Mother and daughter freak-out on Kennywood's Pitt Fall

I was wondering the same thing Sue...I've never been on this ride, but I'm assuming that a person sitting in the seat is capable of buckling their own seat belt, especially in the time it takes to climb to 250 feet.

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CP 2K3: 11

Well you'd kind of have to kick at it to get it to flip up, but you can do it yourself.

Gemini - We didn't go cause it didn't seem like a big enough deal to waste time we could be riding on reporting the incident. I do get where you're coming from that a scared kid hits a nerve with parents, but I just don't think its something that's worthy of a newspaper story, especially in a town, where this could honestly cause a drop in attendance at Kennywood, or at least less people riding Pitt Fall (Pittsburghers overreact to everything) ... especially since it happened on what, June 24th? Why didn't it make the papers until July 9th?

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"As soon as you design something that's idiot-proof, the world will go and design a better idiot."
--Brett*** This post was edited by PittDesigner 7/9/2003 11:44:32 AM ***

Anymore now of days, I think people are just sue happy. That's almost as good as those people suing the fast food restraunts because the food made them unhealthy. lol

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YOUNGSTOWN 2010

I think shes blowing this out of porportion lol, it seems that she knows the she was on the ground, but as it may seem it was on the ground, the towers go upward slowly,then shoot you up, so you have a tale of 2 people here....... maybe they should make ratings from now on like in movies....PG-13, G....Young Children might be frightened lol

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Enjoy your day at Cedar Point, America's RollerCoast

Different ride MeanStreakMan - its a slow rise to the top - a little slower than Millennium's lift hill I think, then it just lets go and you're in true free fall, unlike those weak S&S towers ;)

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"As soon as you design something that's idiot-proof, the world will go and design a better idiot."
--Brett

July 2nd at Great Adventure, I'm in line for Stuntman's Freefall, and a whole bunch of kids before us... then maybe five cars before we get on, a girl at the top of the ride starts yelling and freaking out and threatening to vomit. The ride is shut down for better than half an hour. My solution? It would have taken less time to just drop the car than to shut down the ride and somehow get the girl out of the car. And about thirty fewer unhappy guests. You get on a ride, ride the ride. Few rides last longer than four minutes. Ugh, just suck it up and do it.

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"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." e.e.cummings

PittDesigner and the "Are Pitt Fall's Optional" question: Did I miss something or was the "optional" part earlier referring to "optional" when installing the ride (I undersand Pitt Fall was retrofitted with belts). IF a ride has an "optional" piece of equipment (i.e. a seat belt) that other rides of its type may have, the equipment is "optional" for that type of ride... but if that type of ride has that "optional" equipment, the use of that equipment is NOT optional. In other words, if it has seat belts they will be buckled (even though an otherwise identical ride at another park does not have belts). Am I undersatnding that correctly?

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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"

Well yes, the use of the equipment is not up-to-the-guest optional, but I took it to mean optional as in the ride won't work and the harness won't stay down without it - sort of like the seat belt on wooden coasters. Again, that's not really up-to-the-guest optional, but if you don't have it buckled, you are in severe danger, unlike on Pitt Fall, which operated for what, one or two seasons without these belts.

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"As soon as you design something that's idiot-proof, the world will go and design a better idiot."
--Brett

At least the little girl's long hair didn't get tangled up in the top of the tower, then get her face torn off when it dropped, like on Power Tower that one time. That would have been horrible. ;)

The lady isn't suing the park, so it's just a case of jangled nerves mixed with some "look at me."

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SCREAM with me... in 2003!

As has been mentioned above, she should have had plenty of time to re-buckle her seatbelt on the way up (I've only been on one Intamin freefall, but I don't think the restraints are too different from S&S, are they?). I also think that no one should be let off after everyone has been locked in, they had plenty of time to think it over in line. She shouldn't have undone her seatbelt to begin with.

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Purple cows eat silver moon pies, among fiesty, glowing fireflies.

They won't go back? Good! That means two less trashy people at Kennywood.

