Man without hands denied ride at Six Flags Over Texas

I am an evil smoker, but I have no problem with going to my little square in a corner of the park. I am glad this guy is speaking out rather than suing as well. I also don't see the problem with him riding really anything he wants to ride, but I get what they were trying to do at SF. It really came down to a ridiculous "what if" scenario, Six Flags followed their policy, and this guy had a really bad experience. Maybe the chain will reconsider policy on this sort of thing.

CoasterDemon said:

...but what's the chance of a ride having to evacuate when he rides?

I'd bet large sums of money that this is an answer for purposes of forum discussion, but it's not the answer as to why he couldn't ride.

bunky666 said:

I am an evil smoker, but I have no problem with going to my little square in a corner of the park.

You're not evil, bunky. You just have a clinical addiction that needs to be nursed every day, all day.

Kudos to you for respecting non-smokers and following the rules!

Oh wait... I just saw your bunky666 not bunky! Maybe you are evil (insert evil grin).

Doesn't the nicotine replacement stuff or gum work at all? I'm just wondering... I know it's becoming harder and harder for you guys to get your fix. To 'Chase the Dragon' as it were ;)

A demon calls me evil? Well, we can smell our own kind, so I guess it makes sense! Bwahahaha!

Actually, my "handle" is in tribute to my husband's evil old cat Bunky. If you looked at her funny, she would growl at you. She was a unique animal.

I'm allergic to nicotine patches. I'm not allergic to adhesives though, so doc thinks I'm allergic to nicotine. That's my excuse for being fat. I am in a constant state of allergic inflammation from smoking. Hahahaha...no, but I haven't tried the gum. I'm kinda scared I'll chew too much and end up sick or something. Yes, it IS a bit irrational.

I AM a considerate smoker. I stay in the confines of the smoking areas at parks, I put my butts out correctly, throw them out in a designated container, and I don't spit or anything nasty like that. Honestly, smokers ruin a lot for themselves with smoking in public places with their spitting and littering and property damaging. I follow the rules at parks period, too, so it is not really a big stretch to follow the smoking rules. Hopefully soon I can quit so I can go to Holiday World and not be a heinous psycho b*tch after a whole day of no smoking.

I wonder if vaping is allowed at HW...

DantheCoasterman said:

jonnytips said:
If you can't grab onto a handrail, you can't get down the lift hill stairs safely if they have to evacuate the ride

With all due respect, I could roll my eyes all day at this argument. ;-)

Sigh. I wasn't saying I necessarily believe this to be true (can you grasp without thumbs? ;) ) but, it could very well be a portion of some thought that a health/safety rep would have. A sort of first place where the grey area of who should be allowed to ride begins and where if anything could go wrong it would stem from here.

If that makes any sense at all? At least it's more consequential than not being able to hold onto the should restraints; anyone that puts their hands up doesn't hold onto them after all. It's not really life or death, whereas someone falling from a lift evacuation would be.

Look, do you guys want a random speculation as to the logic behind the decision or not? :p

CoasterDemon said:

bunky666 said:

I am an evil smoker, but I have no problem with going to my little square in a corner of the park.

You're not evil, bunky. You just have a clinical addiction that needs to be nursed every day, all day.

Kudos to you for respecting non-smokers and following the rules!

Oh wait... I just saw your bunky666 not bunky! Maybe you are evil (insert evil grin).

Doesn't the nicotine replacement stuff or gum work at all? I'm just wondering... I know it's becoming harder and harder for you guys to get your fix. To 'Chase the Dragon' as it were ;)

That crap does not work if you're a 3 pack a day devil. Thank god I weaned myself off that stuff 5 years ago. Haven't had a desire to smoke even. All at once one day at work, I walked over to the trash can and tossed them.

I have tried cold turkey...it is not pretty. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of pretty...and sane, for that matter.

stoogemanmoe said:

That crap does not work if you're a 3 pack a day devil. Thank god I weaned myself off that stuff 5 years ago. Haven't had a desire to smoke even. All at once one day at work, I walked over to the trash can and tossed them.

Smug much?

stoogemanmoe said:

Haven't had a desire to smoke even. All at once one day at work, I walked over to the trash can and tossed them.

I'm with you. If you want to quit, you quit. If you don't, you won't.

People who play the victim are the worst.

Agreed. If you don't truly want to quit, no amount of patches, gum, battery-powered vaporizers, hypnotism or any other newfangled "aid" is going to make it happen.

You know, you guys gotta cut down on all this empathy and understanding. It's getting to be like a sissies' club around here...

;)

I understand the difficulty of quitting. However, I agree that cold turkey is the way to go, and you have to truly want to quit.

I think cold turkey IS the way to go because you suffer enough that you never wanna go through that again if you end up smoking again. However, with the weight gain, lack of sleep, and generally psycho behavior that I get, I want to try other methods first. Weight loss first though, then smoking. One thing at a time. Lol

And I can't be the only one who has noticed we as an enthusiast community have the worst attention span EVER. Back to the topic at hand: has anyone heard updates about this young man and unfortunate event? I have not.

bunky666 said:

And I can't be the only one who has noticed we as an enthusiast community have the worst attention span EVER.

Squirrel!

This reminds me of those "phone first" commercials. My brother and I made the mistake of going to Cedar Point without reserving a hotel room for our 2 night stay. We drove around Sandusky for 4 hours, until a nice lady at one of the hotels called around and found us a room. My brother spent the whole time going..."phone First" and laughing at me.

I think this man should have called the park, and asked them what their policies were before he went there. (As others have said) But, I don't think this is just a evacuation problem. Coasters, also have a habit of coming to an abrupt stop, and someone with no hands could get a serious injury that way as well, as they would have no way to brace themselves. Even people riding coasters with their arms in the air, get injured this way. I know of one girl who took a grip bar to the mouth...not pretty.

Also, not all people in wheel chairs are allowed to ride the rides. It really depends on what ride it is, who is operating it, and what their condition is. Just as overly obese people are not allowed to ride some coasters. It's actually the people with those hidden conditions that are more dangerous to the parks. Those are the ones who usually end up dead.

I do think the parks should do a better PR job for the handicapped. If they were more informative, people would not have to guess about their safety.

If the goal is to provide an enjoyable experience for everyone, then there should be a dialog of sorts between guests with special needs and the parks. And this means that the handicapped person should contact the park beforehand to determine what rides, etc. he can ride. Perhaps this is a place where various advocacy groups for the disabled could participate. Seems much more productive than the usual protest and letter-writing campaigns that happen after the fact when one of these type of stories is released.

It's also in the parks' interests to make sure there is a consistent policy in place that is strictly adhered to across the board. Then you won't get the people whose complaint is that we were allowed on this ride last year, last month, two hours ago (and also the phonies who want to make that claim, although I see that one more with height than ability).

And yes I did find myself trying to come up with synonyms that would be considered politically correct to describe people of differing abilities.

The park DID have signs posted that stated the requirements for riders on the rides, but the sign that I saw online in a picture was tiny. I don't know how many signs posted there ARE, and I also don't know that any of the signs are even noticeable, but they definitely had at least one sign with the riders with disabilities policy posted.