Here's how false rumors get started

Ignorance and stubborness is a dangerous pair. Here's what I heard and said Friday night while I was waiting in line for the elevator at the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas (paraphrased):

WOMAN (to friend): Yeah, I love coasters. There's this park up near Cleveland, Cedar Point. It's in Sandusky. They have this one ride that is so tall and it's right by the lake. It's called Mean Streak. It really shakes you up, but I like those wooden ones. I don't do loops. Yeah, because this woman I worked with, she was a large woman, she went to Kings Island and they didn't pull the bar down, and she went over a loop and fell out and the train ran over her...dead.

ME: I'm sorry, I overheard...actually I grew up near Kings Island and I know that no one has ever died there by falling out of a roller coaster.

WOMAN: No, you're wrong. This happened to my co-worker.

ME: Well, a woman died once when she fell from a ride, but it was not a roller coaster.

WOMAN: No, this was a roller coaster. She fell out of the loop.

ME: I don't think so.

WOMAN: I know it because I worked with this woman. I didn't know her but she worked at my company. She didn't come back to work, she died on the roller coaster.

ME: <shakes head, turns around>

-----------------
You can't spell "dishonorable" without "honorable."

lol.... Thats funny but your right. I know I've heard people say stuff like that too. Like one time at SFWoA, in line for BKF, this guy said that they were getting rid of X-Flight to make room for a 8-D. I asked him what that was and he said there was one over in California. I said that X-Flight was new this year and then he said it had been around since the Big Dipper. I just said yeah and then got on the ride. It was quite funny but I was about to say "check your facts".

The ignorance and gullibility of some people amazes me.

Another way that rumors get started is that one person will come up with a plausible explanation for something (i.e. TR:TR is idoor at at PKI and is being advertised a lot so therefore it must be an indoor coaster). They tell someone, and the next person accepts it as solid fact instead of a possible idea.

Didn't somone die on King Cobra though or is that another rumor lol.
-----------------
Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

The problem, actually, partly begins with us enthusiasts. What happens is that the GP get excited when they go to theme parks. Then they see us, knowledgably discussing what we love and not recognizing that (for lack of a better word) we're "experts" on this because we're enthusiasts. Therefore, the GP begins to think that they too are experts, and begin blabbing incoherently, and eventually, something absolutely ridiculous comes out of someone's mouth and the GP are gullible enough to believe it's true. So, being the latest coaster experts, they spread the word and, MAGIC!, you have a rumor.
-----------------
The Luv Monkey has spoken...
Track Record: 29 and counting...
"I've had my memories, good and bad...I just have to learn and grow or some sh*t like that..."

Not to be rude, but I hear most of the outlandish rumors coming from coaster enthusiasts at the park....

MagnumForce said:
Didn't somone die on King Cobra though or is that another rumor lol.

Close...PKI King Cobra's other Paramount stand-up cousin at PKD, the ShockWave, killed a graduate student from NY during summer of 99' when he was thrown out in the double helix due to faulty horse-play.

The guy that got out of the restraints on ShockWave, according to ALL accounts I've heard, got himself out. It sounded to me more like a successful suicide attempt than an "accident"...
-----------------
the buzzer formerly known as gatorwoodie
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

OK I knew it was sumpin like that, Shockwave is a copy of King Cobra right? Is that why they put the seatbelts on KC or was that done before.
-----------------
Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

I believe some people were injured on PKI's King Cobra when a wheel mechanism broke, but it was very minor.
-----------------
You can't spell "dishonorable" without "honorable."

So how many people have actually been thrown out of a ride in recent times? There's the lady on PP this summer. The guy on Shockwave that has already been mentioned. At SFStL the mine train was at one point in time converted to a standup, a lady DID fall out of that and die. (Which is hard to believe because if you've ridden this coaster it is one of the tamest around. Very short in height and not much going on except helixes and one decent drop. Supposedly she was very overweight and the restraints didn't completely latch. Because of this it was quickly reverted back to the current mine train.) And didn't two little kids fall out of a wooden coaster? I'm just curious as to how many times people have really fallen out of coasters in modern times (and since PP just happened and it is a 'high tech' ride I felt like including it).

The problem is with people who think they know everything about the industry and really don't. Those people exist in the General Public and they exist (in large amount I might add) on this and other enthusiast sites.

Of all the people on here who think they know everything, only a handful of people really do.

Well, there's the incident on Flight Commander at PKI, but that wasn't a coaster.

Now you guys know why Jeff discontinued the rumors section.
-----------------
""An hour wait for a 2 minute thrill. Yes, we need our heads examined""

Thats how those nasty Urban Legends start, I think each park I have been to with an older freefall ride, I have heard someone say that the brakes failed at one opint and the car flew off of the end, and the Shuttle Loopers seem to frequantly hit the top of the towers because the launch "went faster than it should have" and who hasn't heard stories from several people (at least) about getting stuck in a loop on various coasters?
-----------------

Hey, I know for a FACT that I died on Vortex at PKI!

Then I was killed again when an overweight patron at Cedar Point fell out of the Corkscrew and crushed me to death!

You have to be careful! These things really happen!

~Tocci

I could have sworn that there was a pretty severe incident on King Cobra when it first opened. I am probably wrong because I was extremely small when that first opened.

I have to back up the fact that it is always the enthusiasts who talk complete crap at parks. The older ones are fine, they discuss the physics and design and it's a pleasure to talk to them in the queue line. The young enthusiasts just seem to talk about new rides, often shouting out blatantly wrong facts in the hope of attracting attention from the GP.

Incidentalist said:
At SFStL the mine train was at one point in time converted to a standup, a lady DID fall out of that and die. (Which is hard to believe because if you've ridden this coaster it is one of the tamest around. Very short in height and not much going on except helixes and one decent drop. Supposedly she was very overweight and the restraints didn't completely latch. Because of this it was quickly reverted back to the current mine train.)

The Mine Train at SFSTL was actually another coaster totally on it's own. What is NOW the Mine Train WAS a stand-up coaster known as Rail Blazer. A lady from Indiana, who happened to be of a large size, did in fact slip out of the ride in the helix. The Rail Blazer was shut down and never re-opened as a stand-up coaster. SF dismantled the OLD Mine Train to make room for Ninja and simply put the cars from the old Mine Train on to Rail Blazers' tracks. I remember this like it was yesterday because I was going to get to ride Rail Blazer in about a week untill the accident happened. I was so let down but definately understood.

-----------------
God please let SFKK get something in 2002. ANYTHING!!

I too almost got to ride it since I grew up in St. Louis and had a season pass to SF Over Mid-America. Didn't the incident happen pretty early in the season? I thought that the left side (currently operating) ran as a mine train for a season before they put the stand up trains on it. I could be mistaken as I was rather young when all of this happened. I do remember riding the old mine train (right side) back in the day. In fact that was my first coaster other than the one in looney toons land.