Man enters restricted area at SFMM and struck by Ninja coaster

ApolloAndy said:
If he had safely gotten his hat and gone on to discover the cure for cancer, we'd be lauding him as one of the most brilliant people in the history of humanity.

Yeah, but if the guy who eventually cures cancer jumped in front of a moving coaster in a restricted area to retrieve a hat we'd be calling him a dumbass.

You're only as smart as your last decision. ;)

All debate aside, here's what always gets me about these accidents:

Okay, so you've decided that you just have to get your hat/phone/whatever from underneath the coaster. You find a way into the restricted ride area and venture off to retrieve the item. Now wouldn't you be watching for the train? And even if not, surely you would hear it at least a few seconds before it got to you. Even when trying to get a $20 bill out of the gutter, I always make sure that no traffic is coming. How is this any different?

A statistic I'd be interested in is the number of successful retrievals versus the unsuccessful ones...

Emiroo said:

A statistic I'd be interested in is the number of successful retrievals versus the unsuccessful ones...

I'm betting that if a park had that info, some lawyer out there would use it, in some way against the park. Just having that info, might mean the park didn't think that such actions didn't impose a signifigent risk to warrent the cost of the fence or other measures.

^I think Emiroo's statement was rhetorical, not an actual request. How would a park get those stats, anyway?

Emiroo, that's always the first thing that comes to mind when I hear about these accidents. Trying to fathom one's reasoning for taking such an action is mind-numbing, but then I just have to submit to the notion that if one is dimwitted enough to climb a 6' fence into a clearly marked restricted area to get a $9 hat, one could certainly be dimwitted enough to not get out of the way of a speeding coaster train.

Lord Gonchar said:
You're only as smart as your last decision. ;)

And sadly, your last decision is always the one right before you die and presumably didn't prevent you from getting killed...So I guess everyone dies a moron.

(See: The thing you lost is always in the last place you look.)

^Only true when you die by some sort of accident or suicide.

Has anyone heard any updates in this guy's medical status? I haven't seen anything, and I've been keeping an eye out. Last I heard, he was in critical condition. I never saw anything stating that he actually DIED.

So someone who is depressed because of an imbalance of chemicals in their brain deserves to die if they kill himself? I 100% disagree. Do kids who have ADD deserve to die because the meds make them want to kill themself? Does that make them "stupid"?

Is the world a better place without people who are not exactly like you? (not directed at anyone in particular, btw) Everyone is different. The world is filled with people you may not understand. Does that mean that all of them are "stupid" and they even deserve to die?

I believe that people, even the "stupid" ones, "deserve" to live life as happily as possible.

(You guys are a hoot. This is all in fun, btw. I like to make you all think a little deeper. I'm not trying to make anyone angry.)

LostKause said:
I like to make you all think a little deeper.

Keep tryin' ;)

LostKause said:
I like to make you all think a little deeper.

What makes you think that you're thinking deeper than the rest of us?

LK, you're going all over the place here, man. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. Whether you want to call it a mistake, poor decision making, or just stupidity, this guy's decision set into motion a chain or events that resulted in serious injury to himself.

Whether you want to say he deserved it or not, could be debated. Until we hear otherwise, we can only assume he consciously and with free will and without duress made the decision to jump a fence and stand in the path of a moving vehicle. In your example, I'd argue that the person with suicidal thoughts as a side effect of medication is not making that decision under the same circumstances.

Every decision a person makes has a result and not every choice is equal. There are clearly good and bad consequences that can result from some decisions, even one's own life. When a 3 year old is struck by a car because he ran out into the street after a ball, you say the child wasn't aware of what could happen by running into the street. The immature child is fixed only on his possession and not the consequences his decision could cause.

A teen or 20-something person is supposed to be mature and understand that there are consequences to jumping fences and going into restricted areas. But you have an apparent blind fixation on a possession that trumps what most of us consider common sense (is it worth it to retrieve a cheap hat?). You also have a degree of pride or arrogance involved-- flaunting the rules, knowing better than the "experts," and getting away with it. Maybe the guy's done a lot of risky things before and figured he'd get away with it again.