An issue that has not been mentioned is responsible parenting. Yes, I know that we don't have the complete story, but a child's parent should know the child's fear threshold better than anybody. The same situation is happening with video games. Video games have ratings for a reason, and it is the parents' job to know what games their children are playing. And then we all wonder why some children get violent intentions. In this KW situation, the mother should maybe have excercised better judgement before letting her daughter ride. But I do agree that you can panic in situations like this, and I hope that both the mother and daughter can put this behind them, and go about the business of growing up and experiencing all the things a mother and daughter SHOULD experience.

After reading that article I became even more pissed. If the mother was so concered about her daughter, then why didn't she tell her to fasten the seatbelt on the way up? If she could unhook it, then she could connect it. It is these types of people that give amusement parks a bad name. Oh whoa is me, my daughter had a terrifying experience on a thrill ride. What did the mother think, the ride was a kiddie ride or just an optical illusion? It just seems to me that the mother wanted her 15 minutes of fame. Perfect example of a western Pennsylvania melodromatic person. The people I have to put up with in this area! Geeze.

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Kennywood 7-23
Cedar Point 7-26
CLP 7-25
PKD one week later! Maybe this summer will have a silver lining.
Connellsvile Area Mighty Falcon Marching Band Rules!*** This post was edited by The_Lost_Phantom 7/9/2003 2:17:12 PM ***

Just out of curiosity, how many of you bashing this woman have kids of your own? How many of you were standing at the ride when this happened? How many of you know this woman and her daughter personally?

Is it asking too much that people not be so quick to judge?

mOOSH

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A random Mooshter's Dawntionary listing: Lymph [v.] to walk with a lisp.

Phantom, many people seem to have trouble attaching the seatbelt on the Intamin towers -- fishing around underneath finding it can apparently be problematic for some. Now combine that with fear and the inability to think straight...

The understanding I have of it is the lifting cycle had already begun when the woman panicked, but it seems to me that this whole thing happened very quickly then -- once the lift starts, you move to the top in fairly short order.

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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay FOREVER!"

I wasn't there, but I do have kids, and they would be in big trouble if I ever caught them unfastening a restraint. I have always been cautious to not force them onto any ride that they don't feel that they are ready for.

Any way you look at it we don't know all of the details. If the child released the restraint before the ride cycle started, then it shouldn't have benn started. (Not always easy for the operator to tell though.) If the child released the restraint after the ride cycle started, then there probably wasn't much that the operator could do. I believe that releasing the restraint was probably a violation of state law in Pennsylvania which probably strengthens the park's position.

I'm always suspicious of those who attempt to try their case in the press, though it is possible that the press went to them.

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher 7/9/2003 3:42:31 PM ***

I just think that this is all ridiculous. How many times a day does a guest get frightened on a ride or scared or feel like they are going to die? It happens all the time, that is part of the thrill, hence the name thrill ride. Its all so psychological and some people just tend to handle things differently. Rather than look at her daughter and breath a sigh of relief after the ride was over and say "wow wasn't that fun!" or "see I told you it wasn't gonna be that bad." But noooooooo this lady cries wolf and goes to the paper. I think its even sadder that anyone is even paying this attention. This kind of thing happens all the time at thrill parks. We go there to get thrills! Some people man,,,,,,,,,,,,,,these are the same people who ruin it for the rest of us. These are why we have such strict rules with amusement park rides. All to satisfy the general public.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."

isn't the whole purpose of a thrill ride to scare the crap out of everyone......?....

One issue: how long after the ride op hits "Start" does it take before the ride starts rising? If there's a delay of several seconds, while hydraulics pressure up perhaps, then the mother probably would think she could safely get her daughter off because the ride was still on the ground while in fact it would be extremely dangerous for a ride op to even approach the ride. This would probably explain the discrepancy between the mother's and the ride op's stories.

Why didn't she push up on her harness and realize that it wasn't going anywhere? Whatever...it all sounds like a "he said, she said" kind of thing to me.