve Salerno Washington Times 7-10-01

SFGAm has a history of removing rides that have had accidents. Both The Edge (1st generation Intamin Free Fall )and Delta Flyer (Cable car/sky ride) were removed after accidents/incidents. The only other major accident was when a wheel came off the Demon and the train was stuck in the corkscrew. But removing the Demon would be a major deal. My guess is that Cajun Cliffhanger is history.

Mike

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Laugh your troubles away at Riverview, the world's largest amusement park.

I really liked that ride. I've never been a ride op, i'm sure its a difficult job at times, but lets face it, this guy was sleeping on the job. The first mistake was to let the girl on with sandles. Then he dropped the floor to early? Girl slid down and for some reason decided to put her feet flat against the wall, ride op raises floor, bam, no toes. Sounds to me like the guy wasn't paying too much attention. Again, i've never been a ride op, but from what I have heard, that ride its almost all manual. Sounds to me like He/She could have done several things to avoid this accident.

But remember, screaming on rides is common. When he/she heard screaming, most likely he/she thought it was just a person screaming for fun, not because there was an injury.
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There is no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people.

I operated Geauga Lake's now-defunct Rotor back in 1989 and it was indeed an all-manual operation. You turned it on, waited for what you believed was top speed, dropped the floor, then raised the floor a few inches beneath the rider's feet to allow them to slide back to it. Once you lined up the doors (which was a pain in the neck), we instructed guests to step to the center to bring the floor back the rest of the way. I always thought it was a dangerous ride to run as it involved the total concentration of the ride op. And at Geauga Lake, we all know how good that can be.... ;)

ProgRay

The girl was not wearing sandals. She was wearing some sort of K-mart style basketball shoe. Judging from the footage I saw of the girls foot being weged in between the wall and rotor I strongly think it was her fault. She had to have been pionting her toes down. Also on that ride if you dont stay comepletely flat against the wall or move while it is spining you will slide down.

The case has been settled. See http://www.nbc5.com/news/1335200/detail.html

It has been submitted as news.

I submited that article (I think it was that article) for news earlier this evening.

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Knott's Berry Farm Cuba ~South Park
"Your proctologist called, he found your head!" ~Jerry "The King" Lawler