People Magazine Article

The June 29 issue of People magazine has an article about rollercoaster related brain injuries which lowers even their journalistic standard. The article sounds like Ed Markey wrote it. It takes everything that Markey has said at face value. It also mentions nothing about the fact that neurologists see nothing in Markey's charges. And just to show how well researched the article is, it expresses concern about the new generation of hypercoaters that "top 100 mph and heights of more than 400 feet." I sure wish I knew where on of these was so I could ride it.

Superman the escape at SFMM.

Ya but it's not a "hypercoaster"

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“If you give a enthusiast a footer.......He’ll want a coaster!!!"

It's not just People magazine. I was reading an article in Self magazine about ways to stay safe this summer, and they were warning readers not to ride too many coasters because you put yourself at risk for numerous types of injuries.They aimed the article at people who don't even have pre-existing health conditions. I wish studies could be made public enough to put all these rumors to rest. It's really quite sad. :(

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BuzzCon '02 Frequent Flyer: Having fun on the flyers is a snap!

Actually, even Superman the escape doesn't meet their description since it doesn't top 100 mph. Only Dodonpa tops 100 and it doesn't get any where near 400 feet.

The article showed an incident on a coaster at Fiesta Texas. They way they described it, it sounded like a boomerang. Please correct me if it was not. But as I read it I thought, how many copies of the boomerangs are there? If there was an issue specific to the ride, would it not have occured on others? I just wish the news media would stop sensationalizing this issue. The keep stating that coasters give more G's than a space launch...but then fail to comment that the space launch force lasts for several minutes compared to a coasters split-second G occurance. I hope the industry is able to prove and prevent this proposed law from happening,

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wof fan

ya know, maybe when they are talking about the G forces on coasters giving you a headache or causing brain injuries, i think they fail to mention in the article that these could be vekoma SLC's or Arrow loopers, lol. but then again, what would the general reader know...

okay, if what they say is true, i should have a stroke right about NOW!Hmmmmmpf, i feel fiAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHH!

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If your really evil in this life, do you come back as toilet paper????
ladies and gentlemen, due to an increase in line jumping, people caught cutting in line will no longer be ejected from the park. u will be ejected from the ride

I hope people don't start becoming deathly afriad of rideing coasters but it could happen.

Urgent , negitive news get way more attention than nice, happy news. The media, like any business, wants you to buy what they are selling. The most effective way to get you to buy that magizine or watch their news program is to draw you in with "scarry" stories that will protect you if you know about it. Listen to the wording of the next 3 second commercial for your local news.

"People are dieing from cancer-Are you next? Story at 11."

or, "Want to stay out of firey car accidents? We'll tell you how on the 10 o'clock news."

It's quite ridiculous, when you think about it.

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-KoRn is the Millennium Force of ROCK-

So true Dexter. But its worth mentioning that stirring up stuff like that is what gets people to watch their news program or buy their magazine.

I hope that people won't become turned off towards coasters because of these ridiculous statements. I doubt, that this issue is really raising that much consumer concern so far. Lets just hope we will always have Bill Powers there to argue against Ed Markey for us!

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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!

For those who are interested, Ed Markey's web site has his list of supposed ride related brain injuries. http://www.house.gov/markey/iss_parkrides.htm

There does seem to be some representation of head bangers, but that may just be random clustering. I didn't notice any tendency of the injuries to be associated with high G coasters. Heck, Markey claims the Hershey Park Comet caused one. This is one of the gentlest coasters that I have ridden. Also, there is much that his web site doesn't tell, such as how long after riding symptoms first appeared.

Then of course there is one injury listed that occurred on an unknown ride, at an unknown theme park, in an unknown state, during an unknown year.

The woman who was featured in the aritcle was allegedly injured on Joker's Revenge. This a a sit down Vekoma looper which is run with the riders facing backwards.

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 7/21/2002. ***