Girl loses feet on drop tower accident at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom

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so, most likely, they were on their way up, the cable snapped and cut off her feet on the way up, and she was screaming, and only the people who saw it happened knew why she was screaming.

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Why is that the most likely scenario? I was under the impression it happened on the way down.

^I agree that the cable snapping occured on the way up & she may have been screaming because she noticed the cable was being wrapped around her ankles but people on the ground mistook her screams for those of excitement rather than of danger.

Now I wonder if they could perhaps modify the ride vehicles to create an enclosure so as to prevent such a thing from happening again should a similar mechanical failure like this occur? Had her feet/legs been enclosed in a frame of some sort instead of just allowed to dangle freely then it might not have happened in the manner that it did....although if the cable had no problem slicing through skin & bone then a fiberglass panel covering the rider's feet might be no match either.

Someone asked earlier in the thread about the feet - this link said that the "feet were recovered" by Six Flags Staff and sent to the hospital with her. What a grisly task... :(

I wish there'd be some type of update as to how the girl is doing - if they could re-attached the feet or not...

I believe medical records of patients can not be realeased unless the patients decide to do it themselves.

I don't feel like reading it myself, but here:

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/

The cable snapped on a similar ride at PortAventura a few months back but there were no injuries.

^^ Jason, I think I mentioned HIPAA a few days ago...maybe in the forum thread. Medical records are pretty much *sacred* things, and disclosures (even accidental ones) carry HEAVY penalties, up to and including significant jail time.

Since the patient in question here is a minor, her parents have the *final* say on what info can, and cannot, be disclosed to the media. If my job were the one on the line, I'd say nothing at all about her condition. Nonetheless, I wish her ALL the best - hoping for a successful outcome to this tragic incident.

i work at kennywood park and have work the pitt fall which is a 2nd gen. drop tower and ill tell you now that as a worker there isn't really anything you can do if something like that happens the E-Stop on the ride isn't designed to drop the car its designed to stop it wherever its at in case a guest would somehow get in the ride area.....the ride at SFKK is the exact same ride as the pitt fall only a smaller version pitt fall 251' v.s. smtop 177' the cables on the Pitt Fall have been replaced numerous times since its installation in 1997 and SMTTOP's should have been as well now if they are provided by intamin or not is up to that indivdual park kennywood all parts still come from intamin as far as i know. The Pitt Fall's cables are inspected every morning before before park opening by the mechaning standing on top of the car and visibly inspecting the cable and the going inside the tower and inspecting again its a tedious process but is done everday. The SFKK incident has really impacted the popularity of this ride and the way the ride is operated at kennywood we must now have two loaders at all times and if we don't then only two of the four sides can be operated also the day after the accident intamin and kennywood both inspected the pitt fall and it passed with flying colors and opend that day. The SFKK incident is a truly tragic and my thoughts and prayers go out the girl and her family but lets not point fingers or play the blame game here this was a freak accident could it have been prevented...possibly but we may never know there are so many possibilities as to what could have went wrong that its not fair to point fingers just yet lets sit back and find out what really happend and hope for the best for that girl.