You say even "stupid" people deserve to live as happily as possible. The truth is many "stupid" people leave behind a trail of heartbroken family members and frustrated officials. Not to mention they cost society money and deprive the rest of us of our enjoyment of many things as we continually have to pay to idiotproof the world they insist on running roughshod through.

LostKause said:
I like to make you all think a little deeper.

I'll let you in on a little secret... (lean in)... when you are really leading people into deeper thoughts, you rarely if ever need to point it out to them.

Just saying. :)

RatherGoodBear said:
(exactly what Gonch thinks.)

Get out of my head, you witch! :)

Most of my last reply was inspired by my disagreement with Ensign Smith's comment...

Only true when you die by some sort of accident or suicide.

Suicide doesn't automatically mean they are not inteligent. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicides

I'm sure some of you have done something stupid before, and I consider most of you to be inteligent. You could say that he "made a stupid decision", and I would have no problem at all with it. It's when we start calling him stupid and assuming that he is unintelligent that I take issue.

I read on Screamscape as of yesterday that the man is still in critical condition.

In LK's defense, I did a number of things when I was young and irresponsible that, by rights, could well have gotten me killed.

But, I'd've deserved it.

^So did I. And if someone called me stupid, who am I to argue?

At this point it's semantics. 'Stupid decision' vs. 'calling someone stupid for the stupid decision he made'. Really, do we need to split hairs? Must we get all technical about it? He may be an astrophysicist for all I know, which certainly would indicate he's smart. But he climbed a 6' fence to retrieve a hat from a restricted area and was hit by a coaster train, which in turn indicates he's a complete buffoon.

Can he be both?

The only thing I know about him is that he ignored warning signs and didn't get clear of a train moving toward him at high speed. So, to me he's a moron. I'm sure he won't lose any sleep over the fact that I think so.

I know I've said this before, but when you are of the age that these people who have been getting hit are, your decision making abilities are not the same as people who are more mature. At this age, you still think nothing bad could possibly happen to you, that you are going to live forever. Not everyone at this age thinks about the consequences of their actions, or if they do, they then think that it can't happen to THEM. Other people that we see get hit by coasters in restricted areas are typically older people who are in the ride area to fix a problem and are not necessarily AWARE that the coaster is running (we don't know that for sure, but it's a good guess). I DO agree that if you die by suicide or accident, you're not automatically a stupid person or a moron. Lots of accidents happen that have nothing to do with stupidity, and suicidal people, as I think I mentioned in another post for another topic, don't know or understand that them dying is going to affect their loved ones the way it does. They believe they are a burden to everyone in many cases and can see only that the best thing for everyone involved is to off themselves. To call all suicide and accident victims stupid IS offensive.

But seriously, we hashed all this out before. Why don't we just say this dude made a bad decision, pray for his recovery, and pray doubly that he learned a valuable lesson about man versus coaster? And that he won't sue anyone. LOL

Vater said:

Can he be both?

The only thing I know about him is that he ignored warning signs and didn't get clear of a train moving toward him at high speed. So, to me he's a moron. I'm sure he won't lose any sleep over the fact that I think so.

I agree with Vater. Arguing about whether someone is stupid or intelligent is as arbitrary as arguing about whether someone is attractive or ugly. It's nothing more than someone's opinion. And our opinions are usually based on the information we have at the time in combination with our own experiences.

We are all smart, stupid, naughty, nice, etc. None of those things are single, defining characteristics. To you I might be nice. To someone else I might be a jerk. Those folks over there might think I'm smart, while these folks think I'm a dumbass.

You know what? They're all right. :)

Lord Gonchar said:

RatherGoodBear said:
(exactly what Gonch thinks.)

Get out of my head, you witch! :)

Blame it on that funk-ay fedora you're wearing in your pic. Now that's one I'D think about climbing under a coaster to fetch. :)

Carrie M. said:
You know what? They're all right. :)

And they're all wrong. :)