Girl falls from Intamin drop tower at Hopi Hari

Is it wrong of me not wanting to ride drop zone at Canada's Wonderland anymore? :s
Last summer I viewed riders fixed on drop zone for a long time. Then there is the accident at Kentucky, and now this one. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but I really don't want to ride these drop towers anymore. :(

As a gut-reaction, no it's not wrong.

However, this accident appears to have absolutely nothing to do with the safety of a properly operated and maintained Giant Drop.

So, how fat was this girl, exactly?

About three-fiddy.

Really? Where and when did this happen?

I think where it happened is pointless, because the reason for the boy's death was more about him being too small to ride the roller coaster, and not about the restraint system. However, this happened prior to 1978, as it was part of an article I wrote for the Grand Rapids press, in responce to an article I read after people were killed on the Tidal Wave at Great America. Back when the media didn't seem to care about amusement park accidents. The article focussed mainly on looping coasters, and what was being done to protect riders. And, over the shoulder restraint systems were fairly new, and the corkscrew coaster was the newest looping coaster.

A lot of looping coasters have had their lap bars replaced with over the shoulder restraints as well, like the Mindbender at the West Edmonton mall after people were thrown to their death from that rollercoaster.

Actually, I think the trend has been the other way around. Premier changing over from shoulder bars to lap bars. The new restraints on Gerstlauer Eurofighers (Dare Devil Dive and now Iron Shark) and the new Skyrush restraints as well.

I read the article involving the Mindbender accident, and that is the main reason the over the shoulder restraints were added to the ride, as stated by the owners of the park. And, other coasters like it followed. They even added over the shoulder harnesses to Revolution, that ran just fine without them for years. So, it has nothing to do with the newer coaster designs, as this happened way before they came around. Carnival loopers that are from the A.S. company have also been refitted with over the shoulder harnesses.

They say that the corkscrew roller coaster at Cedar Point was the first successful looping coaster. Probably meaning it's the first one that didn't kill or injur it's riders. They had looping coasters at Coney Island way back when, but they couldn't perfect the loop, and people often fell out, or suffered from neck injuries. So those rides didn't last.

I wonder how many people on this board know about the Tidal Wave accident at Great America in 1978?

Timber-Rider said:

I wonder how many people on this board know about the Tidal Wave accident at Great America in 1978?

I'd be very surprised if anyone got hurt on the Tidal Wave.

Crazy rumors get started at parks - like 3 kids dying on The Edge (they were hurt, but not killed). But I sure never ever heard anything about the Tidal Wave...

I just wanted to add another comment. I can't believe how cruel some of you have been involving this poor girl who died on an amusement park ride. Oh, she died because she was too fat. Well, if that is the case, then the parents should sue the park for allowing their "Too Fat" daughter to go on their crappy ride, and get killed because none of the ride ops were smart enought to notice that she was "Too Fat." to ride.

If that is the issue, than a ride operator should have removed her from the que, and she would still be alive. Sometimes, I get tired of all the blame being placed on the rider, and not the park. How does anyone know that the park is not liable?

I was at Six Flags Great America with my brother just after they built De Ja Vu, and (rarely opened it.) And, there were people stuck on top of the Giant Drop tower all day long. They were up there when we got there, and they were still up there when we left. I heard that they had to use a manual crank to inch each car to the ground. All, I know is, I would have been burnt to a crisp, and really pissed off!! I don't want a refund of my ticket. I want a 10 year free pass to everything! Parking food! Toys! if you have it. You owe me big time! Oh, and by the way, that wasn't rain your mechanic felt falling on him!!

Timber-Rider said:

I wonder how many people on this board know about the Tidal Wave accident at Great America in 1978?

Were the people fat?

Raven-Phile said:
About three-fiddy.

"Woman, why'd you go and give the monster three-fiddy?" ;)

If you see this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-aSG39jhII

You will see the news helicopter guy recorded the moment police were doing the second testing to see what happened. You can actually see the lock going up when the free fall starts. And only the girl's chair.

She wasn't fat. There's plenty of pictures of her around the web now. She was an average girl. Maybe thin for somebody's concepts of teens nowadays depending on which country you come from.

Either way. The park is blaming the operators, all 18-20ish kids. The police shut down the whole park for 10 days and now they are analyzing another 14 attractions that could possibly lead to accidents.

Yes, they should have taken off the chair for either reason - if the lock behind the chair was loose and then making it open itself during the free fall for instance, or if the placement of that chair could lead a person too tall and too thin to hit their legs and feet on the ground. Either fix it or take it off.

They didn't do any. They just left it there, with no sign, no padlock, no nothing. Just a verbal note to 18 year old random operators to remind themselves that was the death chair and do not ask questions.

Money still do the talking round here, most of the time unfortunately.