Manager says Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom tower not maintained properly before accident

They say any publicity is good publicity but I can't agree with that in this case.

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Nope, I can't point you to anyone who lost their feet, but I'm sure it was just as mentally traumatic in some aspects nonetheless.

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That's not the issue. Your random association of the SFKK accident with the one at MiA and the assertion that MiA had no problem bouncing back is not sane. The worst injury in Michigan was cuts and bruises, not severed feet. At issue isn't the injuries, it's the public opinion. The damage has been severe at SFKK, they've admitted that to investors.

^Okay, I'll move off of MiA (which was just one example) and move onto another example that's much more similar to what happened on the drop tower. A small section of an article from CNN about the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad accident at Disneyland:

Less than an hour before the accident a third train was added to the ride. The train had not been in use since it underwent routine maintenance three days earlier. The report found that workers had erroneously failed to tighten two screws properly.

It completed 12 trips around without any problem, but several ride operators said they noticed an unusual noise. A wheel assembly that keeps the lead car on the track had fallen off, probably as the car finished its 12th run, the report said.

The accident happened about one-third of the way through the 13th ride when an axle assembly shifted and a connecting rod broke as the train entered an uphill grade, the report found. The operators had planned to take it off line for inspection after the 13th ride, but never got the chance, the report said.

Torres suffered "blunt force trauma" to the chest that fractured his ribs, leading to laceration of his lungs that caused "severe blood loss," according to a coroner's report. Ten other people were injured.

Here we go again with an unusual noise, and yet no one did anything about it. As a result, someone lost their life at "The Happiest Place on Earth," and ten others injured. There were even some maintenance people who were claiming that Disney was telling them to run the rides until they break to contain costs. Where they credible with their claims or just trying to gain fame? We'll never know.

I'm not dismissing the injuries in the drop tower ride as they're absolutely horrible. But she's still alive. Is her life going to be very difficult from here on out? Yes, but there are plenty of ride accident victims who we can't say the same about. Like I said before, it won't stop people from going to a park.

In this instant internet, news on your phone, YouTube clip world, we're so much more aware of what is happening all the time and therefore this incident seems so much worse to us. A lot of people that I work with or socialize with asked me about the incident after I got back as they know about my hobby.

There were four of us on a week-long trip when the incident happened, and sure it was downright scary and sobering before we headed over to King's Island for the day.

Was it that we didn't trust Cedar Fair with our lives? No, I would say that, but it brings it all back to the fact that rides at their very core are just complicated machines that somehow we get enjoyment out of. When not properly cared for or maintained, injuries or death may occur.

Mamoosh said:

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The scary thing about what Shapiro said in 2006 (or was it 2007?) is that he was increasing the maintenance budgets up to what they were in 1997!

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Yes, 1997, back when they had half as many rides...

^ Exactly!

^But wait a minute, back in 97, all of unreliable rides were still there. Now only very reliable, highly automated complex rides exist. (Sarcasm present...)

I cannot imagine the payout on this one. She'll be set for life to say the least, but any amount of money is a minor compensation for losing what she lost.
Wow.

I can totally understand why an operator would be reluctant to immediately suspend operations or report a strange noise. From my experience, unless it is an EXTREMELY noticeaible and "bad" noise, generally you wait to see if it happens again. Shutting down or calling maintenance right away for one odd strange is likely to get you laughed at or reprimanded. I don't know (I hope it isn't!) if this is standard at most parks, but I've experienced it first hand.

^Didn't the operators at BTMRR hear "something strange" on one of the dispatches prior to the unfortunate accident that resulted in a fatality? I seem to recall some discussion about them preparing to take one of the trains off - not sure if that turned out to be THE train or not... :-/

That instinctive feeling you get before something goes seriously wrong...IS your warning. The humans operating your ride HAVE to serve as one of your redundant safety systems - I'd never tell my employees to ignore a strange noise or anything that seems "out of the ordinary"...