Man injured on fair coaster with his hands up, operator blames rider

This is like saying the rules are more or less guidelines. If it says to put your arms down on TTD, I do it. If it says to keep hands inside of the car at all times, I do it. If you have your arms perpendicular to your body, that is not having your arms up, that is having your hands outside the car. So, if the guy's arms were waaaaay out, he will have no case. If his hands were straight up, who knows, he may have some sort of case. Sucks to be him.
That's just my $0.02.

"It's up to us to do the rest. Common sense is the key here. Obviously this guy doesn't possess any. I'm convinced he was not paying attention while riding in an open vehicle at high speeds."

Common sense tells ME that when I am riding a roller coaster, the park isnt going to put me in any danger. If I hit my hands off of gemini's supports im gonna be pissed, cause I assume the park has made sure people cant screw up and hurt themselves.

Sure he broke the rules, but I think the park is liable to an extent.

Although the rider did ignore signs, I beleive it is a responsibility for a park to create safe rides. In my opinion, supports shouldn't be in arms reach of the ride, because it is known that people do put their hands up. It seems that the ride should be designed to accomodate this act, as it is very common, and, as we can see, some people are just plain dumb.

"Common sense tells ME that when I am riding a roller coaster, the park isnt going to put me in any danger. If I hit my hands off of gemini's supports im gonna be pissed, cause I assume the park has made sure people cant screw up and hurt themselves."

They tell you on the ferris wheel to not 'rock the cars', yet, if I rock them enough where I flip upside-down, should I have not assumed that I could fall out?

Fever

"They tell you on the ferris wheel to not 'rock the cars', yet, if I rock them enough where I flip upside-down, should I have not assumed that I could fall out?"

Well, parks actually enforce that rule.

SVLFever, so your saying that your 12 yo old little brother is on a ride and hurts himself cause he reached out his hands like his big brother. Are you going to tell him he should have read the signs?

I personally don't blame the park. I hope the guy loses.

Here's why:

Even if the park warned you not to, **all of you** have ridden with your hands up. So have I... it's the best way to ride any rollercoaster without over the shoulder restraints in my opinion. Roller coasters are designed with the assumption that people will hold their arms up, and even out to the side. Look at this pic: http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery1414.htm?Picture=3
See those arms? The coaster's designer (B&M in this case) knows that people ride their coasters with their arms up and even out to the sides, and they design their rides with this knowledge in mind. It is, however, possible to lean wayyyy out or stretch yourself wayyyy up and to hit something where the clearance is close on most roller coasters. No comfortable, capacity and rider comfort freindly restraint can prevent this. This guy found out the hard way, but he should be happy his lapse of common sense didn't end his life. This story brought to my mind an incident on one of the Paramount Parks TOGO standup coasters in which a rider decided to try to see if he could squirm his way out of the restraints, succeeded and plummeted to his death from the ride.

Basically, people need to get a clue. If you do something you shouldn't, and get caught or hurt, it's YOUR FAULT. Going and suing other people for your own idiocy only makes things worse for the part of the population with common sense.

-BB (feeling unusually cynical tonight)

Maybe the guy is unusually tall??? =shrug=

QUOTE:Rob Ascough (Edit) 1/26/2004 8:33:15 AM

IMO, the rider is at fault because he admits that he broke the rules. Unrealistic expectiations? Give me a freakin' break. If I got pulled over for driving 80 in a 65 mph zone, I could cry all I want about "unrealistic expectations", but in the end, I'd still be ticketed.

END QUOTE

youd get arrested for that speed, not ticketed!

While I don't deny that I do it myself, putting your hands up is in fact a crime... at least in Ohio. If this would have happened at an Ohio park, a law suit from this guy wouldn't be tolorated, and, in fact, if he made a big thing out of it like he's doing, he might get himself into some trouble.

"Under the Ohio Revised Code, Section 1711.551, riders must obey all warnings and operator instructions regarding amusement park rides and behave in a manner that will not cause or contribute to injury of himself or others. This includes riders behaving in an unruly fashion or who appear to be under the influence of alcohol or other chemical intoxicants. A violation of this law is a misdemeanor."

In Ohio, this guy would be admitting to a misdemeanor crime, and he could definitely be punished for it. True, people do this all the time and don't get hurt. Coasters are designed to accomoted riders putting their hands up, but by not making a big deal about putting your hands up, the parks are assuming that "hey, we've warned you." and expect you to take responsibilities for your own actions.

