Man dies after falling off Superman at Six Flags New England

It is my understanding that unless they tell us they are pregnant, disabled etc.. we ARE NOT ALLOWED to assume, even if they are very obviously pregnant or disabled to ask them or forbid them as this would be discrimination and it is up to the riders to follow the posted rules. In Missouri it is a crime to deliberatly ignore posted warnings at amusement parks, but you know if they ignore them and get injured or killed some bleeding heart judge and jury will most likely award them a large settlement. This in no way implies that operator error, or faulty design should be overlooked. Nor is this to imply that the man who died on Saturday did or did not do anything wrong.

Keep in mind that if as stated in a previous post you do not assume the proper seating position it is imposible to close the restraints on most rides properly, and in a case like that you could easily have a VERY loose fitting restraint and could cause what happened. This IS NOT a design flaw, but rider error and ride-op error for not catching this and correcting this before allowing the ride to be dispatched/ started.

As a ride op on potentially the most dangerous ride in an amusement park (sky coaster) I take safety VERY SERIOUSLY. I refuse to allow someone to fly if I feel they are a danger to themselves or anyone else regardless of park policy/laws. I work other rides as well and I follow park policy on rider requirments and do every thing in my power to make sure every rider has a safe and enjoyable experience.

MATTYT-

A- What does New England weather have anything to do with a man falling out of a roller coaster?

B- There is a T bar restraint system, plus a good ol' back-up seat belt in case the T bar system were to fail. If used correctly it will hold you in.

Mattyt,

Please don't judge all Six Flags parks based on one park. Come to SFStL and see one of the better run parks around. Sure, we have our share of problems, but on the whole it is very well run. Maybe not CP, but hey not everyone can be perfect! ;)

oh okay, i wasn't quite sure if there was that extra belt Its been a while I can't remember... Yeah, I should see other parks that are way better I heard from just talking to a friend.

New England weather has a lot to do with it. Just think of the expanding/contracting rust/wear steel of the track with harsh weather conditions. I mean... we get lots of snow and stuff it's not like its in top-quality condition as in warmer climates it's only run for like 5 months out of the year.... basic maitnence won't always "work" some things might just wear out.... its been proven the last time the brakes failed and one train went flying into the other....but just a general isolated guess/theroy. But, yeah... just a thought.. i guess we'll have to wait to find out what happened...

I'm still keeping the victim/witnesses in my prayers don't worry I won't forget you!*** This post was edited by mattyt 5/2/2004 11:52:20 PM ***

why do i keep spelling maintnence wrong?... errr..

I'll keep this real short, because what I could say has already been said here.

CP always told me that if I didn't feel it was safe for someone to ride, do not let them ride. If it came down to a guest complaint, so be it. (That's a lot of responsibility for a ride opp and it shows a lot of trust by park management.) Each ride has/had info for ride ops to determine weather or not some one should ride. We were to ask them questions about their dissability if we were not sure if they should ride or not. Ex. "Will you be able to hold on with at least one hand?", or "Are you able to hold yourself in an upright position durring the ride?" Has that law been added within the past 3 years, Mr Smith? Is it a State or Federial law? Was I misled by my superiors?

And it was stated that the man was 225 pounds. At first I didn't think that that sounded overly large, but do we know how tall he was? A person who is 4'5" might not be proportionatly sized for the restraints to work correctly.

Oh yea, Mr. Smith-I can only hope you don't have any children with a dissability or you don't become disabled yourself. You make some valid points, but you come across as sounding like a biggot of the worst kind.

*** This post was edited by dexter 5/3/2004 12:32:39 AM ***

When's the last time you heard of someone popping out of a B&M coaster? How about a Premier coaster? Let us not forget the Drop Zone incident at PGA years ago that was never explained. The kid falls out to his death, but the restraint worked. Right, that makes a lot of sense (sarcasm). If memory serves me well, people were pointing fingers at the kid who also had some kind of disability, even though he had ridden the ride before (I believe several times).

Listen, if you were there as I was last year to see the two Intamin trains on the lift at SFA last season, you'd realize that we could've had a very serious accident on our hands. To have three incidents on three separate Intamin coasters is in my opinion, inexcusable.

I think removal of the rides is most likely out of the question, but maybe a serious redesign is in order.

Hey dexter, I've come to expect the insult. Anybody who has a strong conservative view and does not bow to liberal hogwash is a biggot I guess!? Funny thing is, if people would listen to common sense and maybe just move a little from their preconceived notion of right and wrong, they may just see that their liberal thoughts, whether well intentioned or not, sometimes can and do get people hurt, and possibly killed in this case. If indeed it is determined that a disability was a part of this young mans death, I'm sure his family and friends wish there would have been just one "biggot" along the lines of the decision makers that could have brought some common sense to the process. Maybe then the boy would still be alive. It is all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. It is so nice and easy to say "we should NEVER ask somebody about their disability." This would be descrimination in our politically correct world. Take the blinders off dexter. You seem to have more anger at my views than you do about the possible causes of one mans death. This is sad.

