Mother frustrated by Kings Island disallowing son with partial limbs from riding roller coasters

People smoked cigarettes *everywhere* until the Surgeon General's warning. We learn about safer practices, and then we change our behavior to keep people from getting injured or killed (my public health hat).

While it sucks to be restricted like that if they let him ride, and something went wrong, they'd be looking at bigger problems then turning someone away. It's a double edged sword, you can't please everyone, but I feel this is the right decision. The fact that they offered the family refunds on their season passes is more than they needed to do in the first place. I understand everyone wanting everything to be ADA accessible, but when if it's a safety issue not much can be done.

“(Kings Island’s) comment is he has to have functioning limbs and the question that we had for them is 'What's a functioning limb?'” Julie said. “Because he's an absolutely amazing kid that can do just about anything with what little bit he has.”

Wow, wow.

Kings Island spokesperson Don Helbig told WCPO the park’s rules have not changed, and Logan was never allowed on the coasters Julie listed. When asked about why Logan was allowed to ride The Beast and The Racer last year, Helbig said, “So they say.”

Uh, OK... So did they Photoshop that picture of him on the Racer?

What would be wrong with just saying whoever signed off on that document last year made a mistake? But nah, it's probably totes better PR to just accuse the customer of lying.

Normally I would be 100% in the side of the park, but not this time.

I do not think the kid should ride. He's gone one part of one leg, barely a lap. Looks like the park did the right thing this year.

However, if the picture is to be believed, and I see no evidence that it's fake, the park made a huge mistake last year. Regardless of changes to policy, which they say there have been none, he was allowed to ride unsafely last year. That's the problem.

That's enough for at least a refund for his SP, IMO, since they shouldn't have let him ride last year.

Wasn't there a similar story that happened at a Six Flags park recently?

Yeah, but *everybody* who goes to Six Flags has a miserable time, so it's not uncommon.

Landmark Ruling in Handicap Access to Coaster – Will This Affect Future Ride Design? - See more at: http://entertainmentdesigner.com/news/theme-park-design-news/landmark-ruling-in-handicap-access-to-coaster-will-this-affect-future-ride-design/#sthash.TwYmNFmJ.dpuf

Not sure how a ruling that the park was not in violation of the ADA would affect future ride design. Also not sure how it can be considered a "landmark ruling."

Raven-Phile, I think your CoasterBuzz account has been hacked by Tekwardo. lol

I thought Kings Island had some contraption that would allow someone to ride the Racer and The Beast even with insufficient lower body mass to be secured by the lap bar. I have never seen it, but there are (or at least were; I haven't ridden either in a couple of years) some seats on those trains equipped with extra safety belt buckles for this purpose. Is this no longer the case?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

LostKause said:

Raven-Phile, I think your CoasterBuzz account has been hacked by Tekwardo. lol

LEAVE TEKWARDO ALONE!!

But, seriously. It's not directed at you, so much as the general attitude that Six Flags gets - so don't take it personally, or I'll make fun of you for eating ketchup on your skyline coneys again. :)

birdhombre said:

What would be wrong with just saying whoever signed off on that document last year made a mistake? But nah, it's probably totes better PR to just accuse the customer of lying.

My guess is that if he can't ride because of safety concerns, admitting you let him ride unsafely in the past is probably opening a much bigger can of problems than going with the "liars" defense.

Don needs to consult with Roger Goodell on how to handle a potential fiasco.

although I feel bad for Logan. I do understand why Kings Island did not let him ride. He can't hold on.

RideMan said:

I thought Kings Island had some contraption that would allow someone to ride the Racer and The Beast even with insufficient lower body mass to be secured by the lap bar. I have never seen it, but there are (or at least were; I haven't ridden either in a couple of years) some seats on those trains equipped with extra safety belt buckles for this purpose. Is this no longer the case?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It is my understanding that the harness for this went away when Cedar Fair took over.

For somebody that's tired of the arguing, Travis, you seem to alway want to bring me up. (Oh, right. You're probably 'just kidding')

But whatever. I'm over it Officially.

Gonch, I was going to posit the same thing. Best to deny deny deny. Otherwise you get used for admitting there was unsafe behavior allowed.

Dave's probably got it right, and there were extra restraints (perhaps custom-fitted by the park as opposed to a train manufacturer being liable). When the new higher-ups found out what KI was allowing, they removed the "extra" belts, and denied they ever existed - since clearly they couldn't be proven safe and effective without potentially endangering (another) someone, and then move on as though nothing happened.

The proof is in the photo though....the kid did ride. Shouldn't have happened, won't happen again. Accessibility should never trump safety. And honestly, even if he could *ride* safely, what happens when the train stops at the MCBR?

birdhombre said:
What would be wrong with just saying whoever signed off on that document last year made a mistake? But nah, it's probably totes better PR to just accuse the customer of lying.

Not to go too far off topic, but i've noticed this a trend with Cedar Fair. Don't get me started with the price of halloween haunt tickets at Wonderland; when I showed them screenshot evidence, website evidence from archive.org, and a google cache of a page that was up for 9 months with a price for tickets for season pass holders, they kept denying the page existed and basically tried to make me look stupid. Even though they clearly VERY sloppily removed the text from the website as soon as they read my e-mail. They refused to admit they made a mistake, that they removed the text after I sent the e-mail, and that they couldn't honor it, instead accused me of doctoring 3 different archiving websites. -- https://www.canadaswonderland.com/ticket-category/2014-Season-Passes -- See how there is no benefit listed next to the haunt image? That's thanks to me. I was very friendly throughout the entire exchange, too. Oh well.