Man struck and killed by Raptor at Cedar Point after entering restricted area

Seriously? A consultant, using the Plain Dealer as an advertising platform for his services(".... just saying, you know, that one time I helped someone sue Cedar Fair they got 800,000 bucks!"), speculating on what was on Mr Young's mind, is "news"?

So the false sense of security created by the track being so high above the ground is so great that it completely trumps the real sense of security created by the existing fence and warning signs? Alrighty then.

And not allowing people to see their lost articles by screening the fence would have prevented this? If I remember correctly, this guy's cell phone still hasn't been located and he just blindly went into the area to look for it, right?

Raptor has got to be around 20 years old now, right? CP does over 3 million a year.

So 60 million people have encountered that ride and one has been killed.

Clearly it's the park's fault.

I don't know if I know about the dangers of getting hit by a roller coaster because I am a former ride op and a coaster enthusiast, or if it's just something everyone knows. I would argue that regular people tend to leave their brain in the car when they enter a park and that they don't think about safety.

Then again, people are always tightening their seat belts and trying to get an extra click pulled down on their lap bars, so it's not all black and white there. People are afraid of the rides while they are on them, but maybe that fear of bodily harm doesn't come over them when they are considering entering a low zone.

The idea of how people interpret their own safety at an amusement park interests me greatly.

I'm not a train enthusiast, and I've never operated a locomotive, but I know not to chance it and try and cross the tracks when the gates come down. :)

Still, to me, there's a difference between leaving one's brain in the car and not thinking about safety and ignoring clearly posted warnings while scaling fences.

And yet we have people driving around down gates, ignoring flashing lights and very large trains approaching at high speed.

LostKause once again I have to agree with you.

Keep seeing posts on how its just common sense, which it is, but we are living in a world were common sense doesn't even exist anymore. It doesn't take an expert to look around in society today and see we're living in a world full of misfits. I would be completely ignorant to think that everyone thinks or has the same viewpoints as the people in this enthusiast community. NOT even close!! We are foolish if we think for one second that everyone else out there thinks the same way we do, especially about park safety and the hazards that surround.

The fact that there's even discussion about whether fencing and warning signage is enough is the problem.

The problem isn't the 'misfits' that need protected from themselves, it's the people that think everyone needs protected from themselves and the mentality that follows.

We live in such weird times. I'd love to be alive X amount of time in the future to see how this period of history in America is seen through the filter of time and change.

Lord Gonchar said:
We live in such weird times. I'd love to be alive X amount of time in the future to see how this period of history in America is seen through the filter of time and change.

I bet the dinosaurs said the same thing. I just hope I get to be near Gonch in the Enthusiast Exhibit at the Misfit Museum.

We'd be displayed in the "Early 21st Century Dumbasses & Pussies" wing...except that you and I wouldn't.

Because we're not.

I don't feel strongly enough either way. I am interested in what people who do not think about roller coaster every day think on the subject and the psychology of a person's knowledge of safety at a park. A lot of my posts are less opinion, and more just brainstorming out loud to try and wrap my head around the subject.

I don't want anyone to die in this way, so I try to come up with solutions to prevent it from happening in the future. I do not blame the park for not trying harder, because it didn't seem necessary until this happened. Now that we know that people will take a chance like this, maybe we need to think about what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

When the guy in the article talked about improving the signage on the fences, all I could think of was these signs in Dinosaurs Alive.

Take it with a grain of salt - but someone on Reddit posted that they got information from speaking to an officer who was at the scene that the man was quite intoxicated.

I don't know whether or not it's true, but it would certainly explain why he thought it was a good idea.

Should Cedar Point stop selling alcohol now? HAHA!

It would certainly help explain the "why in the hell did you decide to..." questions.

But, like Jeff and Pete brought up on Pointbuzz - if he was truly killed instantly, how could they know he was drunk without an autopsy or toxicology report.

^I can think of two ways (not that I know whether either applies, and I'm too lazy to go back and find out):

First, the EMTs could have smelled alcohol on him.

Second, the others in his group may have indicated he's been drinking.

To that point, you could smell alcohol after one or 2 drinks. His friends might have said something, but really - it's gonna be expensive to get that hammered at CP.

Really, really expensive. Cedar Point hates Poor alcoholics.

Raven-Phile said:
if he was truly killed instantly, how could they know he was drunk without an autopsy or toxicology report.

This will undoubtedly be a coroner's case. For any patient brought to the ER DOA, or who dies while in the ER, we are mandated to call the coroner's office before the body can be released. Even a patient whose death is not unexpected, such as a terminal cancer patient on hospice. That way if there are any possible concerns, the coroner is aware before the body can be cremated. A case like that, the coroner would decline.

In this case, there will be an autopsy. Even though the cause of death is obvious -massive blunt force trauma - the toxicology report is critical. It will take several weeks before the coroner could issue an official report. All reports now concerning alcohol use would have to be observed or speculation.