New Texas Giant reopens as lawsuit is filed after fatal accident

Still surprised that it didn't already have seatbelts, but good move to fix all the support systems on the trains!

They can stop calling it the new Texas Giant now that its 3 years old! Its always been texas giant to me. :) The lawsuit is no surprise to anyone, but im just waiting to see how many are filed from obese people that are turned away from the ride!!!!

They'll settle we won't hear much more about it. I too was really surprised they didn't have seat belts. I mean, a scrambler has seat belts. But not a 70mph coaster?

bjames, have you ever ridden a B&M speed coaster?

^and Perilous Plunge had seat belts. Why don't we have a recall so that all vending machines can't be flipped over while we are at it. Coca Cola has known about the risks for decades yet people still die from these all the time.

That's not really a reasonable comparison. I think we all expect that we're prone to harm if we try to tip over a vending machine. None of us have the expectation that we can be ejected from an amusement ride.

I think your forgetting how stupid people can be. No one who is actually tipping the vending machine thinks it will fall on them.

this article states: "lawsiut summary claims that six flags knew as early as 1978 that in the absence of a seat belt passengers had a greater risk of being ejected from a roller coaster. "

lawsuits against coca cola have stated: "defendants knew that the vending machine model had a history of tipping over when shaken, but did nothing to warn people of the danger or prevent it from happening."

About the same amount of people die annually from vending machines as do roller coasters.

It's still not a valid comparison. No level of stupid comes with the expectation that an amusement ride might in fact eject you.

On Iron Rattler, there is a sign indicating the the lap bar is designed to touch the lap. The belt attachment enforces this by making sure the bar isn't resting on top of "the gut."

I have little doubt that the woman involved in the accident would have been unable to get the seat belt to engage.

sirloindude said:

bjames, have you ever ridden a B&M speed coaster?

Yes. Why do they not have seatbelts? I've never noticed, but that's crazy. It's not like adding them is a particular large encumberance either.

Let's see...been around since 1999, never ejected a soul...

Nope, don't need seatbelts.

^So we have to wait until someone's ejected to get seatbelts. I see, like New Texas Giant.

I'm just saying I really do not see what the issue is with adding a last-resort restraint if everything else fails.

I'm not a human factors expert, but looking at the design of the B&M clamshell seats, I doubt very much that one would ever eject anyone. The seat is too deep, the bar too large, to ever allow someone to ever reach an angle where it would not contain them.

What you need to consider, bjames, is that seatbelt aren't really going to save you. I look at them as sort of low-tech go/no-go indicators. The lady in TX wasn't ejected because the lap bar broke. She was ejected because she wasn't able to be properly accommodated by the restraint.

What makes some of you so confident in seat belts?

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that an amusement ride could potentially eject you. If the restraints don't work or don't work for your body size then I would expect that outcome.

I look at it like .. DoubleMalfunction .. lap bar plus seat belt, gives you more security .. better liability .. my brother and me skydive, have a main and a back-up, never needed the back up, but the possibility of a Double Malfunction is very low, and if it happens its due to human error .. thats my take on lap bars and seat belts.. Not sure if it was human error or technology error in the Texas death, but a seat belt might have saved her life.

Secondly, like skydiving, you go into a park and know there are risks, thrill rides wouldn't be a thrill if it didnt whirl you around to get some air time or G's, if you don't understand something or have doubts, become learned.. I think it is sad when anyone dies, specially when you just want to have fun.

egieszl said:

What makes some of you so confident in seat belts?

Not speaking for anyone else - my confidence stems from knowing that the seat belt cannot engage unless the restraint bar is down far into the lap. Redundancy aside, it ensures that the lap bar isn't resting on top of a rider's "belly fat."

egieszl said:
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that an amusement ride could potentially eject you.

I do, otherwise I wouldn't get on them.

If the restraints don't work or don't work for your body size then I would expect that outcome.

I honestly don't feel like I'm assuming any risk that the restraint won't function properly, leading to my death, when I ride a coaster. Yes, I might get hit in the face with something, or an unexpected force or vibration might hurt my back or neck, so I am assuming that risk, but there is basically zero chance that I'm going to fall out. If a train can dispatch without a rider being properly secured by the lap bar (assuming the ride op did his/her job and made sure the bar was down as far as it could go), then that is a design flaw in the restraint and how it interfaces with the seat and rider.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that an amusement ride could potentially eject you.

I think it's completely unreasonable to expect that a ride will kill me.

I *could* have a piano dropped on me to kill me walking down the street, but it's not something that should reasonably happen. If it were 'reasonable' that a ride could kill me, I wouldn't ride.

In this case, the woman was assured she was fine, and *that* was unreasonable, due to her body type and where the restraint fell.

The reason I won't go sky diving is because there is an inherent risk associated with that. It's also why I don't date.