Cedar Point discusses safety precautions for bad weather

do you think they have introduced this after the events at kennywood this past weekend?

I'm sure that they've had a system like this for some time now. They probably just started talking about it to ensure guests that they would be safe, even after the events at Kennywood.

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Just sit back, and enjoy your record breaking ride on Millennium Force!

Yes I think they did, after the events at Kennywood you would think that they might take some extra procautions.

This makes nearly 6 years in Ride Op at Cedar Point. As long as I can remember the weather safety system has been in place. I have seen and worked through almost all the severe weather including the waterspout season in '98.

Notice the part about ride ops being able to shut down the ride as they see fit. Yet another thing I respect about that park is that they allow their people to make such decisions (along with adding/removing trains).

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

That is nice that the ride ops have that much control over the rides. I know they have had this system for a while, but it is probably realeased now to insure the guests of their safety procedures after the Kennywood incident.

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Go AVS!!! AVS will repeat!!!

The part in the article about using the coal docks for visual confirmation of an approaching storm reminds me of a weather isntrument that I saw once.

String on a pole. If it's wet, it's raining. If it's swaying, it's windy. If it's still, it's nice out. If it's white, it's snowing, if it's gone, there's a tornado :)

Either way it's nice to know they have a pretty good system in operation for situations like these. Publicizing it at this time is a good idea, and good PR, especially for those guests aware of the Kennywood incident who might be wondering what CP has in place. Allowing the ride ops that much control is excellent as well, since time isn't something to mess with when a storm is approaching.

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If only I could legally drive from Mich to CP at MF's top speed. I could shave 42 minutes off my drive time.

Yea, ride ops at CP definitely have the authority to shut down rides as they see fit for any reason - mechanical, weather, etc. They just start taking the steps to do so and notify park operations that they are doing so and then again when the ride is empty. Just so everyone knows though, they can not make the decision to open back up so bugging the poor ops about it won't do much good. Most times, they want to be running as much as you because it's boring cleaning trains or something during a shutdown. :) I also am pretty sure that they have to ask permission to add or remove a train (we never ran anything but 3 while I was there), but it's not a huge ordeal like at some parks where maintenance has to come do the transfer, etc. The crews are trained to do the transfers. With 68 rides, it's reall impractical to have to have maintenance do all the morning/evening transfers, so I think this system works best. It isn't that difficult of a process... :)

I was at SFNE a few weeks ago during a weather shutdown on Superman and it is actually a maintenance guy who comes over and cuts power to the ride and then restores power when it is time. I affectionately called this slob who looked hungover and was wearing an untucked, unbottoned flannel shirt, "the dude." :) I was also speaking to one of the ops over there (who happened to work Mantis last year at CP) and he said the crews at SFNE have almost no responsibility. They don't transfer trains, they don't walk the lift, and the thing I noticed that I found odd is that they do next to nothing during shutdowns. The one guy was doing some guest interaction which is good, but at CP, we had to clean or do something to look busy during a shutdown! :) I just found the whole thing very interesting since once maintenance signs off in the morning on a ride at CP, it is in the hand of park operations and thus the crew. It was a bit odd how maintenance seemed to be more or less running the show at SFNE.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

My first time at Cedar Point, last year, a huge electrical storm came in and all the rides closed. Right after the storm was gone the rides opened. This is unlike SF parks like WoA where it took them 30 minutes to and hour & a half to get the coasters moving again. Blah!

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www.EverythingRollerCoaster.com

In the 1970's the ride op's had to wait for "the phone call" once they were informed of the possiblity of a storm . No radio system in those days. The order to start shutting down came from senior ops manager, who usually was up in the Space Spiral watching the horizon.

As far as the unfortunate events of the prior week, these storm fronts that come through western PA tend to be unpredicatable as to when and where they will hit. By the time the meterologists have a handle on these it's usually too late.

Yeah Jeff thats real cool how the ride ops have that control of the ride. I was at SFGAm and there was lightning and the rides still were going for a long time. The ride ops did not do anything about it. They were like lets just see them get hit by lightning. And the worst part was I was on that ride. It was the Giant Drop if someone was wondering.

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Top 3 coasters at SFGAm: 1. DeJavu 2. Raging Bull 3. Viper *** This post was edited by Blinkcoaster on 6/4/2002. ***

It seems that Six Flags generally follows the pattern that the maintenance crew takes care of getting trains on and off the transfer track, shutting down, and restarting rides.

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I still feel safe at the Point or Kennywood or any major park. The few of law suits keep the parks on their toes. Less than a weak after the storm at Kennywood, there was an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette talking to storm victims with their attorneys. How can you go after Kennywood for an act of God? They did not even give Kennywood a chance to make things right. Know wonder there are so many lawyer jokes.

Remember last summer, when there were all those accidents and stuff happening, whether it was weather related or not? Well if you think about it, when was the last time there was an accident at Cedar Point? Yes, there are those urban legends about people getting scalped on Power Tower, but if you take these legends (like this one in particular), that they have lasted longer than the ride itself! So about more security at Cedar Point, if they feel that they need, well that's fine, but just think about how many people are injured there in one year. It's a pretty low number

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Magnum is red,
Millenium Force is blue,
I love Wicked Twister,
and Raptor too.