As for your question of whether your mislead by your superiors. The answer is---"that depends on which judge you get." My opinion is that you were indeed mislead by your superiors. As the law is written, you violate a persons rights when you ask for such information. This is my personal interpretation and better minds can and will disagree. Anybody that thinks the law is black and white is a fool. It only takes one judge along the whole chain of appeals that "interprets" you asking somebody about their disability as a violation of ADA. Cedar Point was willing to take that risk with you apparently. I do not want to waste the time cutting and pasting ADA for you. Here is a website link that has some ADA information. The public accomodation act is the specific area that this would fall under.

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/cguide.htm#anchor62335

Thank you for your hopes and desires that I have no disabled children. Seems like such a kind gesture from such a non-biggoted man. In fact, I had my first child on 3/28/04 and too date he seems quite healthy. I actually work with disabled children for a living. I'm a physical therapist in a school district and childrens clinic. As a matter of fact, just 2 weeks ago I took a 16 year old female with cerebral palsy who could not even walk 9 months ago to New York New York (I live in Vegas) to ride Manhatten Express. No questions were asked. I knew she was safe due to my prolonged clinical experience with her. I've been working with her for 9 months and she knows my love of coasters and made this a long term goal. All went well and she is doing well. Her mother told me it was the happiest day of her life. I'm guessing there are a lot of happy parents and children in Vegas that may disagree with your assessment of me. They tend to think quite fondly of you when you help a child take their first step after being told their child will never walk or lift their head to see the blackboard for the first time. It is too bad that people like you dexter, choose to call names when you disagree with another persons opinion. If I'm a biggot, I'm wondering what that makes you?

I've got no beef with you disagreeing with me. When you resort to name calling you cross the line. There seems to be a lot of people that do indeed agree with my take. We've gone way to far to the left on this issue and it is threatening the entire amusement park industry.

I feel horribly for this man and his mother, and the undentified pr**ck who went on his/her rampage about the disabled and the overweight can rot for all I care. A man died and this jackass is talking about the NBA?

I will be one of the first to rant about the PC society we live in, but give me a break! His mother stated that he vistited the park two to three times a year, so this probably was not an incident where he was scared and was trying to get off the ride before it stopped. (I hope that did not sound like speculating, as Jeff requested we refrain from)

Another question (which by the way nobody seems to answer)...does the Six Flags chain have some sort of identifying measure for disabled guests? I know at the park I worked at, if a guest was disabled and the family wanted special access or handicapped access to rides and such, they would get a certain colored wristband...that way the ride ops would know without having to ask that someone in the party was disabled, and would pretty much let them on as soon as possible. That way we didn't have to "ask"...but there were also some people with disabilities who didn't have to or want to get the wristband, were fine, stood in line, walked up, whatever...which was cool in our books. So question is...does Six Flags/Cedar Fair/other parks have a similar system?

lilspike333 (I can't see that your questions have been answered yet): As far as I know, there has been absolutely no further information forthcoming from the Hydro accident, although the ride is still closed.

A week or so ago, the Police issued another appeal for information (such as photos or films of the accident), so I don't think they're satisfied yet that they have a specific cause which I think is a real shame.

Yes, Hydro does have curved T-bar restraints, as well as the standard issue pinch-and-pull seat belts. Oakwood's policy has always been to seatbelt people in, have operators tighten/check the seatbelts and the operators push the T-bar down themselves... tightly.

I think together the ramifications of this accident could be vast. The opinion I've built so far is that under normal circumstances, Intamin's restraints are certainly up to the job. But it seems that there is no redundancy; if the bar isn't tightly down, or the seatbelt tightly fastened, or if you're overweight/ill, then the chances of catastrophe are far greater. Of course, this could have something to do with the fact Intamin's rides are more forceful than competitors', but nevertheless, the restraint simply has to be up to the job.

Unfortunately I see another "are roller coasters safe or are they killers?" type of nightly news tabloid show in the works.

I am not going to debate on restraints. It's almost obvious that the gentlemen probably lost control of his muscles/had a seizure. I am trying to picture riding a coaster (especially something like a ROS or even MF since I have yet to ride a ROS) without use of all muscles and I can't see how one could escape injury.

It takes a lot of work to brace yourself and hold up your arms/hold on and tolerate the G's.... both lateral, negative and positive. How many of us have strained a muscle on a ride? I know I have a few times.

I do not think the park should be held liable unless something was found on the coaster that contributed to this unfortunate death. The guy knew of his condition and rode at his own risk.

-Tina

*** This post was edited by coasterqueenTRN 5/3/2004 7:21:39 AM ***

You guys have already decided it had something to do with his disability, and we don't actually know yet.