~Jeff

Edit: Spelling*** This post was edited by JayDubs 1/26/2004 7:51:15 PM ***

From what Gemini said above. Didn't they have a drawing for TTD with a guy with his hands up. I remember something like this on GTTP.

I heard that very modern coasters like MF has a spot on the first overbank that people have touched but I'm talking fingertips, same thing on Magnum's turn to the bunny hops. The rides always should have safe distances but everyone must remember that if you want to wiggle out a little and reach for the beams of steel and wood then you can touch it. It's always clearly stated, for example on Top Thrill Dragster, everytime a train is ready to launch a loud annoucment plays and says, "KEEP ARMS DOWN, HEAD BACK, and HOLD ON!! Other coaster also have similar things. So the parks clearly state it so people should hear it.

if I was on a jury the guy's attorney would need to make a compelling case based on existing case law that showed he should not be held responsible for his own actions.

Hey Jeff! This is why they would never let you on the jury! :-) They don't allow educated people who expect anybody to even possibly be held responsible for their own actions anywhere near a jury box!

Ohh you have no idea Jeffery..

I've been on jury duty several times, taken into the court room and faced the usual "name and ocupation" questions.

At the time I was working for a semiconductor maker. I was dismissed everytime by the defense.

Newsflash... I've been on juries.

They do tell you to keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times. As far as I'm concerned, putting ones hands up on a roller coaster constitutes as placing them outside the vehicle.

This guy is an idiot.

I think calling him an idiot is ridiculous. I'd be willing to bet that 99% of the people on this site have ridden a coaster with their hands up. So does that make everyone on this site an idiot? Does that just make him an idiot because he happened to get hurt?

What I'm tired of is enthusiasts having no compassion when someone gets hurt on an amusement ride. This guy was only doing the same thing the vast majority of us have done in the past. So he's an idiot why?

-Nate

I'm way out of this league to be responding, but to what coasterdude 318 said above me, I have this -

If a sign is posted somewhere on or off of the ride explaining a rule of some sort and that rule is BROKEN, you run the risk of something happening to you. Many people take that risk. Most aren't injured such as he was. To blame the operator / establishment for his injury? That action within itself, is idiotic, not the man, as people claim. Basically, it could be summed up with the age old expression - that's the way the cookie crumbles.

pkidelirium: What state arrests for 15 mph over the limit? I've been pulled over quite a few times driving that much above the limit and the worst that happened to me was a ticket. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I thought that you'd have to be going pretty fast in order to be arrested!

Heck, I got pulled over for 20+ mph over the limit and all I got was a ticket (the fine wasnt even that bad).

But I *personally* know and witnessed such an accident where there were CLEAR signs and audio announcements saying to keep your hands down. But there were tons of riders with their hands up (self included). On one of those rides someone (mot me) got injured similar to the above case. Honestly, people *DO* tend to disregard the warnings. The question becomes, did the operator do as much as s/he could to prevent injuries to riders? That is to say, is a sign really enough?

lata, jeremy

"To blame the operator / establishment for his injury? That action within itself, is idiotic, not the man, as people claim."

Where is this guy blaming the establishment and/or operator? People are so quick to respond to threads without even reading the article. Nowhere in the article is blame put on Conklin or the South Florida Fair. The man said he believes it's unrealistic to expect that people won't put their hands up on a coaster - something people just plain do on a coaster - and I tend to agree.

How many thousands of people do you think have ridden the Doppel Looping with their hands up? If somebody got hurt doing something that everybody does, then clearly not enough is being done to either keep riders from holding their arms up or to prevent incidents such as this.

-Nate

As everyone has said, this case should be thrown out, but will it? A good lawyer will bring up the fact that most coaster riders ride with their hands up in the air. Coaster designers and operators know this fact and should have designed this coaster differently or installed a guard of some sort to deflect ones hands away from danger. Just like the metal shields on Cedar Creek Mine Ride at Cedar Point where one is able to touch the overhead track as you cross under. This ride may be why Cedar Fair is so against riding with your hands in the air.

Don't get me wrong, I hope this is thrown out of court, but it is not an open and shut case. If someone can sue McDonalds for spilling hot coffee in their lap and win, anything can happen.