New Jersey recommends dual-occupancy, height requirement for Ferris wheels

What a fantastic story, RCMAC. Carmen sounds like a really fun person to meet at a park.

So, how does putting a second 11 year old in the ferris wheel bucket with her prevent her from doing the exact same thing?

Aside from perhaps "the manufacturer says so", I'm trying to decide how tamdem rides such Enterprise rides and some older model wild mice benifit from "no single riders."

Juggalotus said:
So, how does putting a second 11 year old in the ferris wheel bucket with her prevent her from doing the exact same thing?

The only benefit that I can see from a no single riders rule on a Ferris Wheel is either having one kid to say to the other,

"Hey, you are getting to close to the edge there, and you are scaring me. Don't fall out, please."

or to tell of exactly what happened after an accident.

Or if they are seated on oposite sides of the gondola, the second person may add some counterbalance to keep it from tipping if the first person leans over the edge. Then again, if they are both on the same side, and one leans over, now you have two victims.

Then that must just be my fear of heights. Everytime I am on a wheel (a chance wheel, the wheel at Knoebels), it feels in my stomach like the cars could do a 360 at any time. I don't remember that much from the wheel at Moreys, even though I rode it in 2001.

The Knoebels Giant Wheel is a Bakker t/m 37m unit. Its very smooth. I sat my Thelma's Lemonade on the center table and it didn't spill last Tuesday. The Morey Giant Wheel is a Vekoma p/m 52m wheel. Extremely smooth.

I'm going to go here - what if you are paired with a serial killer, a rapist, or a child molester? What if the person has Ebola and sneezes on you? What if... what if...

My point is the world has gotten a little oversensitive to lawsuits and warning labels...

Bring back the good old days of playing hockey in the street, drinking from the garden hose, and having jousting competitions on the monkey bars (which often were over concrete pads).

Most of us all turned out just fine, and those who didn't... well that's Darwinism at work.

As expected, the Big Wheel at Great Adventure now has multiple "No Single Riders Permitted" signs up.

YoshiFan said:
As expected, the Big Wheel at Great Adventure now has multiple "No Single Riders Permitted" signs up.

I'm going down Sunday and Wednesday. I rarely ride the Wheel anyway, but since..for a change..I won't be by myself, I might. The woman I'm meeting there next week has never been to the park.

I just saw a video and the parents are contemplating a lawsuit and the want restraints added to ferris wheels.

As bad as I feel for the parents, I would never let an eleven-year-old go to an amusement park unchaperoned. If it was agreed upon that the girl was supposed to be accompanied by an adult while visiting the park, then whoever organized and provided the trip to the park should be the one to get sued, not the park.

The only kind of restraints that could prevent this kind of thing is the kind that are locked and unlocked by a ride host. Even if it was unable to be unlocked during the ride, a child could easily slip themselves out of the seat belt if they really wanted to.

The kind of restraints that are just for show might be some kind of help. They let people know that it's not a good idea to stand up. Again, if a kid is determined to stand up, change seats, or lean out of the ride to see friends or whatever, they will do it one way or another.

Who was supposed to be responsible for the girl while at the park? If an adult was on the ride with her, she almost certainly would not have leaned out of the bucket, because an adult would hopefully have put a stop to that.

I learned a few weeks ago that my 13-year-old cousin was going with the school band to Kings Island. When I asked how chaperones would work (asking if they needed any more chaperones), his mother told me that the school was going to put them into groups and "let them loose". I gave the kid a quick amusement park safety speech before he left.

The earliest that I can remember being "let loose" at Kings Island was when I was in the ninth grade, so about 14 or 15-years-old.

I don't know where the line should be drawn, and how old is old enough to be "let loose", but eleven is too young, in my opinion. They need some kind of supervision while at a park, for reason other than ride safety.

...And I realize that a lot of this post is presumptuous.

I'm pretty sure that when I was 11, I knew it was dangerous to stand up and lean out of a moving ride vehicle. Restraints of any kind are not necessary on these types of cabin.

As a parent, I can only begin to imagine what the parents of this girl might be going through. I would naturally be searching for answers as to why this happened, but I'd like to think that ultimately, I'd realize my kid made a horrible mistake that cost him his life, and no one else is at fault.

I was at Knoebels yesterday and they have a no single riders sign posted at the ferris wheel.

Next time I'm at Knoebels by myself and see the "no single riders" sign, I'll just point to my wedding ring and board.

+1 for SLFAKE.